Diaries Aren't Just for Secrets!

Over my lifetime I tried keeping a diary or journal several times, but I never kept it up beyond a week. When I was younger, I thought a journal was intended to log one's day, and my days were pretty dull, therefore writing about it was depressing. I thought a diary was intended to store only the most juicy bits of one's life, and since my life wasn't very juicy, it was kind of pointless.

As an adult, every time I started a journal or diary, it was because I felt an overwhelming urge to write and thought I needed more than one entry to get the job done. I felt better having written each time. However, whenever I lost that initial urge and the fiery topics in my head evaporated, I lost interest.

Since college up until recently, my most memorable dreams were the only things I've written (as potential story ideas), and they've not been written in a single location. I would have to gather them from all their "homes" to compile them into one "dream repository" -- which I might just do!

Journals/Diaries/Blogs aren't about about the clinical chronicling (say that 3 times fast) of daily life. They aren't only about one's deepest secrets or most amazing epiphanies. They're about creative expression, great and small.

I don't know about anyone else, but my head is full of thoughts going in all sorts of directions. When I write, it sort of moves the thoughts/worries/fears from my head onto "paper." [I have GOT to find a new word to mean all written media!] Then I'm not worried about it anymore. It is very similar to feeling one might get when giving troubles up to God/the Universe. However, when it's written, it can be edited and transformed into a short story, novel, essay, or other work.

Blogging is my new diary. Time will tell whether I keep with it. It's been about a week, and I don't foresee running out of things to say yet. My topics might shift from avoiding writer's block to short stories or various rants, but I think I'll be sticking with this for a while. :)