The Art of Keeping a Journal

"I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train."
- Oscar Wilde, “The Importance of Being Earnest”

As a writer, I find myself loving words, loving nearly anything that has to do with the art of creating words, creating stories, reading...just about anything about stories and words, words, words.

I just don't mean to make people feel guilty or weird or stupid if they aren't as crazy about them as I am. Take journaling, for instance. I absolutely love journaling and have kept up a journal of some sort for most of my life; for me, journaling has come in the form of pen on paper, but also in the form of an online journal for friends to read and comment on. Journaling is just something I have always done because I enjoy it. I love writing. I love journaling for many, many reasons.

But I know that it isn't for everyone. Not everyone likes to write. And not everyone likes to journal.

That caveat aside, this post is about journaling and most definitely is pro-journaling. Why? Because...well, I love journaling and want to offer up a few reasons why you *might* want to keep a journal.

Journal…

1) for posterity. It’s true. Even if your life feels the most boring on earth, we are living through a time period that future generations will look back on as HISTORY. We are living in historic times, people! For the first time ever in American history, we have a black president – that mere fact alone is history. We are living during one of the worst economic recessions since the Great Depression. It isn’t fun; it can be depressing. But it is history. Tell your journal about it. Tell your journal what you think about it.

Journal about every day life for you and how what is happening affects you. My journal entries lately have told stories about my family and friends, but also about how my job situation has changed because of the economy. I’ve clipped articles out of the paper and tucked them in between pages, too. Someday, it may be interesting to look back on and see how my references to the economy pertain to these news clippings.

2) for yourself. A journal can be a wonderful way to work out things in your life. A journal is a quiet place, where nobody else can comment or criticize. Your journal can be the place to sort out things in your spiritual life with God.

Recently, I went back and read a journal I kept last summer and realized that events that occurred laid a bit of the foundation of things that are occurring in my life right now. Without my journal, I might not have realized quite as fully when and how these things began. A journal gives you an opportunity to keep a record of the intricate threads God sows into your life on a daily basis. Some of them may blossom into glorious things…others into hard times, but it is always amazing to see where God is leading.

3) for writing material. Write about the people you see waiting for the bus every morning as you travel to work. Jot down conversations you hear, amusing and intriguing tidbits. As a writer, these notes could one day prove to be invaluable, a ready source of material for stories and articles.

There are a million reasons to keep a journal. The key isn’t so much to figure out why you keep a journal, but to keep one. Keep one for yourself or for family members or just because. But if you keep a journal, write. Write what you see and hear and think. Just write. That’s all it takes to keep a journal.

To be continued…

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Dream like New York

Mail time has always been a much anticipated event at our house. People have argued over the priviledge of getting the mail from the mailbox and everyone jostles over each other to see what has arrived in the day's stack. Will there be letters from pen-pals or the latest issue of a good magazine? Maybe there will be a surprise package even!

And then there are days when the mail is a disappointment. Usually it's the lack of fun mail that is disappointing. But today, for me, it comes in the form of an envelope that holds a rejected manuscript from a children's magazine.

I had promised myself not to get my hopes up, but in spite of myself, I did hope and wish, for maybe, just maybe, a nice slim letter telling me that they loved my short story and would be happy to publish it.

They didn't.

Most of me didn't expect to receive the response that I would have liked, but I'm still a little sad. I wish they liked it. I wish it were easier to find a magazine that would want to publish my work.

And I'm trying to fight discouragement today. Writing hasn't been easy for me lately, inspiration being low and time even scarcer. Will anything I write ever be something worth publishing? I find myself re-reading journal entries from close to two years ago. In one entry, I copied and pasted the lyrics to a favorite song, and suddenly, I find them incredibly encouraging.

Race to work again today
From nine to five
I only strive to stay awake
But the child inside me
Dares to believe I still can fly
Can’t let those dreams just die

I got to dream like New York
As high as the skyline
Aim for the stars above those city lights
I want to dream like New York
I’m running down Broadway
I got to catch the next train
I’m making my way
("Dream Like New York" - Tyrone Wells)

With life as of late, full of work and studying and busyness...I feel like I'm constantly striving and not always succeeding, especially when it comes to writing. But...I still dream. I dream about words, longing to create something that will thrill the reader, just as words have always excited and thrilled me. I want to write. I have to write, even when my words feel petty and small and foolish.

