Keeping a journal - writing everyday

[QUOTE=G Scott]how many people keep a journal and write in it everyday?

How many write stories, essays, poetry, (i.e. - creative stuff) everyday?

I think Chuck had said once that he doesn't sit down to write unless he has an idea. 'Do you sit on the toilet if you don't have to go?"

Makes sense.

But if you don't do it (write that is) everyday, how do you expect to get any better at it.

I read this interview with (I think it was Stuart Dybek) who said something like - People don't realize that writing takes practice. Anything else - sports, engineering, teaching, etc. requires lots of studying and practice.

I think he was talking about how his students think they can just sit down and write a masterpiece whenever they feel up to it, rather than working for it day in and day out.

So, how much (how often) do you guys write?[/QUOTE]
i did this for years.
at first i did it in actual little journals (from age 14 to about 16) then on computer.
the written journals i destroyed (ritualistic burned in the woods) during one of the many purges of 'things' in my life.
two years of journals on my computer got lost in a hard drive crash, one which i found out would've been easy to fix once i got into computers years later.
the last four years (up until age 21-22) i still have, password protected, on a program i lost and can't find, so i can't access them.
so, yeah... i've tried started a new one, but haven't been able to keep it going more than a day or two. it's good idea to have one, i wish i could stick too it.

about a year ago I started writing a page or two every day of stream of consciousness, basically just sitting down (whether I had an idea or not) and writing whatever was on my mind at the time. It usually ends up turning into a reflection on whatever interesting things I had done lately and what i thought of them at the time, which often ends up being some pretty funny shit. Its hard b/c a lot of times if I'm not in the right mood I have to force it, but thats ok w/ me b/c it has really helped my flow when I'm writing, and I don't get stuck as much anymore. The more you force yourself to write, the easier it gets to do! It's been really funny looking back over old entries lately, and the more I write the more I've found its a great way to build up a reservoir of ideas to refine and develop for writing good stuff later. I would definitely recommend trying it - doesnt have to be good shit, just try and squeeze out a page or two per day of completely random stuff, if only b/c its fun to see what comes out.

i wouldnt call it a journal but i carry this nice little notebook around with me whereever i go and whenever some weird idea pops into my head i'll jot it down

I carry a journal and a small notebook to work everyday. If I have an idea, it goes into the notebook, then when I have the time, I try to expand on that thought in my journal. Normally, I write in the journal 1-3 times a week.

I keep a writing blog, but it's mostly dead because I write only when something strikes me. Which is really poor form and discipline, but well. I do, however, have this book I write mostly setences that occur to me, or plot things and ideas, which I write in a couple of times a week, sometimes. Again, it comes and goes.

When I was younger I wrote in journals all the time. As I’ve gotten older, this has slipped, and I now write down ideas, paragraphs and such. Normally I find that writing in journals is for when I’m having problems with things, or am going through a tough spot in my life, basically when I need to take time and work things out. My journals are now almost completely on computer, as I can password protect them. Online journals are not real journals to me, as they are very censored and do not reveal a lot of personal details.

I think I’ve answered this before, but here it is again. I write every day. I can’t help it, it’s just what I do. Paragraphs, dialogue, ideas, whatever hits me, and it does almost every day. To me, writing is just something that I end up doing every day, so there is no need for me to schedule it. Sometimes I need to make myself focus on a story and complete it, so I’ll set a deadline such as ‘by the end of this week I will spend at least 3 hours on this story’.

Another thing I find that has helped me as a writer (instead of practice) is reading. When I was younger, my writing contained a lot of ‘she said’ and ‘he said’ and each page would be filled with twenty or so of them. By reading other books, I found other ways to write where these ‘said’s’ aren’t littering the page.

[QUOTE=vandamage]I used to do this, but my carpel tunnel syndrome became so painful, that handwriting was a aching chore. BUT, I was also a guitarist at the time. I have since retired from guitar, choosing writing, and to my surprise, my hands are actually getting better. I have recently started writing by hand again, so yes, I'm kinda keeping a journal.[/QUOTE]

Ow. Glad to hear they're getting better!
I had problems with my wrists as well due to computers (which has gotten much better), but I too have found that I can no longer hand write very much. :(

I read in the acknowledgments in Peter Straub's [I]lost boy lost girl[/I] where thanked Borum and Pease journals and Visconti (Sp?) pens.

These damn items are expensive, so...

Do you just use a plain old notebook and ball point, or does spending a little money on the tools make you want to use them more?

