Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Journal Writing

I am a journal writer. I have been writing in my journal since I was 21. A journal is different than a diary. Diaries hold your most closely held secrets. Things you hope no one will ever read but that are cathartic to write about.
A journal is something you hope your descendants will read to get to know you and what life put in your path.
I can not say I have been faithful in writing a daily entry. There are some rather glaring holes in the past 35 years, but.....I have written several journals worth. My thought process often goes to the idea that something that has happened is note worthy and should be included in my journal. I'm sad to say not all the things I thought were note worthy got written down.  Unfortunately those moments are now lost to the vagaries of time.
Some events are too painful to write about when they are fresh. It took me two years to be able to write about my father's death and a year and a half to write about my breast cancer diagnosis.
This week I have made it a goal to catch up on and go back and fill in some of those journal holes. It not only has been great to get events recorded but it has also lifted a burden of guilt that I felt every time I tried to write on any of my books.
I haven't filled in all the holes of the past few years but I am getting closer to filling in the gaps.

I also was able to write 1000 words on the Contemporary Romance (Hot Shot). Yeah! Only 2000 words to go till I join the two halves of Heir Apparent. Yeah!