The last time that I tried to do a journal, I got two entries into it and then proceeded to stop. In retrospect, the only reason I did any writing that time was because I was well and truly annoyed with myself and a friend and needed some way to express it, so my first entry was me venting. While that piece of paper (well, actually, it's electronic, so it's really more a collection of electrons and magnetic fields, but you get the idea) still exists, I doubt it will ever see the light of day.
The second entry that I did, however, was a reflection on a little slice of high school and the act of writing. During my time in high school (graduated in the class of 1983), one of the courses we needed to take was "Creative Writing". Ick! If there's one thing that I didn't like to do during my high school years, it was writing. Especially trying to write creatively... Bleah. I was much more interested in reading science fiction or about computers or comics or the manual to a game that I just got than in figuring out how to write.
I've already admitted that I'm a voracious reader. I'm not reading that much right now because I'm not doing a long commute where I can read and there seem to always be other things to do at home. [I'm still commuting, but, for some reason, they frown on your being engrossed in a book whilst hurtling down the interstate at 70 miles per hour. Go fig...]
When I was commuting by train (about 2 hours every day), I was easily finishing a book every 2 or 3 days. Sometimes new books, sometimes re-reads, but always reading. In fact, I can probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of times that I've been outside of the house for more than going to get the mail and I don't have a book secreted somewhere about my person. This was a habit that I've had since before high school - never, ever, go anywhere without sufficient reading material.
But what, you may well ask, does any of this have to do with writing? Not much, other than to set the stage for me trying to write versus read. One of the things we needed to do during this Creative Writing class was to keep a journal. Said journal to be letter sized (8.5 x 11 inches). We were required to write a full page in the journal each and every day. Filling in was permitted, but the journal would be checked sporadically to ensure that there were the requisite entries. Of course, being an over-achiever even while I hated the idea, I went out and got a college-ruled notebook, not the regular ruled kind.
For those of you who don't know, "college-ruled" means that there are more lines on the page than in typical lined paper. Basically, even though I didn't want to do the assignment, I made sure that I'd be forced to put a LOT on the page. Some times, I'm way too smart for my own good.
I dutifully did the assignment and kept a journal. Not necessarily putting stuff in every day, but always, after the fact, making sure that all the days had semi-cohesive writing in them. By the way, this was sort of a classic negative assignment. Doing the work didn't contribute to your grade, but not doing the work would definitely reduce it.
So how does a kid (because, let's face it - at the time I was a Junior in high school, I was only 14 years old; 2 less than everyone else) who hated keeping a journal turn into an adult who is starting to enjoy putting fingers to keyboard every day or two? I'm not sure of the process, but let's just say that I have a greater understanding of the purpose of journal keeping as a kid.
Learning to write (and write well) is one of the most important skills a person can have. It's right up there with learning to count, read, dress yourself and balance your checkbook. I think where schools (at least the ones I went to) fall down on the job is in assuming that the ability to write is something that will just osmose into you if you're exposed to enough good writing by other people.
I know that, when I tried to do papers, etc., I was continually frustrated by my inability to produce a finished product on the first go. I would know what it was supposed to look like but I couldn't get all of my thoughts together in the right order to make it read beautifully. That's one of the problems with being an avid reader - you know what the end product is supposed to look like and there is nothing but frustration if you try to write and can't write as well as you can read.
So, yeah, keeping a journal in high school got me to put a lot of words on paper. It didn't teach me how to express myself well or how to write. That's something that only comes, I believe, with time, experience, and a desire to say something.
Author: ben@tmk.com