About Journal Keeping and Writing

 

What do you call the form of self-documentation you keep—a journal, a diary, a notebook, a sketchbook, a scrapbook, etc.? (I use the general term “journal” in the questions that follow, but you should respond with whatever word applies to you.) Is this choice of terminology important to you?

There are a few ways I do self-documenting.   v      By and large I use the term “journal”. v      I have never thought of my writing as a “diary.” I don’t keep particularly personal recounts, although on occasion, I do describe things that took place with and/or around me. v      Similarly, a “log” seemed inapt. I used to maintain logs for a work site and the content expected of a log is quite dissimilar from a journal. The journal I keep does not provide a cohesive, chronological account of events or activities that have transpired and which I have observed.    (1) Personal journals I’ve maintained these since 1980. The physical journals are, in part, (a) writing my thoughts of personal issues, family matters, events going on in the world; (b) rough drafts of poems, essays and the like; (c) for note taking (recollection of info such as names and phone #s, meeting notes, lists); (d) sketching; (e) pasting in business cards, photos and memorabilia (concert tickets, for example) (2) Work journals: Exclusively about things related to my employment as a human rights advocate in locked settings. These are more notebooks than journal. Details of meetings with or on behalf of clients; follow-up notes; drafts for hearing testimony; interview statements. A good amount, but not all, of what was written here become the start points of reports. They are all in composition books. I have been maintaining them since 1993. (3) Online journaling. Long before the term “blog” existed (since 1993 or 1994) I began to maintain an online journal or web log, beginning on Prodigy. The content of those early weblogs are gone. In one case a server went out of business and everything I had documented disappeared when their computers shut off. I continue online journaling in a mostly irregular basis on a BlogSpot account. (4) Facebook. I have been writing and posting on this site for several years. Most of it is not personal; rather more reflections on subjects and other things that interest, intrigue, pique or perturb me. …along with liked memes and cat anecdotes.

What physical form does your journal take? Spiral-bound, cahier, oilcloth sketchbook, Moleskin, etc.? What materials do you use to fill it? Pen, pencil, charcoal, paint, collage, etc.?

v      My preference is a hard-bound notebook with a black cover. This is what I was first introduced to in 1980. I like to be able to use both sides of the page. I am not concerned about the manufacturer of the book (e.g. “moleskin”) but I like to be able to use both sides of the page, prefer unlined pages, acid free paper with a paper weight of at least 60 lbs. My favorite sized book is 5-1/2 x 8-1/2 (14x21 cm) though I have used soft cover sketchbooks and one or two spiral bound books of various sizes. The size noted, however, is easy to carry with me almost all the time without drawing a lot of attention to it. v      With rare exception, I have written in the journals with a Pilot Precise “V” Series pen. It is close to a mechanical pen in construction, and over time I have found the ink is of a low acid content and doesn’t bleed through the pages. v      I have also sketched in the journals pasted in items as keepsakes and made an occasional collage. v      Watercolor (using a “dry brush technique) and pen/ink sketches. I don’t use pastel, soft pencil or charcoal because I am concerned about it smearing on the pages. v      I’ve made collage pages, and inserted photographs. v      Many times (not always) I have affixed things on to the covers of the notebooks. Once I did a collage that encompassed both covers. Often, with the smaller books, the intent is to make distinct one volume from others, or to easily discern front from back.

When did you start keeping a journal, and why did you start? Why do you continue? (If you’ve stopped, or if you previously stopped keeping a journal for a period of time, why?)

v      I have been journaling since high school; initially in a composition book. I also maintained a paste-in scrapbook from 1969 until 1981. Unfortunately I discarded these documents. If they still exist, they do so only under piles of detritus in the Bristol CT land fill. At the time I thought the materials in the bound documents no longer reflected “where I was at” intellectually. Almost from the day I disposed of them (together with a couple of collages on Masonite board) I regretted so doing.  v      The journals I have maintained since 1980 starting when a friend (Michael Takas, stationed at the Plattsburgh AFB) gave me a blank unlined hardcover journal.          That first journal was one of two gifts. The first was a pen. Mike prefaced giving that to me by saying “I know how much you like to write”.         The second, a wrapped book (evident from his sloppy wrapping). He was well known for bringing new books to the attention of others and he prefaced my opening the book by saying, “I know how much you like to read.”         When I opened this package and saw nothing but blank pages, I looked at him, perplexed. He smiled and said, “ I guess you’ll just have to write it before you read it, won’t you.” It was not a question. I took it as a challenge. I continue to this day.   v      There have been times that I stepped away from diligent journal-keeping; in part because it seemed that too much was going on in my life that I didn’t have time to write. v      Why do I continue? It feels right.

How often do you write in your journal? If you keep a consistent schedule with journal-writing, how is that routine significant for you?

v     I don’t write every single day. I can go for periods of writing nothing, then suddenly fill up 20 or 30 pages in a single sitting or over a couple of days. Completion of a volume has taken as long as two years, as briefly as two months.

