The Unfinished Journals of Elizabeth D.

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I’m participating in another read-a-long with Bree from All the Books I can Read, thanks to Allen & Unwin.

I’ve started reading and have to say that I am enthralled in the story, it is of particular interest to me I guess because I keep journals. In a nutshell the story is of a woman who inherits her best friend’s journals after her death, with instructions to read them. As she reads she discovers that she never really knew her friend.

It makes me wonder what happens to our journals after we are gone – do we give them over to someone for safe-keeping, should they be destroyed? – it’s something that I don’t have the answer to.

Come back next week when we discuss the first section of the book.

A Journaling Gift

A while ago my cousin asked me if I would make her a journal – she has never kept a journal before – but inspired by my posts she asked me to make her a journal. What better way to share the gift of journaling.

What sort of journal do you create for a first time journaler? I have used a lot of journals – lined and unlined, sketchbooks, writing journals. For this journal I decided to go with her favourite colours.

For this journal I have used plain book board for the covers and Creative Memories photo mats for the pages and bound it together with spiral binding. It has 24 leaves, totalling 48 pages back and front a library card pocket and quotes on vellum  - just right for a beginning journaler. Hope she like it!

I have about a dozen of these in this colour scheme as well as blue and pink – I’m thinking about setting up a Etsy store and turning my surplus scrapbooking supplies into journals - what do you think?

Writing Challenge & Journal keeping.

The 10 day writing challenge has ended – I completed it – I only missed one day, I am enjoying writing regularly and will try to keep doing it.

Recently my blog friend Kathryn – Collage Diva found a journal that she had written when she separated from her ex. In her blog post She said “As I read through the entries I was amazed at how I wasn’t affected by it. It was as if I was reading someone else’s story.” She didn’t want to keep it so she burnt it. Kathryn writes morning pages (The Artist’s Way) each day and has decided to burn them at each full moon.

some of my writing journals from the last 10 years

some of my writing journals from the last 10 years

That got me thinking – I don’t know that I could do that, my journals contain a lot of my creative writing and poetry and all my experiences of grieving and life after loss. But that begs the question – What happens to my journals if anything were to happen to me?

After giving this much thought, it is not something that I am able to answer at the moment.

I remember keeping a diary as a teenager and returning home to find that my mother had read my most private and inner most thoughts – it was devastating and I destroyed that diary the first opportunity that I got. I didn’t keep a diary again until I returned to University after Troy was born and I took writing units and workshops. I wish I could read that teenage diary and see what I might make of it.

So what would you do or what instructions would you leave for your journals after your death?