Hmm.
I've been thinking about putting something online for a while now, but I'm not sure how it would be receieved or if anyone would actually care. In the summer of 1999 I went on a two and a half month trek around Europe and Morocco with a backpack, an open mind and a good friend, and survived. I kept what was very nearly a daily diary, and drew, wrote and took photos as we went round. The diary represents a big thing for me - more than just a holiday. I noticed, digging it out after my graduation, that this was the time when I unwittingly began to relearn how to write. The first few entries are curt, taut and short, with only a bare bones of detail. Then things begin to flow, and grow, and improve as I warmed to the journal (and the train journeys got longer).
I typed up the journal a year or so back, and began to augment and add to it as a writing exercise, learning how to convey scenes that were real in my head as a precursor to trying to write convincing fiction.
So now I'm thinking - the journal was a proto-blog really, in an interesting time of my life, when my writing was growing faster than mould in a half-full student mug left idly on a radiator.
I was thinking of making it a summer project; putting up the pieces on their respective dates, with any random photos, sketches and whatever else I have.
I'd really like to do this, so maybe on a new section of this site this summer...but which would you be more interested in - the original unaugmented journal, or the stereo, added-to and fleshed out version?
Either way it's a story of fun, frolics, alcohol, sex, exotic locations, falling down manholes, crime, music, parties and lots and lots of cheese, but it's up to you.
Stereo? I want it in full on surround sound with pictures and everything! :-)
Well, just to confuse you and give you a third option . . .
About 18 months ago, I discovered a 'sort-of' diary of a particularly memorable time in my life. Like you, I thought of putting it online, but I also couldn't decide whether to keep it in its original form or flesh it out with added words and thoughts. I cringed at some of the original writing, but it was very much 'of its time', and I was worried that if I added to it and edited it, I'd just end up making it something that was very much 'now', which wasn't really the point.
So the idea I came up with was to do both. Have the original writing, and then add commentary from myself, ten years down the line. I actually started doing it, and it worked. It was interesting looking back on myself, remembering how I felt, seeing how I'd changed. Allowing the older me to comment on the younger me.
Sadly, this project never came to fruition due to apathy and events (events, dear boy, events). But as far as it went, it did work.
Just a suggestion. :-)
What Vaughan said. :)
Yes please!
I vote for Vaughan's idea!
Yes, I'm fourthing what Vaughan said. The journals of Dorothy Wordsworth, wot I just read, are presented as her journals, interspersed with her brother's poetry, and occasional notes done in a different typeface, from the editor, fleshing the narrative out with detail that Dorothy hasn't recorded at the time. It works really well.
Stuart, it's entirely your own work. Entirely your own choice.
My guess is it'll be an interesting experience either way.
Well, funnily enough, the additional stuff that I began adding to it is in exactly that format..which is convenient for you lot because there was no way I could sit down and between now and May flesh out the already quite fleshy three-month journal from scratch!
Well then. Augmented, added comments, picture scrapbook stylee it is. And we'll see if I can't come up with a reasonable look for that section of the site as well.
Cool. Looking forward to doing this now.
as do we all, your readerfolk.
I agree with what Vaughan said.