Thursday Two Questions/Journal Treasures

Welcome to Thursday Two Questions.

In Monday's blog, Journal Treasures/Sweet Fluid of Expression, I shared one of the journals I wrote in 2003, (two years into the writing of my first novel, Between Will and Surrender, and when I was about to start my second, Between Darkness and Dawn) to let readers in on how the mind of at least one writer works.

What I said back then still applies today: 

"I enjoy the feel of this form of expression, the artiness of it.  Life takes on meaning when I react to it in a way that becomes preserved between the pages of my journal.  Words that will outlast me."

My Thursday Two Questions to you are:

1. Do you keep a journal or diary (written, pictural)?
2. How do feel about this form of expression?

If you'd like to further participate in Thursday Two Questions, follow the link below.





Journal Treasures/Sweet Fluid of Expression



Every so often, I share something I've written in one of my journals to let readers in on how the mind of at least one writer works.

Here's an entry from 2003, two years into the writing of my first novel , Between Will and Surrender, and when I was about to start my second, Between Darkness and Dawn. 

June 19, 2003

I enjoy the feel of pen scratching on rough paper.  I enjoy the feel of words rushing through my mind and escaping through fingertips and pen.  They flow out through black ink, the blood-sweet fluid of expression. 

By churl

I enjoy the feel of this form of expression, the artiness of it.  Life takes on meaning when I react to it in a way that becomes preserved between the pages of my journal.  Words that will outlast me.

At least until someone throws them away. 

Whom will that be?  Someone I know?  One of my sons? A grandchild?  A great grandchild?  Or will my journal fall into the hands of a stranger--who will then trash it? 

What will it matter once I'm gone? 

In the mean time, pen scratches across paper, ink stains the surface with curly symbols.  My thoughts are preserved.

If only I could write about something people cared about.  If only I could write in a way that would keep readers entranced long enough to absorb my story, enjoy it, think about it, and share the experience. 

If only, if only, if only.

It'll take practice.  Lots of it.

It'll take luck.

###

By Anna Denise

I have stacks of journals, covering the years I planned and wrote my four novels (2003-2008). 

A journal for every three months times six, twenty-four in all. 

Treasures filled with the "sweet fluid of expression."


(First photo image by BobAuBuchon)

Journal Treasures

While scavenging through old journals for inspiration, I came across an entry I'd written January 1, 2003.

A new year begins.  A fresh start.  Many hopes.  Many dreams.  One of my wildest dreams is to complete my first novel.  I finished writing it a year ago, but it isn't complete.  I've entered it in three contests, took an advanced fiction course, and read a mass of "how to" books, and now I have a pretty good idea of what I've been doing wrong.


Too much exposition, too much narration.  I'm not getting inside of my protagonist's head fast enough at the beginning of the story.  The climax scene is a wimp-out, etc., etc.


Am I discouraged?


Mostly disappointed.  I'm wishing I hadn't told so many people I was writing a book.  Just about all my non-writer friends can't figure out why I'm not published yet.  Am I faking being a writer?  Am I lazy?  Am I a lousy writer?  I'm starting to get sympathetic glances.  I try to explain that this is part of the process, but to deaf ears, it seems.


Maybe by this time next year, I'll be ready to send it off.

HA!

If I had known back then what I know now, I'm not sure I would have been able to continue writing and revising.  Three novels and nearly eight years later, I'M FINALLY READY TO SUBMIT.  Only one more read through and a final revision (a month, maybe) away from submitting the first novel of a series of four.

All of my novels have been workshopped in fiction classes and critique groups.  One has quarter-finaled in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards and gotten a Publisher's Weekly Review (which lead to another revision).  I've pitched an agent, who has asked for a synopsis and sample chapters.  I've started a blog and developed a small, but loyal following.  I've earned a creative writing certificate through UCDavis Extension.  And all of my critique partners think I'm ready.    

Soon.  Soon.

Let me leave you with a quote from John Steinbeck in his Journal Of A Novel, THE EAST OF EDEN LETTERS.  

"And if he is a writer wise enough to know it can't be done, then he is not a writer at all.  A good writer always works at the impossible." 

(Photo credit:  Morocco Journal 2007-Cover, by retrotraveler)