Journaling has always been hit and miss for me. I was most successful last year. In January at the beginning of the pandemic I heard someone say the more people who wrote about our world and related it personally, the better for the archeologists who find said diaries.
I was extremely consistent and as accurate as I could be and let my worst fears, angers, and imaginations go wild. I managed longer than any other attempt at writing a journal. I think I wrote daily at least until June. Then the journal informed my Camp NaNo project Pandamapocalypse.
By September, I had fallen into my old habits. At first, I missed a day here or there. Before I knew it months had gone by with no entries.😪
At least here at the blog and Duolingo, I’ve been consistent for quite a while, a couple of years, actually. So, not a journal per se. But an entry a day. Yay!
Check out the rules and make friends for JusJoJan.
When I started the #What Day Is It Anyway blogging I thought it would be a good way to keep track of days and feelings as this Covid19 grows. A friend from my old writing group sent me a note about how in the old days, other plagues, journals were found to guide us in the future. Awkward sentence. I hope you understood it. I have to get this done in a hurry as I still have a lot to do before bed.
She also talked about having written a lot in MySpace and her son wrote a blog and couldn’t get back in. How many computers have you been through that crashed with all the information you loved and wanted to save?
SO… as of yesterday, I started a handwritten journal. In it, I am keeping track of my feelings and the progress of the disease. So far as we know, we are still three degrees of infected. But if the charts are right it will hit closer to home. I want to keep track of everything. Much I can share here. But those hypochondriac thoughts or which shoes are best for walking may not need to be here. Too scary or boring, ya know?
I wondered how to start. I thought, what if a person were to find this in the future. Say an archeologist. It could be a time when science isn’t what it is today. And then the question came to me, what if the internet doesn’t exist? What if they have no computers?
Have you ever tried to explain the internet or blogging to someone who might have never heard of it? Well, there were three pages that included encyclopedias and the use thereof.
I have multiple colored pens and I change as the subject changes drastically, or a mood hits. Then as I rambled along I thought, what if they can’t read cursive? I have the ugliest print. I think my cursive is okay. So I did a chart showing the alphabet in cursive and print so they might figure it all out.
It’s been fun, in a way. I’ve written about 700 words. My hands only cramped up once. So I will continue.
One the physical side it was ‘witch on the bicycle’ windy so I didn’t get to take a walk. I could handle rain or snow or sun, but the wind is the worst. Hopefully, I’ll get the chance tomorrow. I did love being out there yesterday and the day before.
We caught up on The Good Doctor after lots of news. Now I am watching Contagion on Netflix. I’m on the third episode. This one scares me more than the others. I don’t know why. So here’s the YouTube trailer. Use your own discretion to decide if it is for you.
Wash your hands, keep your distance. Love one another. Take a walk if you can. Be creative in whatever way the muses hit you. Hang in there!
***
Per Linda:
Why I’m writing this post:
Because if you’re like me and stuck at home already, or if you’re going to be like me soon, the days of the week are going to be hell to keep track of. We have a wonderful community here on WordPress and all over the Internet as well, and I’m sure many people are feeling nervous and/or isolated. I want to make sure every one of us has somewhere to congregate and someone to talk to.
I want everyone to know that you can start discussions with each other in the comments, and if you’d like to write your own “What Day is it Anyway?” post, you can link to this one. Hashtag #WDIIA.
Zero to 51,365 in thirty days. CampNaNo has been fun for me this month. I love it when characters and story seem to be using me as the typist. Most of the time with this latest novel that was how it was. Just type as fast as the story comes to me. It was like reading a book in that I didn’t know what was happening next until the muse told me.
The hardest part of this month was the A-to-Z Challenge and combining it with my story. And even that was okay until the first Sunday when the challenge wasn’t in effect. That made the writing harder. Only because I did want them to reflect each other. The rhythm of the writing got a bit of a hiccup. So for that reason, I don’t think I will combine them again.
In fact, I think I won’t do it in April ever again. I will do my own rebel challenge in February. At day twenty-six I will be done and save the last two or three for something else, who knows.
As for the writing, I am determined to keep working on my novel from this month, editing and lining it up with the rest of the series (that also needs editing), But I think I will keep writing. I don’t know what. I just know that this habit of writing 1,667 words a day is so helpful and mostly fun when I stay with it. It is horrid when I have to reestablish the habit. But I say this every time. Let’s see if I can maintain. I will probably report here my word count or in some way use this to keep me honest with myself. I guess this will be a journal of the writing and other parts of my day. I write my reviews because I needed to keep track of what I read and what I thought about the read, and what I was doing at the time that influenced how I felt about the read. Well, this will be the same, just for writing. That was my original thought about blogging.
When I had four children using up my day I found lists were not only unproductive but depressing. At the end of the day, when I was so tired from adulting and parenting, I would look at a list and think, I didn’t do a thing all day! My husband would come into the home after work and see me exhausted and the house a mess. He, too, wanted to know what I did with the day. I decided to keep a journal of what I did. Surprise, surprise I wasn’t sitting and watching soaps and eating bonbons! That list went on and on. My husband’s day ended when he left work. I never left work. Anyway, listing what I’ve done has always helped me feel better. Accomplishment is what it is all about. If organizing by the future works for you, good. I just need to keep working and it shows in the long run without extra stuff done, I don’t need to do.
You know the neatest part about zero? If you put then next to any other number it grows or shrinks. I hope I’m on the right side.
Working on my series: Haven.
Doodler (zendoodle.com)
Music major: voice and piano
Mom of four great adults
Reiki II practitioner
I have been on disability/retired for 10 years now from depression, anxiety and fibromyalgia.
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