As I write this, my head hurts. That’s because I’m tired, but sometimes my head hurts because I can’t think, and sometimes it hurts because I think too much. Somewhere along the lines, I need to get these thoughts out of my system so I can think clearly again. I do this by writing them down. It might not improve my memory, but it certainly improves my mood and my sense of having achieved something.
If you read my post entitled Night Thoughts, you’ll have read some of the thoughts I wrote down on a particularly sleepless night. Since that night I’ve been writing similar thoughts each day that I write my diary. They aren’t night thoughts, they are quiet, reflective thoughts, written mostly in the early evening, or occasionally in the morning.
My diary entry takes up one page, and my thoughts go on the opposite page. They are written in capital letters. They aren’t edited. They come out the end of my pen straight from my mind. They usually reflect the thoughts, feelings, worries of the day or the time of day I write them.
The reason I’m highlighting this new writing activity is because it’s a kind of therapy I’ve wanted to try for a long time, but never got round to. I have a lot of thanks to give to that one sleepless night for making me realise what thoughts were inside me, and how much it helped me to write them and to read them back.
It means I’ve written in my diary more, because I only write the thoughts if there is a diary entry to accompany them. It also means I’m keeping track of the things I’m thinking of, and I’m not dwelling on them, I’m getting them out and leaving them be.
So far, I have written 180 individual thoughts. For me, that’s an achievement. I’m not good at sticking to things, but I’ve stuck to this because of how much it helps me. I’m also determined to compile them together so that I can have them all in one place to read back, as a sort of second diary.
Do any of you do anything similar?
Jade
Jade Moore 
I have a little quotes notebook. In it I write all the quotes which I’ve read or heard somewhere(though this is very less, since I always remember them) or new quotes/lines which I’ve come up with. Every now and then, I pick it up and reflect over the quotes and the time when I wrote them
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I have one like that too! But I don’t write in it much, only if I read a book which has some really beautiful and memorable quotes. Jeanette Winterson novels are good for the quotes I like to write down 😊
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For me that writer is John Green. I love the lines he uses, especially in “Looking For Alaska”, “Paper Towns” and “The Fault in our Stars”. He’s a master.
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See I’m not big on John Green but I know a lot of people do love his books 😊 I’m one of those people who liked his book The Abundance of Katherines the most 😆
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For me, that title belongs to “The Fault in Our Stars”. Beautiful book. One of the best ever written, for me.
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I’m the opposite! I can appreciate why people like the book, but it didn’t have the same effect on me. Someone once asked me if that book made me cry and when I said no they told me (jokingly) that I had a heart of stone 😆
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I can relate. I never cried during ET and people judged me.😂😂
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It’s really hard to make me cry at books! Although there have been a few exceptions 😆
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This is a brilliant idea. I tried doing something similar but it was like leaving a blank page and after a while (a week, a month?) come back and write what I think of what I wrote in the past in the other page. My problem was that I was afraid to look back (even though the few times I did it, it was amazing!) and that I didn’t fully work out how long to leave it for before I had enough distance to come back to it with fresh eyes (even though they were just regular journal entries). I should try it again but I’m always mortified to leave blank pages because of the planet and what not. Silly I know.
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This is the thing I mentioned to you yesterday, which I ended up having around 500 of these ‘thoughts’. It’s these that I would probably try to put in a perzine (after doing more research into those) because I think it would suit that format, but I’d have to go through the thoughts and weed them a bit to get the best ones.
It did take me a while to start doing this, and I was surprised I didn’t let the blank page attack me or block me. But I approached it with a mindset of ‘write anything, literally just write your mind, write the words in your mind’. It was like a free-write. And I mention they were all in capital letters, for some reason that helped. But yeah try having a go in a lil notebook or something, just sit down with it and pour words in.
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