For a number of reasons, too tedious or irrelevant to go into right now, I’ve decided to start chronicling my periodic random thoughts in a Journal.
Unlike many writers, I would assume, I’ve actually come to journaling relatively late in life. Whilst I dabbled in “blogging” when it was first en vogue back in the early noughties, that was more about guides to vintage fashion and never really about me, or my thoughts, ideas or daily occurrences. I actually started journaling “proper” back when my darling wife Emily was going through the double header of craziness that was receiving chemotherapy during the start of a global pandemic. It was a way for me to document the absurdity around me and to make some sense of what life was currently throwing at us. Obviously that was all deeply personal and not something that will ever be read by anyone other than myself, but I have recently revisited the practice during counselling sessions, although again, this will also never be made public (one hopes). Now some might say I should have been counselled a long time ago, either way I found journaling helped immensely, not only as part of my therapy, but as a way of clearing everything out of my head, thus making room for what I needed to use it for at the time, completing The House at the End of the World.
In fact, now I think about it of course, my aforementioned latest book is also based around the main characters journal, so you could say that it was actually my first public facing journaling, and not this.
Anyway I hope you look forward to whatever ramblings I commit to this journal. Perhaps, you might get something out of it, perhaps it might trigger some thoughts of your own… or perhaps not. Either way its going to help me clear my head for whatever my next story will turn out to be. And hey, just the fact that you are reading this, is enough for me, after all, isn’t that what all writers want, for someone to just read what we have written?
Do you journal? For what reason do you do it, and how do you find the practice helps you? I’d love to know, so feel free to leave me a comment or two.
