Notes on 20 years of journalling
Reflections + tips on how to embed this practice in your life.
Dear Reader,
One of the main realisations I had after entering my mid-thirties in February, was ‘Goodness gracious – I’ve been keeping a diary for twenty years’.
TWENTY YEARS of scribbling down thoughts and reflections, penning notes on where I’ve been and who I hung out with. Making minute observations on the world around me, and most importantly – what I ate. Oh and occasionally documenting world events I guess, but not always. It can get tiring after all, being a part of history in the making.
Over this time, my diary has become a fundamental part of my life. Sometimes I write in it daily. Other times weeks can go by without an entry. I just kinda need it to be there, to turn to as needed.
If you do anything long enough, I suppose you become an ‘expert’ of sorts in it. That being said, I don’t think there is any right or wrong way to keep a diary. As with everything in our over-optimised life, there can be pressure to get things right – to journal every day, to record EVERY SINGLE THING THAT HAPPENED AND ALL THAT WAS SAID. Which sounds a bit boring really; each to their own but I wouldn’t want to do that.
The beauty of diarising is that it’s such a personal practice. It’s something that you can truly make your own, to dive deep into your own well of creativity and your beautiful personality. All subscribers to this newsletter have beautiful personalities as a default, just so you know.
These are a few observations I’ve made over my years of journalling and some questions I’ve asked myself along the way. Here they are.
1. Diaries make for an excellent souvenir
If you like to travel, keep your eyes peeled for lovely notebooks you can add to your collection. In the years I lived in the UK and flitted here and there, I picked up a stack of brightly coloured journals that I’ve now sadly worked my way through. But hey – they’re enshrined now with memories of these places, which is pretty special in itself.
One of my favourite journals ever, I picked up in Svalbard (an archipelago in the Arctic Circle, literally on top of the world). They have a saying in this part of the planet: ‘Leave your boots and gun at the door’ (boots get dirty from the snow and ah, people carry guns due to the presence of polar bears. You see a bear in the wild, it’s you or the bear coming out of the situation alive). I found a journal with this inscribed on it and immediately had to snatch it up. Luckily, I inadvertently saved it for a good year.
2. It’s easier to journal when you’re upset
Something I’ve noticed over the years. If I’m having a good or ‘busy’ time (not always mutually exclusive), I will go through periods where I seriously neglect my writing practice. If I’m stinkin’ about something – heartbreak, work dramas, worldwide pandemics – I’m scribbling my little heart out every day. Which can be a bit annoying, as when you look back, you want to reflect on the good times. However, journalling is therapeutic, inexpensive and works best when it’s not forced.
3. Don’t write for an audience, write for yourself
This is the key thing to get over when you start your journalling practice. There’s no need to be performative. Sure, people like Virginia Woolf, Anne Frank, Marie Curie and Charles Darwin had their diaries published. Chances are, yours won’t be, unless you plan on becoming the next Adam Kay, David Sedaris or Helen Garner (and hey, they got to edit theirs anyway). You are your audience, so write for you and you alone.
4. Decide what you want to do with your old diaries early on
National treasure Helen Garner published twenty years of her own diaries in a trilogy that remains one of the best things I’ve ever read. They’re raw, they’re brave and they’re honest, like much of Garner’s writing; whether you like it or not.
She noted in an article written for The Guardian ahead of publication of her first volume, Yellow Notebook:
A few years ago I had a huge bonfire in my backyard and burned all my diaries up to the point where Yellow Notebook begins. I did this because when I went through the cartons of exercise books one day, looking for what I’d written around the time of the dramatic dismissal of the Whitlam government, I found to my astonishment that I hadn’t even mentioned it.
Considering she pulled her debut and breakthrough novel Monkey Grip (the OG Melbourne sad girl novel) from her diaries, I find this very interesting indeed.
Yellow Notebook starts in 1978, when Garner was 36. I kinda can’t imagine burning the last twenty years of my own diaries but also… I cringe to think about what’s in the edition from when I was say, fifteen. I assume bad poetry, laments over unrequited loves and no actual reflection on the state of the world at this time.
5. Um, but maybe remember where you put them?
Ah yeah, this is a problem I have. I’ve moved a lot, so my diaries have been put into boxes, and moved in and out of storage. I assume they’re in the shed?