Setbacks always come. Discouragement always comes. But we can't give up on dreaming and trusting and hoping. Dreams always take work, but in the end, it's worth it.

This week will find me going to the post office with another envelope and another manuscript for another magazine.

I'm dreaming like New York and this manuscript just might make it on the next train.

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Christians and Writing

Not long ago a college senior asked if she could talk to me about being a Christian writer. If she wanted to write Christian fiction, how was she to go about it?

I told her if she is truly and deeply a Christian, what she writes is going to be Christian, whether she mentions Jesus or not. And if she is not, in the most profound sense, Christian, then what she writes is not going to be Christian, no matter how many times she invokes the name of the Lord.

- Madeleine L’Engle, Walking on Water: Reflections of Faith & Art

This topic has come up for discussion in our house lately: what makes something Christian? Does slapping the label ‘Christian’ or sprinkling mentions of Jesus liberally make a story Christian?

I struggle with this, myself. I love to read and find myself torn in this regard, both in reading and writing. Is a story better in the Christian sense merely because it involves characters who pray to God and try to live Christian lives, even if it isn’t well-written? Is a well-written story with a clear glimpse of good versus evil to be rejected merely because it doesn’t mention the name of God?

Am I to strive to include God’s name even when it doesn’t fit and seems awkward? Is it all right if I try to portray the light overcoming the darkness, even if the characters never attend church once in the story? Is it all right if I pen something of the fantasy genre, a world where God isn’t called by the name of Jesus?

I believe we need stories that talk about God, about Jesus – in a reverent and holy manner – yet not come across as overly piousness that nobody can identify with, so often found in Christian stories reprinted from the Victorian age. We need more Christian writers, striving for excellence in this field, trying their best to write stories that aren’t dripping with pious sentimentality or are the cotton-candy fluff that comes in paperback romances these days.

Yet, is it wrong for a writer to pen stories that don’t mention God? I look back on the stories that I have read and loved and found myself encouraged by, and so many of them don’t fit into the “Christian Fiction” genre. I have learned so much more from novels that aren’t inherently outright “Christian” than from most of the Christian fiction I have read. There’s Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings,” just for one example; even though the trilogy was written by a Christian, the stories never mention God. I have read adventures stories where not a single character talks about God, yet they are striving to overcome evil with good. Children’s stories, too, in which children grapple with moral dilemmas: should I do something I know I’m not supposed to, what decision should I make?

I keep coming back to the good versus evil part of the equation. Good versus evil has been around since the beginning. Choices have been around since the beginning. Choose you this day to serve the Lord. Choose that which brings life or that which brings death. That’s what I keep coming back to; if my story has a focus, a source and balance of morals, I truly believe that God can be and is glorified by it.

So. Can a Christian writer create a story without mentioning God? I believe that you can. I agree with Madeleine L’Engle. If we are God-followers, no matter what we write, it is going to be Christian.

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Waiting

I've turned on my computer many times over the last few days, intending to write an article - any article – for this blog. And every single time I put my fingers to the keyboard to turn ideas into words, every coherent thought wisks away. Ideas that seemed sensible, even brilliant, look inane on the page.

And so I type, watching the trail of words troop across the screen and the cursor blink as I wait for more words to come.

And wait.

And wait.

And wait.

Sometimes it feels like I'm waiting for everything. I'm waiting for God to plop a husband in my lap, I'm waiting for the right job to come along, I'm waiting for spring to arrive, I'm waiting for the bell to ring at 5 o'clock to let me go home, I'm waiting for the bathroom, I'm waiting, waiting, waiting.

Everyone always says, 'hustle while you wait.'

And so I tell the words to hustle. And they don't. They're often inconveniently obstinate like that.

Instead, I wait and hustle thoughts, hoping that the thoughts will trigger words.

While waiting for a guy, I tend to hustle a lot of prayers, hoping that they'll hurry up the situation. Maybe they have. I don't know. I'm still waiting.

I think the point is, hustle. But don't just hustle in ways you think will make the problem resolve magically. Praying that God would make your guy to arrive doesn't make the waiting easier; it just makes it easier to remember the lack of a guy in your life. Praying specifically for your friends and family will get your thoughts off yourself. Staring at the clock, willing the minutes to fly by doesn't work. But working hard and resisting the urge to clock-stare does. Thinking long and hard about stupid writer's block doesn't get rid of the block, it just drives you batty.

But writing gibberish about it, just might.

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