Journal vs Diary

[WmRob]

I kept a journal for many years, making note of things that happened, song lyrics, short stories and other things important only to me. One day, a young lady I was dating found my journal while I was out doing some shopping and helped herself to it. It's difficult for some people to allow others any privacy, I guess.

When I came home, I saw it was not in its usual place, though it was never hidden, and asked her about it. She lied initially but then asked me why I kept a diary like some high school girl. I told her it wasn't diary but a journal and had she been able to decipher my handwriting she would have seen there were no comments about other ladies and such. She doubted me until I offered to read some passages to her. In her mind, it was a diary and very "girly" and then proceeded to tell our friends I kept a "fag diary" (offensive on so many levels)which was typical of her Apparently she didn't realize just how many kept journals and diaries.

Fortunately, most of my friends understood that as a writer I needed notes, comments, passages, etc. And I also kept a fishing journal noting where I had fished, the conditions, etc. Over the years and with the addition of children, I discontinued the journal and shortly after found that they'd colored on the pages. I still have it in my closet but haven't written in it for over 25 years. I miss doing it but with the advent of computers, I can maintain a journal there.

[dirkronk]

I can relate, WmRob.

As an art student in the 1960s and early '70s and as a working artist later, I kept sketchbooks. Most of the larger ones (11x17 and 12x24) were spiral-bound pads labeled "Sketch Diary"--fwiw. Quite a number of the smaller ones (8x10 up to 11x17) were hardbound in simple black covers, and I carried these everywhere: restaurants, bars, trips to see friends or across the country, weekend forays out to the lake or onto ranches and farms. I drew with pencils, Conte crayon, Rapidograph pens, bamboo pen and ink, oil pastels, whatever I had in my old carry-all pouch--a war surplus gas mask bag. When I made the professional segue from art director to copywriter, I gave up the habit. Kinda sorry I did. I look at some of the ones I kept today and remember events, venues and especially people with so much vivid detail.

Two weeks back, I had one of these sketchbooks at work. It was like a time capsule. Concept lines and layouts from my advertising art class, thoughts from my reading of essays by Gertrude Stein, song lyrics, studies for a painting I did on the back of an old guitar, notes from a university lecture by famous depression photographers Walker Evans (plus a sketch of the bearded Evans himself) and Russell Lee (Lee actually taught at UT during my time there). It also had dozens of sketches done at rehearsals of The Devils of Loudon by the University of Texas drama department back in about the spring of 1972. Many of the drawings were studies of sets, costumes and several details of the highly original makeup devised for the production. One sketch looked so much like a fugitive from Kiss that I showed it to a major Kiss fan in my office, who agreed...and was frankly fascinated by the sketch (done long before Kiss started their stage makeup tradition).

Do yourself a favor, all of you who aren't totally immersed in digital-only lifestyle. Give a handwritten (or drawn) diary/journal a shot. What you call the book isn't so important. But years, even decades from now, the things you scribble now may be important indeed to the older you.

Dirk

[Andromeda]

Originally Posted by dirkronk

Do yourself a favor, all of you who aren't totally immersed in digital-only lifestyle. Give a handwritten (or drawn) diary/journal a shot. What you call the book isn't so important. But years, even decades from now, the things you scribble now may be important indeed to the older you.

Dirk

I do keep a diary/journal. For a while I tried to do it on my computer...remember the old Doggie Howser TV series where he kept his journal on the Computer?

I found writing on the computer, although much faster enabling me to write more, more cold and sterile and in some ways impersonal. I don't know why, but there is something more personal and intimate and rewarding by taking pen to paper in a notebook of some sort to record thoughts and feelings.