I've started writing an online diary, as an excuse to get me writing something every day (since I haven't been doing so recently). I hope this will exercise my writing skills, as I creatively interpret the happenings of any given day.

Does anyone else do a diary? Do you find it helps?

I kept a diary for about a year a while back when I was going through some difficult times - it helped to write it all down somehow. Now I just carry a notebook at all times and jot things down to be developed (or not) later as the case may be. I find it's especially good for those insights and lines of poetry which seem to arrive unbidden, and are almost impossible to recall accurately later.

But it's good to write every day, no matter what it is - even posting on the forums exercises the literary (or non-literary!) brain.

I didn't know you wrote poetry Nell .. are you going to upload any?

A )

Andrew, there's lots of poetry in Solitary Pleasures; OK, so it's Mattie's poetry really, but in a way Mattie is my alter ego, as are most of the main characters in my novels (and some of the short stories too).

A lot of my stuff is rhyming, which is of course deeply unfashionable, also I know precisely nothing about structure etc, mostly I write it for myself, but I have thought about creating a series of poems with illustrations - maybe etchings - one day. So I doubt if I'll post anything, as there's enough of mine to read on the site in the way of fiction without asking for comments on poetry too.

I've just discovered Hugo Williams - woke up to hear Stevie Smith reciting 'The Old Person from Porlock' on the radio in bed last? night. That was odd. Then Hugo Williams was interviewed, I hadn't heard of him before. You can find some of his poems on:

http://www.plagiarist.com

but maybe you already know them?

It's an excellent idea to keep a diary/journal of any sort when you're writing... or even when you're slightly blocked (now that should be a swear word really, even typing it makes me nervous.) So when you need some inspiration you can go back through a few entries and it's there. Same with writing down stuff you overhear or something someone tells you- I always think 'Oh, I'll remember that, it was so amazing' and hardly ever do. So all power to your online pen, IB.

Sorry, coming to this a bit late, but yes, I actually keep two diaries! I have written a personal diary for over ten years (anyone who got hold of it would have to die). I just write in it whenever I feel like it - writing is always the way I sort my head out and has helped me get through various traumas. I've also taken up doing the 'morning pages' after reading Julia Cameron's 'The Artist's Way'. I write them in the same book as my diary. Sometimes they come out like a diary, other times creative ideas emerge. Recently, I've started doing an online diary as well.

Hmmm, could I be a tad self-obsessed?

I'd like to be able to creatively interpret the happenings of the day! I think a diary is an excellent idea but I never actually get round to writing in it. I always keep a notebook with me along with a little "ideas" book that I use to log ideas, words, names and any urgent editing that I need to remember to do. I did read that forced writing - such as a diary - can help develop writing skills and unleash thoughts/words/ideas that you didn't know were there. Now where did I put my pen?
Sue

I used to write a diary (coded) when I was a teenager and then threw them all out when moving house for fear of someone else reading them and to get on with my life and stop being nostalgic!! needless to say i regretted it. Then I was completely ******* (Anna's favorite word) until I too read The Artist's Way and then wrote my first screen play and have been doing a variation of morning pages since! Thank you Julia Cameron.

Is it still going, IB?

Dee.

I've been doing my morning pages for two weeks now and already they have become a habit and I enjoy them. I've also started a journal which I write in the evenings - although not last night due to bottle of red wine that got in the way! I'm finding that there is very little between the two. My morning pages are really just a reflection on the previous day but perhaps that's the point of them - to get everything out of the way leaving all the creative stuff to come out. In theory anyway - I'm still waiting!
Sue

I've kept a diary for 27 years. It's gone through different approaches but overall it's been most useful in recording what's been happening to me - not just in terms of time and place but mostly in what I was thinking, and how others reacted, and so on. Often, this has been a little dull to record at the time - and sometimes, it might take me 10 or 12 pages to record an event - but I've always found it valuable to read back on years later. I've also always recorded what I'm writing at any give time, and why, which is very useful.

But the simple when and where has been useful too. It really is amazing how one's mind will drastically re-organise times and events to suit one's historical self-view. For instance, I recently was accused by someone of writing him an abusive letter back in 1982. I was astonished by this, since I was convinced I'd ceased to even be involved in the sport concerned in 1979. But I got my diaries for 1979-1982 from the attic, and was quite astounded to discover that I hadn't in fact quitted till 1983. On the other hand, there was no record of me writing such a letter, which I would surely have recorded. In the event, this allowed us to compromise and bury the hatchet - me, because it wasn't impossible I could have written such a letter and him because it was also possible that he may have got me mixed up with someone else.

Dee, I've been guilty of neglecting the diary recently, but got it back on track today, and I'll try to keep it going hence forth.

I write a fictional online Diary, and I must say that it really does help. You can almost track the improvement in my writing as time passes by. Of course, I procrastinate and keep my dear readers waiting for weeks... but oh well...

Richard Burton used to keep a hand-typed diary, sorry, I just had to tell everyone that. I mean you wouldn't think Richard Burton was the kind of person who typed away at a diary each and every night, fantastic. I won't tell you some of the names he used to call Elizabeth Taylor in it, but some were very inventive

I keep a Writing Journal [Hey, it sounds better], which is a poor excuse of a personal diary but it's good to help me focus on the material I'm currently writing at the moment.

Steven

That's really interesting! Do you plan your fictional character's life out in advance or just write the diary fresh each time?
Sue