This semester I’ve had the pleasure of learning about seriality in all its many forms through ENG 491H – Serials and Storylines. One form of seriality that I’ve thought a lot about is the form of journaling. Journals are serial in that they are written in parts over time. I have amassed quite a large pile of journals over the years.
From my elementary school locked diaries and Littlest Pet Shop journal:
To the journals I’ve collected throughout high school and college – dream journals, travel journals, story idea journals, poetry journals, short story draft journals, and plain old journal journals:
I love the idea of keeping journal, of being able to document your feelings and inner musings. Of being able to look back on memorable moments and encounter past versions of yourself. I love the idea, but I’ve never been able to keep up with one. (This serial journal of course being a prime example.) The closest I’ve come is a journal I kept last spring while studying abroad at the University of Leeds. But even then, in the six months I was away from home I only had a total of 20 entries. They were more frequent in the beginning, but the busier life got, the harder I found it to keep up with journaling. At night I’d tell myself that I’d catch up on writing in the morning, and in the morning I’d tell myself that I’d catch up at night. It would get pushed back further and further, until I’d end up feeling overwhelmed at the thought of having to write about everything that had happened since I’d last written. Which is the opposite of how journaling is supposed to make you feel. The entries ended up being weeks or months apart and would always start the same way: “Wow! It’s been so long since I’ve written! A LOT has happened!”
When looking at my own attempts to keep up with a serial form of writing, I truly can’t imagine how writers like Wilkie Collins released their novels in weekly serial instalments. I can see a lot of potential challenges. What if you wrote something one week and wished you could go back and change it the next? What if you’re not happy with the way one of the instalments is turning out and want a little more time with it, but have to release it anyway to stick to the schedule? What if you got sick or weren’t able to write for a while? A journal is kept just for yourself. But with a serial instalment you have to stick to a schedule, and you’re under more pressure knowing that people are reading and anticipating future releases.
I used to be pretty hard on myself over my inability to keep up with writing a journal, especially with my study abroad one. I wished that I had written more so that years from now when the memories are less fresh, I’ll be able to “relive” my experiences in my own voice, through the way I felt in the moment. But in the spirit of looking at things with a glass-half-full perspective, I can say that I spent my time making the most of my experiences instead of worrying about writing about them. I’ve also realized that I have other serial records of my study abroad experiences – through the photos my friends and I took, the little travel vlogs I made, the coursework I completed while there, the poetry I wrote, the group chats full of Shakespeare memes, and the postcards I’ve exchanged with my new friends since. As it turns out, we encounter seriality all the time in our everyday lives. In this blog (which I will be posting every night for the next week), I’ll be looking back and exploring some of the seriality I’ve noticed this semester.
Thanks for reading! Until tomorrow,
Dessi