Bluebells at Winkworth Arboretum |
‘The
Assassin’s Cloak, an anthology of the world’s greatest diarists’, one of those books to dip into like 'Daily Rituals' by Mason Currey, mentioned in a recent post: How do you write? Part II. And today in the car, a blog post finally presented itself.
This doorstop of a book includes diary (and some journal)
excerpts from Samuel Pepys, James Boswell, Evelyn Waugh, Noel Coward, Beatrix
Potter, Lawrence Durrell, Queen Victoria...even Sue Townsend’s Adrian Mole
appears, although not Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones (I do think Bridget
deserved a look-in). Basically a great number of writers are in there somewhere
amongst many well-known people, from the 1600s to quite recently. It’s inspiring, there are words and phrases to savour and it’s laid out
cleverly with a few excerpts for each day of the year.
Here
are a few:
29
January 1660
‘Spent
the afternoon in casting up my accounts, and do find myself to be worth £40 or
more, which I did not think, but am afraid that I have forgot something.’
Samuel Pepys
4
June 1831
‘I
wonder if I shall burn this sheet of paper like most others I have begun in the
same way. To write a diary, I have thought of very often at far & near
distances of time: but how could I write a diary without throwing upon paper my
thoughts, all my thoughts - the thoughts of my heart as well as of my head?’
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
16
January 1854
‘I
was struck today by the poetic beauty of the winter weather. In the sky a mist
got up and the pale sun shone through it…’ Leo Tolstoy
29
April 1937
‘….A
white house set like a dice on a rock already venerable with the scars of wind
and water. The hill runs clear up into the sky behind it, so the cypresses and
olives over-hang this room in which I sit and write.’
Lawrence Durrell
2
October 1955
‘Communion.
The clocks should have been changed. We remembered to get up late but lunched
early by mistake.’ Evelyn
Waugh.
What’s the difference between a diary and a journal?
Well, I gather a diary is where you record events,
such as ‘I went to the dentist today and had a root canal treatment, so couldn’t
eat for three hours’. A journal is more analytical, such as ‘I can’t fit into
my favourite dress. Need to lose a few pounds for summer, so I’m going to run three
times next week, go to a Pilates class and stay away from Mini Magnums and
crisps…then I’m going to write a novel.’
I wrote a diary during my teenage years, but on reflection I suppose it was more of a journal. I’ve no
idea where it is and I hope no-one ever finds it. Now and again, I go through a journal-writing phase: to help
plan novels, short stories and flash fiction or to set myself writing targets.
It’s useful, a kind of brainstorming meeting with myself.Research
I’ve used a diary/journal for research for each of my novels. I can’t tell you which ones-they aren’t well known, I found them by chance; one when surfing online, the other when browsing in a library. They’re at the root of the story for both novels, but if/when…I get published, I’ll tell you then.
For the purpose of submissions, I’ve decided to
rename Book 1, hoping the new title will grab someone’s attention. Book 1 has the grandfather of the main
character’s (“MC”) journal excerpts from World War II in Italy interspersed throughout
and the MC goes to Italy when the journal turns up out of the blue. So I’m
changing the title of Book 1 from The Grandson to The Journal. I’m sorry to let
The Grandson go, and who knows if/when…I get published, it’ll probably change
again, but for now Book 1 will be renamed The Journal.