I meant to write about similes and metaphors today, but something
happened on my way to the computer room. As I passed by the ceiling to
floor bookcases in my den, two rows of crimson-backed journals caught
my attention. Thinking about nothing in particular, I counted the
volumes. More than 40 years of my life were contained in these
journals. The first ones go back to a time I've all but forgotten.
Grade School, Junior High, High School crushes, music lessons, old
friends, teachers, grandparents and parents, hopes, dreams -- all lost
now, all just remembrances on dusty pages.
Sitting cross-legged on the floor, I remove a volume and leaf through
the days. Tears fill my eyes as I recover events that once seemed, no,
were, important to a teenager. The next years reveal world events,
changes in society, dates, places, and fears of a young mother fighting
to save a doomed marriage. Then, dark, fearful days as a single mother
back in an alien work force, aspirations of stardom and fame set aside
for the more mundane aspects of life. Quickly, I move forward in time
seeking brighter memories, times of joy that surely are recorded here.
I spent the day reliving all my yesterdays, all my tears, and all my
life's joys within the pages of my personal journals. Why had I begun
them? Did I somehow know that I would not have a long career in music
or on the stage? Did I know that my real purpose in life was to become
a writer? The answers to those questions were held between the covers
of these books.
The evolution was gradual, the path star-crossed, yet revealing. My
heart knew all along the secrets the mind could not comprehend. Buried
within the child, the teen, the young frantic mother, the wife who
found love and fulfillment in a second marriage, and yes in the
tragedies depicted, was the real soul, the real me, the writer.
The writer understood the value of these journals. The writer knew that
the philosophies expressed, the pain crying out from the pages, the
elation of victories and the horrors of defeat, all of them were but
fodder for pen and paper. A treasure trove of ideas, feelings, action
and reaction all laid out waiting to be used at the proper moment. All
the days of my life laid out to be recaptured, and for forming into
articles, short stories, novels. Thousands of memories on every
conceivable topic all ripe for harvesting.
"There," I said to myself, "there is your article. Tell them about the Journals of life and why writers should keep them."
If you already keep a journal, then I don't have to convince you, you
are hooked already. But in case you need a little convincing, here's
why journal-keeping is so important to a writer. I've already mentioned
a few of the "whys." There are more.
Journals help you stay sane in the midnight hours when the muse fails
you. They record feelings, and thoughts written in the heat of passion
or sorrow that give an immediate voice to your work. Each volume is an
inward journey of whom and what you were at that moment in time. No
censors here, no blanking out of emotion, no "Oh, dear, I shouldn't
have written that." These are raw, from the heart, revelations of a
work in progress you, the writer.
Elaine Farris Hughes in her book WRITING FROM THE INNER SELF says, ". .
. Many famous writers have kept journals faithfully and have published
excerpts from them. If you need further inspiration for starting your
own, look at the journals of Anais Nin, Virginia Woolf, Thomas Merton,
Faulkner, Steinbeck," and others.
And, if all that fails to inspire you to keep journals, think of that
young life waiting beyond the veil of time who will meet his or her
great-great-grandparent in these volumes and perhaps be inspired to
write.
For what it is worth, this unexpected article is my very personal gift
to you, and it is from the heart of a writer.
Copyright
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, 1998
Patricia Ann Jones' nonfiction articles have been published locally,
regionally, and nationally. She's been a book critic for the Tulsa
Sunday World newspaper for the past eleven years. She also leads a
weekly writers' workshop on AOL's Career's and Work. Many of the
members in Daytime Writers' Group have published nonfiction as well as
short stories and novels. Read all of Patricia's PERCEPTIONS articles at www.businessknowhow.com.
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