Do You Keep Your Old Journals/Notebooks/Files?

[VenusButterflies]

I've kept almost every single journal or notebook I've ever written in. I have a habit of leaving half of my journals blank, I have no idea why I do it. Do you still have your old work laying around, shoved into a bookshelf somewhere? Do you ever look back on it?

 

[patientlee]

I've kept almost every single journal or notebook I've ever written in. I have a habit of leaving half of my journals blank, I have no idea why I do it. Do you still have your old work laying around, shoved into a bookshelf somewhere? Do you ever look back on it?

Every idea I've had in the last 20 years is in a book somewhere. Some I've never acted on. Throwing them away would be like throwing away a part of my brain.

 

[VenusButterflies]

Every idea I've had in the last 20 years is in a book somewhere. Some I've never acted on. Throwing them away would be like throwing away a part of my brain.

That's how I feel. It'd be like cutting off part of my flesh.

 

[THROBBS]

With best intentions.

Some concepts seem to take years to gel.


Sadly, a couple were stolen from my van. Not because THEY had any value (to the theif), but because they were in a portable messenger bag. Also all the cassette tapes (quite a few years back) and change on the dash.

 

[Aynmair]

I've kept almost every single journal or notebook I've ever written in. I have a habit of leaving half of my journals blank, I have no idea why I do it. Do you still have your old work laying around, shoved into a bookshelf somewhere? Do you ever look back on it?

I have kept most of the journals I've kept since my early teenage years. As I got older I only kept up with them off and on, but I have started looking back at them more, only to get hit in the face with the plot bunnies leaping out. And oh, did they ever! Sometimes blushing bright pink! Yeah, I keep them around.

When my parents house-sat for me a while back, my mom, with too little to do, climbed to a high shelf to get and read my journals. I stopped speaking to her for a year, I was so mad! Good thing to remember when my own turn comes...

Journaling helped me get my frustrations out and were my good "friends," never judgemental. They helped me build up my confidence and become more self-sufficient, independent. Now I mostly do it on long trips. And to write stroke stories for private use...

 

[Mockingjay]

Every idea I've had in the last 20 years is in a book somewhere. Some I've never acted on. Throwing them away would be like throwing away a part of my brain.

God, that was how I felt three years ago. I shouldn't have done that. It isn't just a journal or two but three novel drafts. I thought there's no real chance I could be a writer and that I could pursue to become one but the plot ideas and the characters always haunt me.

The other three script files I had saved on the PC were also gone. Virus had it. I didn't know I could had it on my email back then.

As much as possible, if you're typing your stories or reports or what, attach them on your email and that you won't end up like me.

 

[VenusButterflies]

With best intentions.

Some concepts seem to take years to gel.


Sadly, a couple were stolen from my van. Not because THEY had any value (to the theif), but because they were in a portable messenger bag. Also all the cassette tapes (quite a few years back) and change on the dash.

I'd have had a breakdown. Journals and cassette tapes? I have a non-sexual fetish for cassettes. I'd have been heartbroken. That sucks, I'm sorry.

Yes, some concepts do take years to gel.

 

[THROBBS]

I'd have had a breakdown. Journals and cassette tapes? I have a non-sexual fetish for cassettes. I'd have been heartbroken. That sucks, I'm sorry.

Yes, some concepts do take years to gel.

It was very traumatic at the time. somewhat still.

Most of that music has been replaced on updated media — CDs! oooo...
and now... iTunes I guess I do not share the same fetish. Though I did enjoy some of the tactile mechanics— Ka-CHunk! of some machines, or the s-l-o-m-o hopper types.

But the drawings and writings are lost forever.

I looked in the dumpsters and walked the fields nearby on the chance that the thief looked in the bag and just pitched it. Twisted thoughts: "How could they throw out my work!?"... "Maybe the looked, and were moved!?"