What do you write about in your journal? Personal experiences, memories, dreams, hopes, fears, observations, conversations, fragmentary impressions, thoughts, questions, etc.?

v     Yes. All of that.

What non-narrative writing (some might say non-literary or “non-writerly” writing), if any, appears in your journal? To-do lists, instructions, recipes, drafts/outlines, etc.?

v     I have kept notes from meetings I have attended, often in a kind of short-hand that would be difficult for someone else to understand what I have written about, even if the words are legible (which – at times – they are not) v     Rough drafts of poems or essays v     Interesting quotes I have heard or read v     Book titles and authors; Music CD titles and musicians; Film DVD notes v     The names of people I’d heard on a radio show, and brief mention of what they were being interviewed for and about ~ regrettably, I’ll often neglect to identify the date I heard the broadcast v     Weather observations v     Story ideas v     Notes on a range of subjects from mental health (I work in a psychiatric facility), incarceration; the environment; local governance issues (I serve on three town boards and a couple of other organizations); hunting and fishing and camping observations (occasionally) v     Shopping lists (rarely) v     Recipes (on occasion, rarely, however)

What non-written content, if any, appears in your journal? Photos, paintings, drawings, found objects, etc.?

v     Photos; paintings; drawings, doodles; found objects (flat ones); concert or event tickets; labels from gourmet cheeses or wine; sometimes dried leaves or flowers.

How do you organize your journal’s page(s)? Do you use blank, lined, or squared paper? Do you begin each entry on a new page? How important is the layout design of text/images and use of blank space on each page?

v     This varies. When I first began keeping my journals, I would labor long over how the page would be laid out. Perhaps this is because I had been trained as a typesetter, and had long worked in printing and pre-press production. As I continued the practice of keeping a journal, this became less critical; at the same time, I have become much better at visualizing what it is I want to say, and set a limit on how much space I wish to use to say it. v     I tend to work at keeping a thought to one or two pages; if something goes longer than this, I try to continue to the end of whatever subsequent pages it takes to complete a thought or muse about a specific topic. v     Although layout and design is not always critical, I find that entries often get written on the page in a justified column format. To accomplish this requires that I give some thought to how I structure my sentences, and a bit of advance thought in how I want to say something from line to line.          This, by the way, is a format completely disregarded when I’m at a meeting and taking notes on the topics discussed, or my observations about things at a meeting.  v     Travel: Multi day trips are out of the loop. I’ll tend to do a multi paged writing and collage style entry that gives a sense of what the trip was like and what was done during the trip.

When you write in your journal, do you write with a real or imagined reader in mind? Do you write primarily for yourself? How important to you is the privacy of your journal?

v     While I am circumspect in sharing the journal’s contents with others, - since when I first began keeping the journals I assumed that someone else my chance upon a volume and read it. As a result, there is some self-censorship that goes on while writing. I’m not so likely to vent about frustrations regarding other people (public figures exempted from this “rule”), and in general I tend not to jot down my most innermost thoughts about myself. v     The “audience”? Around the time I began keeping a journal, a bit before it, actually, I’d seen an article in “the magazine Antiques” about an ordinary man who lived during the mid-19th century, before, during and after the US Civil War. He wrote his thoughts, made sketches, and kept tallies of events and costs of things. The journal eventually comprised multiple volumes. It wasn’t clear that he ever wrote them for anyone other than himself. Decades later, the journals were rediscovered and written about. I don’t know if they were actually published. However, this discovery set the tone for me and I have often, if not always, written with the thought that someday my own journals would be rediscovered by someone in the future. As a result, part of my efforts at journaling are to be a chronicle of the times in which I live, and my perspective on what is happening in the world from my vantage point.   v     I do, on occasion, share my journals, without hesitation, with a small coterie of friends and acquaintances, and permit them to read without me being present to “edit” from reading specific content. v     I used to be more expansive with sharing my entries; now only a couple of people see the journal’s contents. In general, fewer folks ask about what I am writing, but I am more often asked to show folks what I might have drawn. Do others assume writing is more private while sketching is not? Don’t know.

Does your journal-writing have a distinct voice? Does the “narrator” of your journal seem to have an identifiable persona? Either way, describe the relationship between yourself and the self you encounter in the pages of your journal.

v     I’m not sure I’ve ever thought of this. I’ve never had any question that I am the “narrator”. While I have come across the writings of others who refer to even themselves in third person, I’ve never felt distant from what I have written. v     For the moment I shall contrast how I post entries on Facebook, where only a small number of entries are direct, personal accounts or opinions. The “identifiable persona” on my Facebook page is more impersonal; the “me” and what interests me, is present by implication. I post an item because it has piqued my curiosity, raised my ire, seemed worthy of my support (without much effort to have to explain) or raises a subject I consider merits further exploration or review. v     I believe the journals do have a distinct voice. It is closer to my inner vision of the world, and how I choose to express myself about life.

