Why a Journal is So Important

The importance of writing a journal.

Is it vanity that compels us to write?. Everyday I fill the pages of my journal with thoughts, ideas, events, meetings, things that friends have done for me and I for them.

It is a compulsion to put it all down on paper and has been so for as long as I can remember and yet no-one reads these profound musings of my inner self.

Not even I, until today when I was searching for a poem that I had been reminded about, fully understood what writing has meant to me. A friend sent me a card at Christmas and in it she told me she had shared a poem I had written 7 yrs ago with the counsellor she was seeing, she expressed how much that poem had meant to her and she had kept it this long time. I wanted to find this poem so I searched through all my old journals and as I read them I realised how much I had put in them; not just my own thoughts but the writings and ideas and inspirations of other people. Drawings and pictures using bright colours, poems and quotations and messages from friends. So much captured there that had helped me along life’s tricky roads .

In his book Letters to a Young Poet, Rilke speaks of the desire to write: “Go into yourself. search for the reason that bids you write; find out whether it is spreading out its roots in the deepest places of your heart, acknowledge to yourself whether you would have to die if it were denied you to write. This above all – ask yourself in the stillest hour of your night: ‘Must I write’ Delve into yourself for a deep answer and if this should be affirmative, if you may meet this earnest question with a strong and simple ‘I must’ then build your life according to this necessity.”

That is such a powerful passage for all would be writers. Paying heed to the calling, giving voice to the desire, putting the words that have been stored in your heart and in your mind for so long on to the paper and then (and this can be the hard part) sharing those words with others.

So do I believe that writing is vanity? Well I’m sure it can be when we use it to spill out our life stories for a few thousand pounds or to get revenge on someone for some past demeanour. But writing is so much more. Writing has a way of putting us in touch with those “roots that are spreading our into the deepest places of the heart”.

We can inspire ourselves and others through our heartfelt expressions, sharing our inner wisdom, igniting the fires of creativity that lie within us all.

Keeping a journal is about the most important thing a writer can do for herself. In the journal are the seeds of poems, articles, stories even advertising slogans. My journal is my friend, my confidante, my counsellor, my advisor and my spiritual guide.

I think it was Oscar Wilde who said that he always carried his journal with him because it ensured he always had something interesting to read.

Having thumbed through my old journals I would agree with him. There is always a certain amount of cringe worthy self analysis and poor me stuff, but even that provides a yardstick for progress made along the foothills of life. There are pages when everything seems to be about sadness, grief, loss and loneliness, a personalised Bridget Jones; then there are those pages that are full of inspiration and determination and goal setting and dream building. Interspersed between all the self stuff are the words of the great and the good, the teachers, poets, writes etc that have touched me in some way. Your own journals will be the expression of your life. What is important to you. Photos, drawings, cards that have meaning for you and inspire your writing.

Journal making is such a wonderfully creative pursuit.

Recently I have begun to use my journal differently. I number the pages now and make an index, so in the future when I want to find a poem or some idea I will be able to look through the index and find it. Well that’s the theory but as I am not and never have been a naturally organised person it does not always work as efficiently but I see definite advantages for using my journals as a reference for future writing.

Triond provides us aspiring writers with a forum to reveal what has been hiding amongst the pages of our writers’ mind and I am glad to have come across this site as I am now doing what I should have been doing a long time ago, getting serious about writing, putting it out there, trusting the process and believing that I, like so many, have something of value to share. .Also, reading other people’s writing, being part of a community of writers, receiving comments, sharing views, being inspired adds to the quality of our own writing.

In this company of strangers we can find support and encouragement to go further, try harder, become more creative and more alive, opening our minds and exploring our deeper nature.