 

[VenusButterflies]

I have kept most of the journals I've kept since my early teenage years. As I got older I only kept up with them off and on, but I have started looking back at them more, only to get hit in the face with the plot bunnies leaping out. And oh, did they ever! Sometimes blushing bright pink! Yeah, I keep them around.

When my parents house-sat for me a while back, my mom, with too little to do, climbed to a high shelf to get and read my journals. I stopped speaking to her for a year, I was so mad! Good thing to remember when my own turn comes...

Journaling helped me get my frustrations out and were my good "friends," never judgemental. They helped me build up my confidence and become more self-sufficient, independent. Now I mostly do it on long trips. And to write stroke stories for private use...

Sometimes I don't look back at mine for a long time. I'll peek and cringe, or peek and wonder how I came up with something. I'm going to start looking back at mine more often, and just deal with the cringes.

I can't believe she did that! I'd have been livid! I know my eldest sister has peeked at my journals, not so sure about my mom though. I'm sure she'd have been very, very concerned with what was in them . . .

Agreed, journaling helped me work out a lot of my issues. I sometimes miss that time, when I was figuring shit out and having epiphany after epiphany.

 

[TxRad]

No journals here. I carried everything in my head until I was in my late 40's. Then I got my first computer. Almost everything I have ever written is on a single thumb drive, not to mention backed up in three different places.

All that is missing is half a novel and some additions to a dozen stories that i lost when my laptop was stolen on a trip to the smoky mountains.

But the biggest thing I would never want to lose is my imagination stimulation folder. Pictures and artwork from thousands of places not to mention photos I've personally taken over the last fifty years. pictures are worth far more than a thousand words to my mind.

 

[VenusButterflies]

It was very traumatic at the time. somewhat still.

Most of that music has been replaced on updated media — CDs! oooo...
and now... iTunes I guess I do not share the same fetish. Though I did enjoy some of the tactile mechanics— Ka-CHunk! of some machines, or the s-l-o-m-o hopper types.

But the drawings and writings are lost forever.

I looked in the dumpsters and walked the fields nearby on the chance that the thief looked in the bag and just pitched it. Twisted thoughts: "How could they throw out my work!?"... "Maybe the looked, and were moved!?"

Ugh, that's terrible.

I remember my father, with the best intentions, upgraded my OS right after I graduated from college, and half of my files were lost. Music, writing . . . I actually cried, I was devastated.

 

[soflabbwlvr]

I have a few journals from the 80s still in existence. I would have thrown them out, but my wife insisted on keeping them. She liked the poems.

Most of my stuff from the 90s was stored on 3.5 inch floppies. Even of I still had them, there would be no way to read them. I haven't seen a floppy drive in over 10 years.

Now, I keep everything on a USB drive. I wonder when that will become obsolete.

 

[THROBBS]

TX!
That scared me!

I do not trust my head to keep everything!
Then I read: "Almost everything I have ever written is on a single thumb drive..."



then... "...not to mention backed up in three different places." WHEW!


interesting to hear about your "imagination stimulation folder"

I have tons of that stuff: folders, files, books, notes, physical and digital...

 

[THROBBS]

Ugh, that's terrible.

I remember my father, with the best intentions, upgraded my OS right after I graduated from college, and half of my files were lost. Music, writing . . . I actually cried, I was devastated.

!!!

yes, I know.

 

[TxRad]

I have a few from the 80s still in existence. I would have thrown them out, but my wife insisted on keeping them. She liked the poems.

Most of my stuff from the 90s was stored on 3.5 inch floppies. Even of I still had them, there would be no way to read them. I haven't seen a floppy drive in over 10 years.

Now, I keep everything on a USB drive. I wonder when that will become obsolete.

You can still get 3.5 floppy readers that are usb. I saw some not to long ago on Ebay. If not, let me know. I have one in the closet. All my 3.5 stuff has been transferred to CD's.

 

[THROBBS]

I have a few journals from the 80s still in existence. I would have thrown them out, but my wife insisted on keeping them. She liked the poems.

