My English teacher in 11th grade made us keep a journal. We had to write a page in it every day. When I was keeping it, I completely hated it. That goes with the whole it's-assigned-to-me-so-I-am-obligated-to-dislike-it phenomenon that absolutely murders any chances that classic books have. But I truly hated it. By the end of the year, I was literally copying Chemistry notes and song lyrics into the battered spiral notebook that I hadn't cared enough about to keep neat.
But now that I have moved on, I realize just how important keeping that journal was. Even though I bs'ed a lot of the pages, I was still writing a little something every day. Now that I'm working on my novel, I keep a journal. I have a spiral notebook and I write one page every single day. I write about what happened to me that day. I muse on philosophy and the colors in the sky. I have an argument with one of my characters regarding the teachings of Emerson or what kind of drink from The Coffee Bean is best. And that little bit of writing every day keeps me fluid. It keeps my ideas coming.
Now, of course, there are some days where it is hard to write. I open my journal and I stare at a blank page. I stare at the blue lines, at the texture of the paper, at the tip of my Pilot-700 pen, the ink ready to flow. But I'm not. My thoughts and ideas aren't flowing. My thoughts are stars I cannot phantom into constellations (bonus points for whoever can correctly identify that quote in the comments!). When that happens, I just look out my window and describe something I see. I paint a picture of the birds and clouds with my words. That normally gets me started on some tangent and off I go, my thoughts running faster than my pen can sprint across the page. That feeling is so beautiful, it's impossible to describe.
Keep a journal. If nothing else, it will keep the 15 or 19 or 45 year old you alive forever and always. And maybe, you'll find out something about yourself that you never saw before.
But now that I have moved on, I realize just how important keeping that journal was. Even though I bs'ed a lot of the pages, I was still writing a little something every day. Now that I'm working on my novel, I keep a journal. I have a spiral notebook and I write one page every single day. I write about what happened to me that day. I muse on philosophy and the colors in the sky. I have an argument with one of my characters regarding the teachings of Emerson or what kind of drink from The Coffee Bean is best. And that little bit of writing every day keeps me fluid. It keeps my ideas coming.
Now, of course, there are some days where it is hard to write. I open my journal and I stare at a blank page. I stare at the blue lines, at the texture of the paper, at the tip of my Pilot-700 pen, the ink ready to flow. But I'm not. My thoughts and ideas aren't flowing. My thoughts are stars I cannot phantom into constellations (bonus points for whoever can correctly identify that quote in the comments!). When that happens, I just look out my window and describe something I see. I paint a picture of the birds and clouds with my words. That normally gets me started on some tangent and off I go, my thoughts running faster than my pen can sprint across the page. That feeling is so beautiful, it's impossible to describe.
Keep a journal. If nothing else, it will keep the 15 or 19 or 45 year old you alive forever and always. And maybe, you'll find out something about yourself that you never saw before.