Writing Right with Dmitri: Keeping Track

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Writing Right with Dmitri: Keeping Track

Editor at work.

It's November. The NaJoPoMo project is back. That's when Create ask us all to try to keep a journal running for 30 whole days. It's fun, and the variety of subjects is always surprising. It's a chance for h2g2 writers to practice a bit of (ahem) discipline, and for h2g2 readers to catch up with their friends. There's a lot of visiting going on, and some conversations get started – occasionally deep, but more often affectionately humorous. It's kind of like a daily progressive dinner, you know: you can have an appetizer at Mags', then on to KB for the soup course, etc, etc, down to dessert over at my Freebie Film Tips. I say dessert, because even if the day's offering isn't sweet enough for your taste, you can fall asleep and nobody will notice in the darkened cinema. Unless, of course, you snore…

You get the idea. NaJoPoMo's a yearly exercise in catching up online with friends, sharing ideas, thoughts, and experiences. The whole thing grew out of that other website – the one where ambitious people try to write a novel in a month. We thought we'd trot out our journals instead. It's a good space to use, and it gives us scope to do what we do best: share, tell, amuse, analyse.

The beginning of the month raises a question, though: just what are journals good for? I don't mean h2g2 journals, we know what those are for, but journals in general. Are they just exercises in navel-gazing and self-involvement?

Take this journal excerpt, from a famous person's diary:

(1819) January 31 – Gave the housekeeper notice.

February 15 – The Kitchen-maid entered upon her duties.

March 8 – The Kitchen-maid gave her notice.

May 14 – The housekeeper entered service at 6 gulden monthly.

July 20 – Gave the housekeeper notice.

(1820) May 16 – Gave notice to the Kitchen-maid.

May 10 – The kitchen maid left.

July 1 – The Kitchen-maid entered upon her duties.

July 28 – The Kitchen-maid ran away in the evening.

August 10 – 13 – Four evil days – I ate in Lerchenfeld.

Who had all those problems with the household help? Why, the great maestro Ludwig van Beethoven. What does that tell you about Beethoven? He wrote the most beautiful music on the planet, but he was probably not easy to cook for. Interesting, innit?

Journal-keeping can be a way to document, observe, and catalogue the happenings of a time. Do we read Samuel Pepys' diary because we admire Samuel Pepys? Heck, no. He was a git, frankly. But a git who was eyewitness to some pretty interesting history, such as the return of Charles II to England. Who wouldn't want to know what he saw?

Journals can help settle disputes by establishing chronology and providing independent testimony of events, too. It's hard to know the past. We can never truly recreate it – not even if we were there. Having people back each other up helps figure out what happened. It also helps us catch the liars out.

Finally, journal-keeping will allow readers to collate other people's experience. Suppose you're a historian, and you want to study, say, the American Revolution? You can read journals, diaries, memos, etc, from everyone from the Continental Congress to King George. Get all the viewpoints. You'll get a better perspective, sure. And you might stumble across some juicy gossip, like the story about Lord Howe and that American woman…

So, is journal reading voyeurism? Perhaps, though it's allowed if somebody's publishing. But it's way more than that. It's a way to track events, understand other viewpoints, get a new perspective on it all. So enjoy this month's exercise, both writing and reading. Appreciate the stories, and share some yourself. And remember to archive. Someday, 2014 won't be current events. You can look back and compare notes.

Writing Right with Dmitri Archive

Dmitri Gheorgheni

03.11.14 Front Page

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