THE ART OF THE JOURNAL
two favourite journals
I journal. I have a basket full of journals. Some are embarrassingly needy, fuel for a bonfire. My partner’s daughter Cheri burned her journals last spring. I thought that was a terrible loss but after perusing my older writings, I realized fire would be their best ending.
Some journals are worth keeping such as the small diary with a brocade cover, a gift from my sister Kate in 1981. I used this as a travel journal for twenty-five years.
There are a few common threads in it, New Years’ resolutions, the usual stuff, however the rest of the diary is filled with stories of my solo trip to the UK in 1984. Vivid descriptions of walking tours in London, or visiting the Bronte house in Haworth, Yorkshire, travelling the rails on the Flying Scotsman, motorcycling on the Isle of Skye and having my passport and traveller’s cheques stolen in Paris.
Pages are filled with trips to San Francisco, where my eldest son lived, hanging out in Haight-Ashbury, exploring the Mission district, sipping coffee on the street in Noe Valley, hiking up the city’s many stairs and hidden pathways, visiting City Lights Bookstore and climbing up to the Coit Tower.
All these rich memories are nestled in my diary, ready to be used in a story or just enjoyed straight up.
basket of journals
I kept on journaling, recording most of the trips that Grant and I took, but in an assortment of books, often changing mid trip because I found a nicer journal, a more interesting colour, one that brought me more inspiration. These are the journals I used to write my latest book, my third book, the one that is still in the creating stage, now called Under a Salish Moon: Camping on the Coast.
I recently sent my ’finished’ manuscript to Michelle Barker, an editor with The Darling Axe editor group for a narrative assessment. In her detailed and extremely helpful, twelve-page assessment, she made positive comments:
“You add lots of local color with some good description.”
“You have a good ear for conversation and you’re able to catch people’s voices.”
“It was a pleasure to read this book. Your writing is vivid and made me wistful for the places you described…”
But.
There’s always a ‘but’.
There was this.
“The narrative often strays into feeling more like a journal (where you ate, who you saw, what you did).”
Well duh!
Clearly there’s a downside of relying on journals to add spice to my stories.
leather journal from Sheila, too nice to use
Never mind, I love writing and will be happily tweaking my Under a Salish Moon travel chronicles this winter. Spring release?
If you enjoyed this and are curious about more content from an Island Crone, please subscribe from my web page/blog sidebar. I promise to post at least once a month and sometimes more. But not often enough to bore.
~ Island Crone by Liz Maxwell Forbes
4 thoughts on “THE ART OF THE JOURNAL”
Comments are closed.
As usual, an interesting read, Liz. Michelle Barker’s comments are both encouraging and helpful as to what you want for your book. Though what one person finds a bit boring another might find interesting. Hard to know, so back to work, and one day soon (we all hope) the book will be in the hands of a publisher. Write on!
Love
Bunny
I have never been a consistent journalizer, but I’m certainly glad you were because it will soon bring us “Under a Salish Moon”. Having heard the ‘preview’ I know the completed book will be marvellous. I look forward to it.
PS:
I too burned most of my patchy attempts at journaling. Most were from younger years when life is more of a struggle and relationships are working out the glitches. Reading pages before committing them to ash, I did notice a pattern – I wrote most when I was either sad or angry. Eesh! A way to ponder, even vent, but hardly worthy of a place in my keepsake box.
Still, it was a reminder of how much I’ve changed and grown over the years.
I wonder how one differentiates between a “diary” and a “journal”…and even a “memoire” or perhaps a “blog”? They are all, are they not, a recording of one’s personal thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Some are not meant to be shared, some are used to jog one’s memory and form a basis for a more public piece, and others are public/shared from the get-go (or at least after a few revisions), but there is a fine line between them . I was sad when my daughter destroyed her many journals – artistic creations of words drawings, ticket stubs and so much more. And I grieved when I decided to stop blogging, and still sometimes think of going back to it. One of my greatest thrills in going through my late mother’s belongings was to find three wonderful journals/memoires she had written….one of her childhood and young adulthood, one of miscellaneous memories and tales of family history, and one of her travels, especially in Africa. I wonder how often we toss such items away without realizing how much they might mean to our descendents.
Thanks for sending me this Liz. I have a few journals myself and started my memoirs when Covid hit but now that I am back to my busy social life I don’t have time. I am sure something will inspire me to get back to it one day!