Do you keep a diary?

[DandyFop]

And I don't mean a blog where anyone else reads it. This is the true, all-to-myself, "dear diary", bullshit.

I've been reading through some old ones, and they're pretty fucking cringe-worthy. "Oh so I'm going out with so and so, he's SO CUTE LOLZ". Ugh. But much worse than that is the sexual stuff. I wish I wasn't so honest with myself, it's horrifying to read later on.

So, DO YOU? Like I said, reading it later is cringe-worthy. But I have a really bad memory, so it's a good idea for me to keep one because I don't remember anything apparently.

[Waus]

Yeah. I keep one so that I'm forced to reflect on what's going on in my life. I haven't been writing in it much lately though, which could explain why I have no idea what I'm doing.

[skra75]

yep. it helps a ton, I recommend it highly to anyone.
Been meaning to type it all into my livejjournal, but I'm been too exhausted lately.

[DandyFop]

I type a lot quicker than I write, so that's why I use my livejournal a lot. But lately I've been using my real diary.

It's pretty annoying though, because over the past few years I promised myself I would change certain things or do certain things. Then I read old entries and realize ain't a damn thing changed.

[enree erzweglle]

Even the thoughts of keeping a journal have always felt too contrived, so no, I have never kept one. And I've never thought to myself that I wish I would have logged x or y from my past so that I could sit down now and read about it. I don't imagine that that'll change.

I guess I've put that stuff somewhere in my head and I've got a sense of what's important. I don't really need (or want) a microscopic view of each of my days.

Of all of the people I've known who have kept journals and who have sent entries to me to read, only one person sounded like he was writing in his own voice.

[DandyFop]

Of all of the people I've known who have kept journals and who have sent entries to me to read, only one person sounded like he was writing in his own voice.

Huh. That's very interesting. I never thought about the "in my own voice" thing. It always feels like it to me... I am glad I keep one because, like I said, horrible memory. It's nice now as compared to high school though, because I generally keep track of the important things, as opposed to "I went shopping today!" type shit.

[beastieangel01]

eh I blog and have an lj. I use the blog for random bs, and I use the lj only to vent out things when I'm mad, sad, or extremely pissed off.

That's it though. I couldn't keep up with a diary every day or every other day.

[cosmo105]

i blog for most things but when i'm at school or something where i have a lot of free time, i have a journal. just a notebook where i scribble song lyrics stuck in my head, draw stupid crap, and write horrible things that i would never say out loud. i'm kind of protective of it. but i never use names, just in case. i mean, hello, i know what happened to Harriet the Spy.

[monkey]

i have a livejournal, but its mostly private or only for some people. and i have about 17 million notebooks scattered in my life with thoughts, sentences, fragments, words and the like. always honest, not always logical or understandable. but theyre there. and i love them.

[enree erzweglle]

Huh. That's very interesting. I never thought about the "in my own voice" thing. It always feels like it to me... I am glad I keep one because, like I said, horrible memory. It's nice now as compared to high school though, because I generally keep track of the important things, as opposed to "I went shopping today!" type shit.Maybe it's that people are conscious about the way they interact with me in writing because of what I do for a living, but often, the voice changes in exchanges like email as well. They'll get overly formal, there's a sort of awareness in their writing and they pay lots of attention to grammar and to maybe trying to sound like someone that they're not. It comes off as having the same sort of stilted quality that most of those journal entries have and that results in the person not at all sounding like himself. It's odd when it happens but it's also interesting to watch that style evolve as they realize that they can be relaxed in email. Writing--regardless of the medium--puts a whole lot of people right off.

[beastiegirrl101]

I kept a journal for a long time but I seemed to only write in it when I was upset, mad, angry...man if anyone found it they'd think I was insane. I found a few journals a couple of months back and read them and was like, woah this is depressing...

[jackrock]

I wanna see some blogs, people

[skra75]

if anyone found it they'd think I was insane.

(y) yep, right there with you

[monkey]

I kept a journal for a long time but I seemed to only write in it when I was upset, mad, angry...man if anyone found it they'd think I was insane. I found a few journals a couple of months back and read them and was like, woah this is depressing...


^ive noticed that behavior too. i tend to write more when im sad because i tend to seclude myself and have the time to write when i am in that state. but occasionally i write the happy shit. like the day i met the bf <3

[Waus]

My journal (now) is usually just me keeping track of significant events in my life, figuring out how I feel about them. If there's something really stressful going on there might be a lot of entries in a row, but otherwise it's pretty sporadic.

I keep a xanga (http://www.xanga.com/chuck_chillout) too, but that's totally different.

