[diary] The Business Journal Of Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald

2941.From the world of letters and diaries, we have this gem: the ledger of F. Scott Fitzgerald.

In a business ledger, between the years of 1919 and 1938, he laid it all out; what he earned since his leaving the Army, a record of his published fiction, the money he earned by other writings, a biographical "Outline of My Life", and the money Zelda earned from her writing.

It's fascinating to me because of two things it reveals; first, that a writer on their own is not necessarily a poor record-keeper, keeping track of some minutiae for their own records if not posterity, and, second, FSF was quite a neat penman, keeping orderly records in a meticulous hand.

View it at http://library.sc.edu/digital/collections/fitzledger.html.

[diary] Two Sites All About Diary Essentials

2879.Those essentials being, of course, pens and notebooks, two things which I absolutely adore.

Two sites I'm abashed to say that I've only now stumbled on:

1. Pen Addict: http://www.penaddict.com.  This is a very spare, cleanly designed site, very few photos, but links, links, and more links. Follow any one for interesting things about pens, pens, pens … so … many … pens. I've only begun to explore.
2. Notebook Stories: http://www.notebookstories.com/. "In search of the perfect page" is its tagline, and there are profiles of notebook addicts, some personal stories … again, I've only started exploring, but it looks promising.

The design of Pen Addict showed me something I might have forgotten myself; a good, efficient design, with just what is needed, no more, no less, can get across as much as a cute little blog festooned with baubles.

Food for thought, there.

[diary] The Diary of a 5th-Grade Girl

2841.Since I haven't posted anything on diarizing latterly, I went looking for something … and I wanted that something to be quirky, cool, and kind of special. And here it is … The Amy Diary.

There is a certain reputation diaries have, and maybe it's because of young tween and early-teen ladies who write in handwriting that is based on squashed circles, beginning each entry Dear Diary and ending by signing their name. It's such a dear, sweet, girly thing.

Maybe that's why few adults, and even fewer men, keep diaries. And if they do, Lord, don't ever expect to hear them call it a diary, because that's what young ladies do! The'll call it a Journal or a Chronicle or a Log or something.

I think that's an unfortunate thing. All a diary is, is a daily (well, more-or-less). But I digress.

AmyBarbara's 5th-grade diary does read like a stereotypical young-girl's diary, filled with friends, boys,  feelings and the like, and written in a stereotypical young-girl's soft, squashy script. But this, too is its charm; it has unabashed sweetness, sincerity, and authenticity. Every time one sees her sign off on one of her single-page entries with the mononym Amy, it's hard to suppress a smile. And the adult AmyBarbara has to be commended for having the courage to share it.

But, too, there's unexpected precision and attention-to-design and layout that is there. Note, above, the format of the page header. Upper right, day; Upper center, date; Upper left, the day's "grade"; below the grade, the year. Each page formatted exactly the same, every bit of information in its place, nothing out of place.

I format my diary pages similarly. Though an individual entry can (and frequently does) span multiple pages, in the upper left is the entry number (I am obsessed with serial sequences) the upper right is the page number (yes, I number pages in my book) and all are formatted similarly - the same form, not symmetrical to the center spine, but as though they were a stack of individual sheets.

I was surprised that I approach the layout of my diary in the same manner, in this way, as a young lady did in 1993. But life is surprising that way.

She was so methodical and organized in the production of her diary …

… that the entry for May 20th already had all the essential elements in place, including the opening salutation and the circle for the day's grade, all waiting and ready to be filled in.

The whole thing speaks of the passion for living of a rather bright young lady who has an ordered mind besides.

She must have been a kick-ass young girl.

What she's released is here, at http://theamydiary.blogspot.com/.

[diary] New Years Rulin's!

2739.Something delightful that has been making the rounds lately has come from the body of work of perhaps the greatest folk-singer America ever had, and he who gave us Arlo, Woody Guthrie. One year, in the pages of one of his diaries, in the MIDDLE OF BOOK (as the charming notation at the top center, where water has stained the pages tells us), he listed, not a list of New Year's Resolutions, but New Years Rulin's, each accompanied by a silly but evocative little drawing (or, perhaps as Woody would say, drawin').

They're such gentle, general things that it's hard not to smile. Don't get lonesome, stay glad, and keep hoping machine running are three things that any of us could do. Dream good is one of those things that goes without saying but needs to be said, as is Bank all extra money and Save dough.


I don't hold much for New Year's Resolutin', but this gives even me a bit of food for thought.


See the full spread here: http://www.woodyguthrie.org/newyearsrulins.htm

[diary] Diary Friday #1 … Start One

2731.This'll be the first post in the Diary Friday series, a series I hope to keep going once-a-week without fail.

Why Diary Friday? There are no end of expositional-writing memes afloat on the Internet Sea these days. In the meat of the form, I'm not really breaking any new ground here.

What I am trying to do is suggest that people, instead of doing something bloggy (nothing wrong with this, of course) do something diary. That is to say, think of writing it down and keeping it for yourself. Diaries give us a certain freedom that blogs or any other sort of online media don't. They can be kept absolutely secret (if you so choose). They can't be Googled, Yahoo'd, or searched. Your thoughts there are your own. And evidence suggests they make us more mentally-healthy. I'm of the opinion that they make us more eloquent and literate.

Thinking your thoughts and putting them on paper also preserves the time for the future. Days fly by; they fade into memory, but if you write down what delights you, moves, you, makes you happy (or sad) then you've captured them, and they're yours.

Also, with increasingly fewer people writing letters in the old-fashioned way, there's a real risk of our cultural memories going with it. You diarists aren't just feeding your own head; you're leaving a record that people in a future time might actually find enlightening.

So, between now and next Friday, think about how you'd keep a diary. Blank book with a ribbon bookmark? Looseleaf binder? Spiral bound notebook? The only real rule is to write it down.

If you feel like sharing you're thoughts here … please, feel free.