Keeping a memory journal
A memory journal is a personal record of a particular time of your life. If you are writing in the present, it will be classed as a primary source in years to come. If you are writing from memory, this will still be classed as a primary source, because you are writing about an event that you personally lived through, but it will be felt to be less reliable. This is why memoirs have different levels of importance, and therefore different methods of recordings.
Let’s take official memoirs as an example. When anyone appears in court a stenographer sits alongside the judge and records verbatim every word that is heard in the room. This is deemed necessary and is actually a legal requirement in British courts. The same system is used in Parliament. However, not only is every word written down from every meeting – from Prime Minister’s Question Time to a sub-committee meeting in chambers – but they are published in Hansard, a publication that has been recording parliamentary activity for centuries.
In towns and cities up and down the land, minutes are taken daily from boardrooms, committees, staff meetings and league gatherings. These records are intended to be objective summaries of each meeting. Once drawn up, the minutes are given to each person present and filed once they had received full agreement. These are also important, as they can help address problems or queries further down the line.
You may think that you will never have any need for these forms of documentation but if you are writing about joining a rally, or your time spent as a jury member on a sensitive case, these documents would be necessary to your own research.
Official diaries are those made by people who feel they are in power. More and more, these individuals begin writing these diaries as notes for a future book. While diaries from Prime Ministers have been welcomed by the literary world for some decades, there is now a tendency for people connected with people of power to tell their own story. Paul Burrell, Alistair Campbell, Edwina Currie and James Hewitt are all names who have used their diaries to tell events from their own point of view.
Our own diaries can fall into different categories too. We may have a work diary, a learning log, a personal diary or a diary we are making for others. This last category includes the pregnancy diaries we make, our children’s early year’s mementoes or a celebration record for a birthday or wedding.
What is the importance of each diary?
Work diary
You may think this is unimportant, simply a recording of the times and dates of meetings. However, if you are writing a how to excel in business, this could be an important record, as it can indicate the points in your working life where you made a great decision, or a bad one. It can also be a great boost to your own confidence when times are less than perfect or you have faced rejection. You can look back at it and recollect how you secured a massive sale, won a bid or generated huge profits. If you did it once, you can do it again.
Learning Log
I personally believe we never stop learning. People come into our lives to teach us something. Some people stay forever, some get lost along the way. When we feel we have lost that person too soon, maybe that’s the lesson we are meant to learn. Maybe they were telling us to slow down and pay attention to what we have right now, not what we might have in the future. A learning log, however, concentrates on educational learning. It records our feelings of optimism when we start learning a topic, our journey and the outcome. It can be a huge source of help when you begin to struggle or lose interest. Second year university students often succumb to this slump. The optimism they felt when entering university has worn off, the shininess of their new life has been tarnished and graduation seems a long way off. Grades slip and helplessness seeps in. Reading their learning log, either alone or with a mentor, can help get them back on track because sometimes we just need a little bit of a boost. As I said, we never stop learning.
Personal Diaries
These are simply what they say – they are diaries personal to use. In these diaries we record our thoughts, dreams, wishes, fears, passions and hatreds. They are for our own personal use. The diaries of the rich and famous we can buy in bookstores or on amazon are edited versions of personal diaries. For instance, a man famed for his witty retorts is not going to write “I was stumped for words” in his diary. A woman noted for her wry observations won’t have “It was OK” in her tome. These diaries are true, but they have only published carefully selected passages. In your own diary you can write in any style and don’t need to provide any explanation. If someone reads your diaries without your consent or knowledge you cannot be responsible for their feelings. However, if you want to publish your own diaries then you need to protect the innocent. But don’t let that put you off writing.
How to get started.
1. Decide on a good time of day to write. Some people like to get up really early and write, some like to put their thoughts down just before they go to sleep. Neither is wrong.
2. Try to write regularly.
3. Use the medium that suits you. Some people love the luxury of a beautifully bound diary, and it is true that there is something artistic about beautiful script painted across a blank page. Others prefer to use a computer. It’s kinder to the environment, takes up less space and is portable. Let it be your own decision.
4. Start to write without the end in sight. Write in a flowing manner and edit afterwards.
5. Dismiss nothing. Writing that you feel flat today is as relevant as writing about an event you went to – and far more real. It shows that your life is not a continuum of stress, panic or despair. It also shows that your happy times also contained periods of boredom and normality.
6. Keep a notebook handy to record happenings as they occur. Your feelings will be far sharper and more relevant. I’m currently attempting to write and sell a drama series. I have a notepad setting on my phone and I regularly type in snippets of conversation throughout the day.
7. Use the diary to address your flashpoints and make changes. For instance, if a bill coming through the door sends you into a spiral of despondency then addressing it might pave the way for a happier life – albeit without the five star holidays – and help you move forward. Conversely, if being left in charge really gives you a buzz, then seek out ways in which you can be placed in charge every day of your life.
8. Remember to be true to yourself. You are the one person you can really confide in, the one person you can rely on to be there for you, whatever the time. Look to your past diaries for inspiration and support when today gets too difficult. Know that today’s celebration will help you face whatever comes tomorrow.
9. Write now, right now.
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