[Teh]

I've been keeping sketchbooks more than diaries. There's more drawing than writing, although i do stick in an odd paragraph here and there just to explain my thought train if i like an idea, or if i've had something on my mind, or whatever song i was listening to, stuff like that. There's also a bunch of polaroids stuck in randomly from nights out with friends, and road trips, and a bunch of sketches from said event to match. I started doing it when i was revising round about december because i wasn't working and needed something to break up the time now and then, since going out regularly wasn't really an option since everyone was preoccupied with their own jobs and revision. There's a bunch of blueprints from university projects too. So far i've got about 8 full ones and i'm halfway through a 9th one.

If you don't keep a diary, or don't want to because you don't like the idea of writing about everything, buy yourself a nice A4 ring-bound sketchbook. Seriously, it's a proper addictive habit.

I can picture myself whipping them out to my kids or something in 20 years, then it'll be off to the asylum for me!

[skra75]

Sketchbooks are different animals all together.
I don't count the sketchbook as diary.
The Sketchbook is kind of a mental barf-bag.

[Teh]

I use it like a diary. It's as good a record of goings-on as any.

[Yorkshire~Rose]

The last time i kept a proper diary was in 1998 when i lived in the US for a year. I found it very theraputic to scribble down thoughts and doodles especially during times when the homesickness kicked in.

Before that I kept diaries from the age of 12 to 16 or so. Typical teenage angsty stuff recording every minute detail of nights out at the youth club and having the boy of my dreams (for that week anyway) smile at me.

I am convinced my mum read my diary once when i was about 15. She knew about this boy i fancied but i only ever referred to him by his full first name. I would talk about him in my diary using his nickname too and one say she said "oh, have you seen *nickname* today?". As soon as she said it she looked mortified and changed the subject.

I don't know why i just put *nickname* - it's an unusual nickname but it's not like he would ever see this.... :rolleyes:

Anywho...

[Waus]

I don't know why i just put *nickname* - it's an unusual nickname but it's not like he would ever see this.... :rolleyes:


What was it what was it?

[Yorkshire~Rose]

What was it what was it?

Radish :o

Yes, the salad vegetable.

[wrongwayandugg]

hell yes. i do.

[HOTWIFE]

I used to, but that just taught me to not write anything down that I wouldn't want someone else to see.

[enree erzweglle]

I used to, but that just taught me to not write anything down that I wouldn't want someone else to see.I feel the same way. There was a thread here about that or something close to it a couple of months ago.

If I came across someone's journal, no way would I read it, but I know people who go out of their way to get to writings of other people (online or otherwise).

I've lost a couple of people in my life and after they died, I had opportunities to look at their writings. I didn't. First, I kind of don't enjoy journal writings and second and in both cases, it just didn't feel right to me to do that. But other friends did look--they felt not that they were meddling but more that they were sharing the person's feelings and extending that person's experiences into the present. And in reading the journals, they found out some things that they could never resolve and that hurt one of them fairly deeply. It was this big series of question marks for that person and truly, truly ruined an aspect of the relationship.

A journal, to me, says private but not everyone agrees with that. Even letters sent to someone, those feel so, so private to me and it seems that if you share letters with people, you need explicit permission from both the writer and the recipient.

But I'm funny about privacy. :o

[Randetica]

only makes sense when you have a life

or maybe i should write down the conversations i have with e-people
or maybe i shouldnt

[QueenAdrock]

I used to write in an actual notebook. Then I wrote at freeopendiary.com. Now I just use my myspace and use the diary mode if I don't want anyone else reading it.

[kleptomaniac]

i really don't have much happening 'round here to keep a diary anyway except to say "dear diary, i had a nice day today" or something like that. :/

and i get bored of it really. i'm more interested in writing fictional stuff.

[ggirlballa]

i'm more interested in writing fictional stuff.

**giggles**

dana u need to finish part 5 cuz i'm dying to see wuts next

[ggirlballa]

i kept one but i only wrote like 1 or 2 pages then i forgot about & was like nah fuck this

i write rhymes instead thats more fun:D

[Dorothy Wood]

diaries are weird. In one of my last entries, I was a teenager and upset and being all dramatic then I started writing stuff like, "you're a dumb ass, you're writing this like someone's going to read it, like you're going to read it at some open mic night and you're still doing it! dork!"

ha ha. I should find that diary and read it again. it's strange to see your own handwriting through the years. I think I was in 5th grade when I started it.

these days I just write stuff here, or on scraps of paper, then either lose them or put them on a bulletin board (a physical one).

[Miho Mingu]

No, I don't care enough to write/type thoughts about my life on a consistant basis. All these Livejournals & other blogs are a new sensation. I still don't get the fascination, though. Maybe because I use the Internet for specific tasks, and really, have seen enough Internet fads to get my kicks on here.

[discopants]

I write in my diary about pointless trivial things, thus in a very British way I ignore the fact that life itself is pointless.

[trailerprincess]

I keep an appointment diary which I never use. Once every few months I go and fill in all the 'events'. And by events, I mean the different locations and people I have got wasted with over the quarter.