I’m a subscriber to the r/journaling subreddit on reddit.com and saw a post today that asked an excellent question. I decided to comment on it and then was inspired to expand on my comment with this article. The post:
I suffer from this problem as well and I’m sure that many writers feel the same way when they put pen to paper. I’ve been journaling for 20+ years and still deal with these feelings of inadequacy in my journaling. My method of getting past this is to acknowledge that what I’m writing isn’t what I would like to be writing. To that end, I write “Filler” and then move on. You can acknowledge it however you’d like. Write “blah blah blah” or “this sucks” or whatever and then move on. The only thing to do is just power through it. I’ll give you a somewhat recent example from my own journal where I attempt to power through:
2:40. It always smells so good in here. I can hardly stand it. Hungry! I’m thinking Keri and I should pop in at Wildflour for some dessert. No coffee for me tho. Tea? Definitely want some vegan cookies. Filler filler. 10 minutes.
What should the title of my next journal be? Thinking of words. I’ve noticed that certain words keep popping up in news articles about all the Trump crap. “Unprecedented” “Dossier” “Pivot” At first, all I could think was all these reporters (had just) learned a new word then decided they had to use it as often as possible. It’s a bit annoying. However, this morning I realized why they do it. Keywords for SEO. It’s as simple as that. Most of these words really are new for people so they Google them. What better way to get your article read? Keywords. It’s still annoying. What bothers me most are all the talking heads using these words too. You know they’re doing it to seem smart. Trump too. He can’t spell for shit tho.
Eh. 3 pages is better than none. Time to head out.
So, my advice is to just make a note in the entry that you’re not writing what you want and force yourself to break that habit. The question I use the most to do this is “What is on my mind?” Skip the mundane and dig deep when you answer that question.
What if you can’t power through? Remember that journaling is a practice and you will need to practice as much as you can. Your mind will fight you on this but do your best. Remember, also, that our lives are not always interesting and not every journal entry has to be profound. There will always be entries that seem like they are boring or lack value. It helps to think of these moments as slices of your life at the time of writing; a status update. One day, years from now, you may pull out that journal and be surprised. Those entries that you consider to be boring now are actually small treasures of memory that await you in your future.
Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash
