It is nice to know that diaries have and always will be an integral part of a writer's life. Although we are aware of the importance of letter writing, it is also worthy to mention that many writers from the past have kept a notebook or two with intimate details of their lives. There are many famous writers whose diaries I would love to read including those of Virginia Woolf, Jane Austen, John Keats or Fanny Brawne, George Bernard Shaw or Mrs Patrick Campbell and of course William Shakespeare.
I think I would like to find out firstly what Virginia was feeling during her disturbed life; how Jane dealt with not marrying at a time when marriage was almost imperative; Fanny's interpretation of her relationship with John; why George was compelled to write to a married woman and if Shakespeare did write his famous works! Clearly, none of this is possible but it would be fantastic!
The days are gone when we sit on a train or a plane and write something wonderful in our diaries. I remember when I was about ten I received a diary for my birthday and if anything I think I wrote who I had a crush for in primary school! Not exactly poignant writing but I think I didn't know what to write. The pink hardback cover with its gold metal lock with two tiny keys was marketed as something you put all your secrets in; where as if I had been smarter I would have written something tangible, something the forty-year- old Nicole would be proud of reading now! If anything I would have liked my imagination to have bloomed and maybe given me an idea for a story worth publishing!
It is difficult to imagine what important things some famous leaders from the past, could have to say to us today, if we had their diaries including Edmund Barton, Winston Churchill and George Washington and even some of the Royal leaders such as Queen Elizabeth I and King James I (King of Scotland). Maybe their diaries would reveal how they really felt about their important role in history!
Clearly diaries are important to those who keep them and I guess they could sometimes make a wonderful read, especially if you do not have anything else to do while you are travelling! The lesson here is to make sure you write something worth reading in your diary just in case you get stuck in traffic; travel on a plane, bus or train or you just don't have a book with you to read!
So, make what you write interesting enough for you to read over and over again!
Happy diary writing!
"I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read on the train"-Oscar Wilde
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