Most of my stuff from the 90s was stored on 3.5 inch floppies. Even of I still had them, there would be no way to read them. I haven't seen a floppy drive in over 10 years.

Now, I keep everything on a USB drive. I wonder when that will become obsolete.

I have an external floppy drive (I think it is usb...hmmm). I really should convert some of that stuff! ALL those floppies would easily fit on a jump drive now.

It's the Syquest discs that are more problematic: I have the drives but the cables are incompatible.

 

[VenusButterflies]

I have a few journals from the 80s still in existence. I would have thrown them out, but my wife insisted on keeping them. She liked the poems.

Most of my stuff from the 90s was stored on 3.5 inch floppies. Even of I still had them, there would be no way to read them. I haven't seen a floppy drive in over 10 years.

Now, I keep everything on a USB drive. I wonder when that will become obsolete.

Someday, everything we think will be stored on a chip in our brains . . . and connected to the cloud.

It's good your wife insisted on keeping them. I think it's important to keep that stuff.

 

[soflabbwlvr]

You can still get 3.5 floppy readers that are usb. I saw some not to long ago on Ebay. If not, let me know. I have one in the closet. All my 35 stuff has been transferred to CD's.

Thanks, but it's too late. I threw them out when I moved 8 years ago. They were mixed in with around 300 other floppies. Unlabeled. I had no device to read them and no desire to sort through them if I could find a reader, so pitched the entire box. About the only thing I really miss is all the notes and first five chapters of my novel.

 

[BuckyDuckman]

I've been slowly converting my older, saved writings into digital files, including the hand written ones. My secret was to stop reading them first and judging them. Better to scan away, digitize them first and then review. Much faster and less painful. I've stumbled across of few gems, laughed a lot and even cried a little. Perhaps more importantly, I've reduced my "keep forever" file folders from two big filing cabinets to just one.

 

[sr71plt]

I publish all of my erotica to the marketplace and/or Literotica (the initial reason for posting to Literotica was to use it as a remote data base for my erotica) and try to keep nothing in my own files. I don't do writing journals or notebooks.

 

[Hypoxia]

I used to write journals and songs on paper, and sometimes dictate to a reporter's cassette deck, and transcribe everything on computer. I felt suicidal last year and shredded all my old notebooks. Forgot to wipe the tapes, though.

Everything I generate -- images, sounds, texts -- that goes into a computer, stays. I keep all my old digital archives. Some, I dare not revisit. Some, I return to when the mood strikes.

My weirdest archives: I used to work with old KSR-33 Teletypes, with paper-tape punches and readers. I have a (horrible) collection of my (horrible) poetry residing on rolls and snippets of punched paper tape. Have some on Hollerith punch cards too. Retro-kinky...

 

[sheablue]

I kept journals and diaries for years and years, from my childhood up to my early adulthood. Then I went through some ... stuff ... and I stopped writing altogether. I kept my journals though, for years, carrying them with me from move to move. Then, a few years ago, in a fit of ... something ... I threw them all away.

I regret it now, it's a part of my history. I hope I kept the ones from my elementary school/Jr. High days. Those were a hoot.

Now mind, these were not at all stories or story ideas. Just my thoughts and experiences. A lot of stuff that is probably best forgotten.

 

[slyc_willie]

No.

If it's worth keeping, it's worth remembering. If it's not worth remembering, then why bother to keep it?

 

[Aynmair]

No.

If it's worth keeping, it's worth remembering. If it's not worth remembering, then why bother to keep it?

Ummm... bad memory?

Seriously tho, the process of writing things out does something (isn't there a thread on handwriting vs typing somewhere around here?). Plus... how can mothers get themselves in trouble if you don't give them the opportunity to cheat and peek ?

 

[AuthorAdrienneW]

I have far too many ideas to remember them all, but I didn't start keeping notebooks until I started writing professionally. Now they are everywhere. Stacks and stacks of them....

They haunt me in my sleep.