Do You Keep a Diary and Why?

[Dave]

I'm looking at Diaries as historical sources and I just wondered if anyone still keeps a diary?

What is your reason for doing so?

The reasons for keeping them also seem to vary quite widely, but the reason is rather important to its use as a historical source. Many authors have kept diaries as a way of setting down their random ideas free from the constraints of their more formal writing and we do have a lot of authors here.

Has the personal Blog replaced the diary? Or Facebook or Twitter? Do you think people use Chronicles in place of a diary?

 

[thaddeus6th]

Two sorts.

One is strictly on writing. I sometimes go back and see how I was doing, low/high points and so on. I only write in it when Something has happened (so, it's perhaps once a week on average rather than daily). I also keep a daily diary which is mostly filled with complaints about the weather and how I need to get more work done [although it does occasionally have serious entries, such as when the hound passed away earlier this year].

I also have a journal I use for sketching early plot ideas, or trying to come up with one-liners. It's nice to write without staring at a screen, but much slower.

 

[anno]

No,my outlook diary keeps me

 

[Ray McCarthy]

I've tried to start a few times and never think of anything to put in. Yet in retrospect remember vaguely without enough detail or accuracy many things I ought to have noted. Perhaps there is a nack to it? In theory it should take very little time and resource.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I have one I update very periodically - years on usually. And my blog which I mutter on.

 

[Juliana]

I went through an intense 4 or 5 years of diary writing in my early 20's, terrible 'literary' stuff. I fancied myself the new Anaïs Nin (her diaries, NOT the erotica!). One day in my 30's I chucked them all in the bin.

 

[Dave]

Personally, I only keep one as an aide memoire. I find it easier to carry than outlook, but it is interesting that people do still keep them for all the traditional reasons, so thanks for the replies. Some write with an expectation that someone will read them one day, and some write in secret as a release. Often people write during a difficult period in their lives and then stop when things improve.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

No! I respect my right not to incriminate myself.

 

[Susan Boulton]

I have tried, but they end up being lists of things I have done or need to do. I have trouble taking about myself and my opinions and putting them down on paper seems rather strange. They creep into my writing, though and perhaps that's where they should stay in a place where no one will know if they are my thoughts or my characters.

 

[HoopyFrood]

Between the ages of about nine to nineteen I did -- filled about five books, with each one filling faster than the rest as I got more verbose. I call them journals rather than diaries as it wasn't restricted by date, just whenever I fancied writing. They weren't so much 'I did this today', though there was an element of that, more just thoughts, ramblings on stuff, suddenly swaying to communism when I started A Level Politcs etc... They are fun to read back through.

I did often refer to future people who may one day end up reading them, but to be honest I may just burn them before I die and so end the possibility of them ending up on some future school's curriculum.