I’m almost 31 years old now, and I’ve been writing since I can remember. Looking through old school papers my Mom had saved I found my first science fiction story from around the third grade called “Space Quest”, and I remember the stories that I wrote as assignments in second grade already had chapters. But I started keeping a diary about my life in the 6th grade, a practice I’ve kept with throughout. I have a filing cabinet in the closet in my study/library/writing & music room filled with old notebooks and journals. It’s full now, and the journals I now keep spill onto my bookshelves -themselves already full, double rowed or with stacks of more books and papers in front. I write all this to say that over the years I’ve experimented with a number of ways of keeping my journals organized. This is how they stand now. Perhaps this set up will be helpful to others:
1. I keep a small moleskine or other durable memo pad (unlined if it can be helped) in my pocket, or next to me on my desk at work or when at home, at all times. This also sits on my nightstand for capturing things during the odd hours of night, morning or what have you. This pocket notebook is essential for writing down keywords from dreams, synchronicities as I notice them, intuitive flashes and ideas as I get them. First, I am a dreamer and a writer, but at this time I’m still working the proverbial day job at the local library (a great place for my ongoing researches in any case). The work for an essay, article, or story doesn’t stop when I put the pen down (it usually just joins the other one already in my pocket anyway); and as I get back to earning the green reality tickets we’ve all agreed upon to trade with by consensus (and perhaps stifled imagination) I continue to compose the story, essay, review, poem, etc. in my mind -especially, if I’ve just come back from my hour lunch break, which is really an hour break so I can write. The pocket notebook allows me to write some notes down, that I can get back to later, and I can sketch them in on the fly without annoying my co-workers too much. Anyway, they should be keeping a journal as well.
2. I used to keep separate books for my waking thoughts and my night dreams. These were black hard bound blank page notebooks. As I take my journal with me everywhere I go, along with a book or two I’m reading, this set up became too cumbersome. As I started working with my dreams on a regular basis, it became apparent, that I was often writing about my waking thoughts, day time events, synchronicities, what I was reading, etc. and my dreams, all in context with each other, so the separation began to feel artificial. I now no longer worry about it. What I did do, though, and this I got from Robert Moss, was start keeping my stuff in a binder. I can’t stand to write on lined paper, so I take blank paper from the office and punch holes in it. Keeping things in a binder allows you to go back and add in some thoughts at a later time about a dream or event -especially useful, as pointed out in Robert’s “Dreaming True” book- when you’ve had a precognitive dream, or various types of “life rhymes” experiences.
3. Although I do not separate my dreams from my waking experiences in the journal any longer, I do have a few sections in my binder. A) Dreams, Waking Events, Ideas, Thoughts, etc. I index these by title/subject/theme at the beginning of each month. B) I already mentioned that I am a writer. If I don’t write I get really depressed and feel like I am not only letting myself down, but feel negligent for not doing what I know is part of my purpose in the world during this incarnation. I write poetry, stories, articles. To stay organized I keep current drafts and print outs of finished pieces in a second section of my binder. c) Although I will often write about things I am reading and listening to in the fist section of my journal -as what I read is often based on research leads and cues from dreams and coincidence. I also try to write at least a page or two of thoughts/notes/feelings about books and articles I’ve just finished reading, more if it is particularly important to my own path. Photocopies of relevant material, printouts from blogs, magazine articles and other stuff, along with my marginalia may also go in here. As a huge music fan with my own radio show I also write music reviews for the independent music website Brainwashed.com. Printouts of the reviews of the albums I’ve listened to and written about also go in this section, because oftentimes the music I listen to is just as important to me as what I’ve been reading.
4. Lastly, I have a travel binder. This is the one I put in the bag that goes with me. (Interestingly enough I bought the bag at a yard sale from a lady who is a member of the International Association for the Study of Dreams -before I knew she was a member.) When it starts getting too full, I take a month or two’s worth of dreams, drafts, and reading/music thoughts out and put those in separate large binders. So far I fill up about one large binder full of dream stuff per year. The drafts, printed copies of finished pieces, and reading notes fill up separate binders.
I’ve got a review to write now. You’re on your own when it comes to storing all those diaries you’ll be filling up.
This post started off as a comment over at the new Dreamgates blog by Robert Moss, where you’ll be sure to find me joining in the various discussions. Find it at the following address:
http://blog.beliefnet.com/dreamgates/
Specifically my comment was on this post: Why You Want to Keep A Journal
http://blog.beliefnet.com/dreamgates/2010/06/why-you-want-to-keep-a-journal.html
also of keen interest: Games to Play With Your Journal
http://blog.beliefnet.com/dreamgates/2010/06/games-to-play-with-your-journal.html
The best part of the movie “Inception” was also the shortest. It was the scene when Ariadne, the architect, takes Dom Cobb through the city she has created, when she bends the streets so that the city folds in on itself. The concept of an archictect designing dream cities holds a lot of potential. Unfortunately the dream cities of “Inception” were far less mysterious, fantastical, and imaginative as those I travel in my own dreams, or in the fiction I read.
