Day 1, Page 1 of my new travel journal…
Now… where shall I begin?
Don’t want to mess it up and ruin it with the opening line…
Day 15, (still) Page 1 of my (now not so) new, but still empty travel journal…
There are times when ‘something‘ is better than nothing –
A ‘bad’ opening line is better than no-opening line.
The ‘I want to get it right‘, is a sad excuse.
Imagine, in 5 years time, this journal resurfaces from the bottom of a long forgotten stored box, you open it and cast your eyes down and…
the pages are still blank, still a vacant virginal white.
Then imagine opening it to see a scrawly spidery immature handwriting of a younger you, endeavouring to express a moment with a cheap biro pressing into the paper.
No matter what it looks like… what it says… you’ll be thrilled at the revelation. A window that welcomes you back into a world of first time sights and experiences and that feeling of being truly alive.
The ‘something‘, the ‘anything’, that fills the pages will delight no matter what, and will draw a warm burgeoning smile as you flick through the leaves.
We’d all like to create something perfect – or at least as good as the first draft of a to be published novel – but its sadly those high falootin aspirations that cast a shadow of vulnerability on our capability. The fear of showing ourselves up to be poor at composition or have messy handwriting means rather than put ourselves on the line, expose our human weaknesses, we choose not to take the risk.
But nothing on the page, will tell you nothing of where you were and how you felt –
You can always do better some other time – but some other time, won’t be now – And ‘now’ is a precious passing unrecoverable moment.
Carpe diem – Seize the day 😀
Do you have an untouched journal lurking?
And if not, what is your secret as to how you ‘start’?
Mine isn’t a travel journal per se, though I do write when I’m traveling. It’s more of an everything journal. However, the way I started was: 1.) challenge myself to write something every day for a certain number of days. Hopefully it becomes more enjoyable and flows more easily after x amount of time. It didn’t matter what I wrote, just something, like you said. When I got past the initial few entries, I then decided I was going to include a few specific things in each entry. In my case it was ‘name something positive that happened today’ and ‘name something I’m thankful for”. While these questions wouldn’t necessarily apply to a travel journal, having these gave me something to write every time, and it usually fueled further writing. The same could be done with travel – think of a few questions you’ll answer every day, and that might help get it going. Hope that helps!
I often think answering the simple questions of how your senses are responding will give a full account of the scene –
A few words to describe what you can see, hear, taste, smell and touch.
I’m sure most of us have at least one of these gathering dust somewhere 🙂
I think you’re right…
But that doesn’t mean to say it is right 😉
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I have to still finish journal entries from my Ireland trip in August. . .I have great intentions that never pan out. By the time I get to it, I forget most of the details.
I do know the feeling of having such a good time, how do you also fit the recording part of the trip in as well!
And of course it is the details (the bits that get forgotten) that make the trip – its not the sweeping generalizations!
I think its our training to feel our sole means of expression is words – And to well express ourselves in words is time consuming –
I’ve just written a post Why Not Tell Your Story with Doodle Drawings… As Well As Words as I feel a few squiggles (not a full blown sketch) can convey a more evocative and detailed description than words in a fraction of the time.
It’s amazing how the whispiest of child like lines can bring the detail of a scene roaring back to life 🙂
Here’s another post: D is for Doodling… Not Fancy Pants Drawing
(Let me know if you try it, how you get on!)
Thank you. I will definitely check it out!
😀