Writing Diaries

Do you have one of these? Nope, neither do I.

There are writers who keep a personal diary of events in their lives, others who keep one with ideas for future stories. The idea being that they can refer to it should they run out of ideas or need a way to describe something. Others use it for practice.

I've tried keeping a diary, but have never managed to get enough enthusiasm to keep it properly. I've looked at my previous attempt and the last entry was in June 2014.

What I do instead is sit down, lights out, eyes closed, enjoy the peace and let my mind wander. I remember the days gone past, what I did well, badly or failed to do at all. I tell myself jokes that make me smile, try out comedy routines, run through hypothetical situations or mentally puncture a voodoo doll of someone who's annoyed me.

These then become part of my mind, which is not always a good thing as in the case of the doll.

I find that, after a while, these become part of my writing in a way that written diaries never have. I can see these thoughts come through my fingers onto the page in front of me.

Diaries are useful for some but not for others. We all write in different ways, have different personalities, attributes and methods.

My mind is my writing diary, and I fill it as often as possible.