Do your friends and family know you keep this
journal/read it? If
so have
you had any really negative experiences as a result?
If not why?
Absolutely they read it, but no hardcore negative experiences. My mom
and my cousin both read it fairly regularly, as do almost all of my
closest friends. The biggest problem I had in the beginning was a tendency
to take problems I had with others and talk about them in the journal
rather than bring them in in real life first. For example, suppose I'm
upset with A. Rather than going to talk to A. about it, I'd write a long,
ranty journal entry about how much he'd hurt me. And then wait for him to
read it and come back and talk to me about it. Bad idea.
Also, my mom and cousin have a tendency to read between the lines and jump to conclusions from time to time, although they're getting better. It saves them a lot of worry to just ask me how things are going rather than assuming.
How has the diary benefited you? Your friends? Or total strangers?
I don't know if it's benefited others. I'd think to think that maybe those
with size issues or issues with depression have come away encouraged, but
I've never heard from anyone. My friends at least have a glimpse into me
that they might not have gotten otherwise. For me, it's made me a more
comfortable writer, if not an out and out better writer. Communicating via
the written word is now about as easy as breathing -- usually.
Has your diary ever gotten you in trouble? If so, how? Scenario: If you were wronged by a person that you know reads your diary, would you bash them anyway? What about family? What about co-workers?
I try not to bash people in my journal in general, and I definitely don't
if I know they read my journal. Admittedly... I do occasionally bash a
co-worker of mine, but I give her an alias -- not that anyone who works with
me wouldn't be able to figure out who it was. And, for a period of time there,
I was ranting against my ex-boyfriend fairly publicly. However... I haven't
gotten in trouble yet.
If you had to do it over again from the beginning, what
would you change?
I'd get a handle on file organization before I ever wrote an entry. While the
archives for "Till Human Voices Wake Us..." aren't bad the set up for the first
journal I wrote is simply horrible. Messy, messy files.
Do you have any favorite entries?
Daddy's Girl - I wrote this
on the tenth anniversary of the death of my father.
Sekanjabin - I love the sensory images here. I like it when I feel like I've really vividly described what I'm trying to describe.
Body Image - My first attempt at some really hardcore honesty about things I don't usually talk to anyone about. I have never felt so naked as when I posted this entry.
No, I Mean It Was Really Cold! - A first attempt of another sort: fictionalizing a real life event. Or, perhaps more accurately, turning a real life event into a fantasy adventure. This was a lot of fun to write!
What Might Have Been - Another look into my past. I'm not certain why, but it seems like some of my most moving entries come from stories about my past rather than about my present.
What do you look for in an online journal, as a reader?
Something I can relate to, whether in personality or writing style. Or barring
that, a sense of drama in the writing and the events going on, or even simply
just someone who makes me smile and laugh.
Do you use your real name in your diary?
Yes I do. It honestly never occurred to me to use an alias. My first journaling
attempt I never used my last name, but now in this one.. it just makes sense.
Why not, when anyone looking for me can pull up one of those white page
searches and find me anyway?