Is your journal a self-contained document, or is it primarily a space where you brainstorm ideas for work you do elsewhere?

v    The journal now spans many volumes. While I make use of the pages to brainstorm ideas, and have taken things from individual journal volumes for use elsewhere [more about that under “anything else”] it would be difficult to consider any single volume as a “self-contained” document. Together they are a continuation of my thoughts, a chronical of my life and the times in which I live. v    I suppose it would be safe to say that – as a project – it is one on which I have worked longer than any other project I’ve put myself to doing. It may never be complete.

How do you end a journal you’ve filled, and what do you do with the journal once it’s finished? How do you decide what sort of new journal to begin, and how do you prepare to begin it?

v     When I get close to the end of the usable pages of a particular volume, I may do some pages that “sum up” how I think of things in my life and of the world and its doings. Other times I just stop because there is no more space in which to write. v     There have been some journal volumes, for whatever reasons (misplaced the book, or I’d been keeping two concurrent volumes). A couple of times I tried separating the volumes by “writing” versus “sketching” or started a few based on a specific topic ~ that never worked. Then time would pass, and I’d moved on, and never went back to the incomplete volume because I didn’t want to mess with time and sequence. v     Often, when I begin a new volume I take more time to a more thoughtful layout design of a page; I may offer a couple of summary pages on where my thoughts are on specific topics (most often about land use and conservation; mental health or human rights issues, geopolitics, or such). As a volume gets more involved – taking quick notes, for example, the clarity of images fades, my handwriting gets more sloppy) v     But the very first thing I do, in every volume, is to write in my name, contact information, a copyright/date symbol, and the approximate date the volume was started. I once lost a volume, and the fact that this information was already in there, certainly made it possible to get it returned.

How has journal-writing changed you? Is it or has it become an important part of your identity? How do you feel your identity has informed and shaped your journal-writing? (You can consider your “identity” however you like, but feel free to consider specific categories such as your gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, nationality, class, age, faith, ability, mental health, geography, profession, educational background, family structure, etc.)

v      Hmm. Tough to say if journaling has “changed” me. I have kept journals for so long I’m not certain what or how it has contributed to my personality. v    The Journal IS a part of my identity in that if I go somewhere without either a journal or camera people will ask where the journal is, and why do I not have it with me. v    My “identity” fits into many categories. I have written on or entered materials related to, many different subjects including:        economic/social class issues (I was raised in a working class family) LBGT issues Other “sexual minorities” interests disability rights / “ableism” environmental issues historic preservation psychiatric treatment hunting, fishing, trapping wilderness exploration “mental health” systems visual arts and artists collage and assemblage efforts Incarceration and social injustice Perspectives on living in the USA in the late 20th and early 21st century Faith and Spirituality: I am not “Christian” BTW Energy production that can be done by the average person “non-conventional” families sex outlaws (not the same as sex workers) Human rights advocacy DIY projects and handyman stuff science and technology Literature, creative writing, poetry dealing with bureaucratic systems utopian and dystopian theories and communities Illiteracy and the “dumbing down” of education participatory democracy vs. “representative” democracy mass media and its various permutations “drug culture” (includes both “recreational” drug uses and pharmaceutical industry excesses)   v    All of the above and, I am certain, other subjects, contribute in the shaping of my content, writing, thoughts and journal entries

Anything else?

v      Excising content: Back in 1991 another painter and I were invited post an exhibition of our works in a venue that had over 300 feet of linear wall space. Rather than repaint and re-sketch images that I’d done in various journal volumes I cut them out and framed them. I had three other shows in the next couple of years, and some of the pieces got sold, so I no longer have what would have been the rough drafts of finished work. I ought to have taken the time and made new copies of the works to place in the show.              Since then a couple of people have asked if I would remove pages from a journal in order to include the images in a show, but I have declined these offers. v         Collaborations: The entries in my journals are almost entirely my own, though on rare occasions I have allowed others to write or sketch in my journals.              Early in the year 2000 I participated in something known as the “1000 Journals” project. I was able to start one of the journals (#742) before sending it abroad. [http://www.1000journals.com/about/] I was also invited to swap journals for an evening with another journal keeper (she started # 526) in the project who lived in Middletown CT.

Technical notes

v    When affixing paper (photos, maps, etc.) into and onto a page, over time I have found that yellow wood glue (Elmer’s™, or Titebond™ most often) has been the most effective. It doesn’t bleed through to the other side of the page (when using 60 lb. paper) and the adherence success is superior to standard white paste, mucilage or glue sticks. v    On many occasions the cover of a journal would begin to separate from the bindings. The WORST thing to use to repair it was duct tape, since the adhesive in that can heat up and melt (especially in the summer), making a mess of the cover. Now I try to catch this earlier, and have even re-glued the outer spine to the sewn binding section. I continue to use tape, but limit it to shipping/packing tape, which, while not preferred, doesn’t exhibit the same problems that arose with duct tape. v