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When it comes to keeping a journal, with or without meaning to, you are in fact writing your life. You may want to do this in a formal way by writing full information about the people you mention, such as family names, names of towns, etc. Or like most of us, you can simply write as you feel you want to, adding important facts later.
Decide if you want to write so your work will be read when you have passed on. If so, it’s important to choose the right tools. Select paper and pens with archival quality. Usually this simply means looking for the words acid free on whatever it is you’re buying to use in your journal. Even if you only expect to keep your journals long enough to read them again, you should consider using acid free products. It’s amazing just how quickly lesser quality products will deteriorate.
I’ve found that writing full names is better. On rereading, I often realise how many people I know with that first name and need to think to remember who I was actually writing about. Being vague is probably the worst thing you can be when writing your journal. Write clear and precise details, especially when it comes to descriptions, names of people, places and dates. Not only will you be glad on rereading, but so will whoever reads your journals when you’re no longer with us. These kinds of details can make all the difference.
If this is the reason you write, for posterity, make sure you include all the important information in each journal. You never know the journals may become separated and if one is read without the others, your messages may not be as clear as you hoped. You might like to build this into your starting ritual, by writing a page filled with all this relevant information.
If you write only for the immediate benefit you gain right at this moment, perhaps it would be good to look at your older entries and see what you can learn about yourself. I know I found rereading my journals a valuable way to write my life in a much more meaningful way. We all have stories to tell. Those stories should be written and shared, even if only with ourselves.
Heather
Photo used with permission from Stock.xchng
Hi Faiz,
Well, I believe writing daily would have a certain continuity to the entries, so surely that would be good enough. I don’t believe we should feel we must write from A to B for our stories, our lives, to count as complete. Am I misunderstanding your comment? I appreciate you leaving your thoughts on this entry, though. Feel free to add more if you’d like. ;-)
To write about life completely will require a continuous process. We have to make a habit to daily make sometime and write. I think this cannot be done by most of the people. But it sure has its own benefits.