6. Your writing style will evolve over time, as you grow
I haven’t revisited my older diaries for awhile, due to the above (ie, I’m both scared to and don’t precisely know where they are). But I do know that the content and style of my journals has changed over the years, from lots of probably whinging about trivial things to actual observations of the world and our place in it (although admittedly, still with the whinging here and there, they are diaries after all). It’ll be cool to sit down with these very personalised notebooks one day and go through them. Alone. Preferably in front of a raging bonfire, with a bottle of wine.
7. Don’t be scared to unleash your inner creative
If you fancy it, make these notebooks as visual and tactile AF. Stick in instax photos (gotta find something to do with these things), add stickers, washi tape in interesting looking leaves and feathers, or even buy a mini-printer that you can use to make hard copies of anything you find intriguing. Channel your inner artist in a place no one is going to see… unless you want them to (or have a particularly nosy parent, partner, housemate or sibling).
How to start a journal
Are you keen on beginning a practice of journalling? I gotcha. There’s no time like the present, after all.
Here are some tips.
1. Figure out a method that works for you
To successfully maintain a diary, you need to be at least a little excited about writing in it. Traditional convention dictates that you MUST have a hardcover notebook, which you scribble in daily. As we’ve already established, journalling doesn’t need to look like this at all.
Don’t enjoy writing by hand? Keep a Word file on your computer that’s password protected. Keen drawer? Doodle pictures of your day, rather than writing sentence after sentence. Maybe audio recordings are more accessible for you for whatever reason, or you’re keen to make video diaries, to truly immortalise that particular wrinkle in time.
Perhaps you don’t actually want to record the daily minutiae of your life and you’d much rather keep a nature journal, or even have a book beside you that you write your dreams in, the moment you wake up. Whatever works and gets you writing is a winner!
2. It does help to have something that is pleasant to write in
Equally, treat yourself to a journal that is a joy to write in. Shell out for hard back notebooks that’ll stand the test of time. Buy yourself a nice pen. One year, I used a Karst notebook for my journal. They’re made from recycled stone and the pages are SO SMOOTH. So, that was a fun time. I recently bought a bright yellow LEUCHTTURM1917 notebook for the nature-based program I’m undertaking this year. The price was upsetting, but damn am I keen to fill that thing up with thoughts and notes, and I rather want one for my diary next year (RED PLEASE). If you need the encouragement to write, perhaps this is the or at least a solution.
3. If you can’t write to yourself, write to a friend
I totally understand why penning ‘Dear Diary’ at the top of every page might feel a bit naff to begin with. I personally just date each entry and then roll straight into it. However, you might find it easier to make up a person to address each entry to. Perhaps a childhood pet, friend, or a relative who has passed away. Or I dunno, a celebrity you admire. Whatever brings you comfort and gets you into the flow zone.
4. Turn it into a simple bedtime ritual
This is something I’ve tried and tested when I’ve been stuck in a diarying rut, so I know it works:
buy yourself a small cheap notebook
keep it by your bed
every night before you go to sleep, write down three things that happened to you that day. Short sentences are completely fine.
It’s low stakes and so is quite simple to maintain. You’ll find over time, you’ll make a habit out of it (or a ritual as we like to say in this space). And from here you can build, writing more, perhaps graduating to a bigger notebook. And if you find yourself slipping, return to this routine.
5. If you don’t enjoy it, don’t do it
Journalling isn’t for everyone. I like it, because I’m a writer by nature – penning things down is how I make sense of the world and my place in it. Yet if it ever began to feel like a chore, I’d probably just stop. We all have enough boring tasks in our life, clamoring for our attention. Don’t add yet another thing to your list, unless it truly does spark joy.
So, I’m keen to know. Do you have a regular journalling practice? Do you want to? Or does the whole concept give you the ick? Anything else you want to know? Feel free to get completely nosy – this is the post for it!
February’s extra day kinda threw my schedule out a bit, I’ve realised. But that’s fine, a few things are changing up anyhoo. I’ll report more on this in the next bumper edition, which will be out on the last Thursday of the month.
And now, I’m feeling inspired! Time to go diary up a storm.
‘Til we meet again, stay well and well-fed.
-Celine
A little note: the best way to grow a newsletter it seems, is via word of mouth. If there are people in your life that you feel would enjoy this, then please pass it on. Simply hit the share button below. Thank you, I appreciate it!
If you enjoyed this, then these too might be right up your alley:
I love this! You're definitely a natural writer! Thanks for reminding me about Helen Garner's published diaries too :)
I saw “This House of Grief” in my travels looking for the diaries. I’ll check it out!