I write as often as I can, which, regretfully is not every day. I keep a moleskin notebook in my jacket pocket and I have a number of paper notebooks at home. Writing often is not only fun (more fun than TV!) but, as a previous poster said, you can only get better as a writer by practicing.

I'm in the class of "not really a journal" even though I carry a notebook. One of those nice moleskin ones because it gets heavily beaten, as it goes everywhere with me. I'll learn random facts, or hear something funny, or find a website I don't want to forget, or anything that applies, and jot it down.

Every now and again, I have some kind of weird epiphany and throw down a sentence fragment that I know will lead to a bigger idea down the road.

When I'm in the middle of writing something, though, I will take it out three or four times a day and throw in notes to myself. Usually, since whatever I'm actively working on is all I can think about, I'm constantly leaving reminders for myself, and I'm working crap through my head while I'm at work or running errands. It really helped, too. I was able to add some cool stuff to the first draft of my novel, just by reading through the pages of notes.

I write when i want to, so it may take like 1 day that i get anything to paper or it might take 3 to 6 weeks who knows, i know that sucks so im going to start a diary real messy one, i had one but i lost it somewhere, now somebody knows all the shit about me( i hope its a girl and she has fallen in love, muaha haa)

[QUOTE=JohnDoe] I find that using expensive notebooks with fancy covers make me use them less. It's like I can't fill them with rubbish, so I stick to using cheap notebooks.[/QUOTE]

That's exactly how I felt when I used to write in them! I'd have nice pens, nice paper and stare at it thinking "This has got to be good if I'm going to use this stuff." Haha, it's like those 'good' towels that people put out for guests, but no one uses them because they look too 'good' to use. What I used to do is always skip the first page, leaving it blank. Somehow this helped me get over the initial "I'm going to waste all this paper" ideas.

[QUOTE=Chixulub]I've never been good about keeping up a journal. And since my attempts have generally yielded dull results, I'm not sure it would help me. What seems to help more is the things I remember because they were remarkable. I do have a very good memory, often remembering incidents and conversations a decade back that the other person forgot completely. But it's not like a photographic or encyclopedic memory, it's more of a highlights reel. John Irving described writing as creative memory, and I think that's very true. Even if you're writing about something you've never experienced first hand, I think to get 'in character' for it, you have to be able to relate it to experiences you've had, or in some cases to things you've seen friends or family deal with that you have some insight to.[/QUOTE]

When reading old journals a few years ago, I noticed that almost all were of me when I was extremely angry or happy. There was no in between, as those times were the only times I normally wrote directly about my life and my feelings about it. When I couldn't yell at people about things, I'd yell on paper (thus causing much of it be destroyed by the sheer act of writing it so violently). As I got older, I put in things that I was hoping to accomplish, such as lists of things to do this month, and the next month I'd give quick updates. My closest friends I would put a paragraph about every once in awhile, or point form of funny/interesting events that happens. This helps to serve as reminders for things, in case I begin to forget as I get older. I know I'm writing them for myself, so I write what helps me to remember things.

Even writing down how other friends have handled things (either well or not), things I've noticed going on around me, has helped me remember a few details for things that I've decided to use in stories. It's amazing how much you can actually forget about an event once a few years pass. Also, the things you notice can also help you with the age of a character. My writing from a child is much different now, and to be honest, I would be hard pressed to write like I did back then. By reading past writing, I can begin to remember what it was like to be a child writing it.

I too have a pretty good memory when it comes to certain events in my life. I remember them pretty clear, and can normally play things back in my head. This might begin to fade away as I get older, so I get what I think I might need down now while I still can.

Dude. Some of the best parts of several of my stories were originally written on tp, I swear to God. In one of my stories, there is a whole sequence about Washington rain that was originally written on toilet paper that I kept ripping with my pen cause I was a little tipsy and couldnt be bothered to stand to piss and it was on my bare leg and the hairs on my leg kept buldging up the tissue but I kept writing anyway and I finally folded it up and put it in my back pocket and pulled it out the next day and deciphered it and typed it up. Almost two pages came out of it, that bathroom visit. And none of you wanted to know anything about that. But. I'll write on anything. Got a journal for christmas. But it is hard back and big and pretty and I cant take that places. My several soft cover slim ones are so much more alive in my hands. Those big leather bound expensive ones are great to look at but they hold like rocks and fumble when you are trying to adjust it in your lap under a tree or waiting for a bus or huddled in at the corner in the electronics section awaiting pictures to develop.

Definitely agree with yaw there

I have a few notepads I carry with me... I also, use my computer a lot and write usually at night...

I swear this thread used to be several pages long.