I’ve been going through old journals lately. Melanie and I have been packing up some items in anticipation of moving (nothing yet on a house, we’re just being a bit proactive) and it seems like when I do this or clean out the office, I find my numerous journals, notebooks and scraps of paper that have stuff jotted down.
It always surprises me what I find in these old bits of paper, partially filled notebooks and moleskins. Sometimes it’s a feeling of “what was I thinking at that time” which can go one of two ways; either I have no idea what possessed me to think that thought at that particular moment or wow, that’s actually interesting but how in the world did I come up with it.
Some of the things I find are journal entries, moments of time I jotted down for whatever reason. It’s a smattering of daily trivialities, momentous events, odd things I notice and feelings of a younger me. It’s nice to come across these entries and see where I have been and how far I’ve come. In a way, those things I wrote are from a much different me, one I don’t quite recognize even though it feels familiar. Old blog posts don’t really count as I spend a little bit of time on revision, whereas the journal stuff is raw and unfiltered.
The more interesting bits I find are the story and character ideas I’ve stuck away on a piece of paper somewhere. Some of those ideas never germinated, some of them stuck in my mind to grow over time, some of them are untapped, raw, strange. More so than the journal entries, the story ideas give me a better glimpse of me in the past. I don’t think if anyone else saw these fragments of ideas, they would be able to even interpret exactly what or even when they came about. They would remind me of the context in which the idea formed and it would trigger other thoughts of the time, much like a certain song would bring back memories of moments you heard that song, or a smell would trigger memories of a place you’ve been before.
Going through these pieces is a lot like panning for gold. It’s a lot of sifting through to get to the good bits and then a lot of examination to make sure that what you have is true and not something that could lead you astray. That may seem a bit new-agey, but you get a feeling when what you write is not true to you and it just feels like you are forcing the words to come out. Sometimes that’s necessary to get through the muck to get to the good bits, but starting with a good and true tidbit gets you started in a good way.
2 Responses to “Mining the Bits and Pieces”
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Word, my friend. Word.
Heh, I’m glad you liked this Mark. Funny how just those little scraps of what would be nonsense words to other people can be a deeply personal trip down memory lane. It’s almost as strong as memories triggered by smell or even a song.