Reflections On 6 Years of Journaling My Writing Progress

In June of 2014, I began 30 days of sobriety and wrote my first journal entry.

Before then, I had done very little writing and was relatively lost in life.

Since then, my life has had remarkable improvements which I can source back to both that decision to stop drinking for 30 days and begin journaling.

In 2014 I started with so much wild excitement over the basic fact that I was writing something.

I wrote two of my favourite poems during this period:

Steadfast

A storm rages—
And this steadfast course
Now requires all of you.
So raise your heads,
Mount your oars, men!
Because today,
Your sea salted blisters shall run red.
And whether boy or captain,
We will share the dread
Of this old weathered ship
Or the sea gets fed.

Stay True

No longer should you feel
That false bravado
In those empty endeavours
That often left you dull

But rather sip
On those pleasures
That bring truth
To a once empty soul.

Until you’re left with
A quiet contentedness
Of staying true
Of being full.

“Man, imagine if I had been writing this much for the last 5–6 years, how much random little pieces of writing I would have all over the place. How much little tidbits of absolute gold I would have, somewhere, but with no idea where, that I could use, but never be able to find.”

5.5 years later, I’ve…

Completed 20+ short stories
Written 100s of poems
Gotten paid for articles
Paid for editing other’s novels
Published 4 short stories
Started a daily blog
Over 500 blog subscribers
Published a collection of poetry
Published my first novel and sold it to over 1000 people
Finished my second novel

Even 5.5 years ago, it’s interesting how cyclical your problems are. Work stagnation. Boredom. General dissatisfaction. Good days and bad days. Fear of failure. Desiring change. Being excited for the future.

My journaling in the first month is spastic and all over the place, a jumble of thoughts and emotions, but within 2–3 months my thoughts become concrete and centred. At the time, I don’t even realize how much better I am at organizing my thoughts into words on a page.

In January 2015, my hypochondria was really starting to take hold. I talked to myself about my ‘lung cancer’ a lot, and that would be a story I’d tell myself for the next year. Physical exercise would really help me through my health anxiety.

Sometimes, in my day to day life, I miss a day, or mess up, or lose momentum, and it’s very hard to see my overall progress in those moments. Having journaled for 6 years is a short-cut to seeing a bird’s eye view of progress.

In January 2016, I start my first novel, It’s A Long Way Down, and start to record my word counts on a physical calendar.

I love seeing a physical display of progress every single day.

Great writing tip, while struggling to get the first draft of my first novel completed:

“When writing your first draft, you’re as much on a first-time journey as a would-be reader would be. Enjoy the ride. Be as curious and dewey-eyed as possible.”

In March 2016, I start to make a daily schedule, down to the hour, which skyrockets my productivity and helps me complete my first draft of my first novel.

May 2016: “How many times will I look back on old journal entries and see that I have decided to quit drinking.”

It’s been 14 months since I last had a drink, and I hope I won’t have to go through the cycle of stopping again.

Complete my first draft of first novel in June 2016, but I have no idea the amount of re-writing and editing that is in store.

July 2016 is one of my fondest writing periods, where I am sober for the month, and am editing my first novel. It’s beautiful to be sober and working in the summer, instead of wasting it away hung over, hiding under bed sheets. It’s a very optimistic period. I complete draft 2.

October 2017: “You don’t get to goals with grand, sweeping changes. It takes chipping away at goals with small, achievable actions.”

In 2017, here’s what I thought my path would take:

2015: was about learning how to write / work
2016: was about learning how to write a novel
2017: was about completing projects and becoming an actual writer
2018: will be about being an up and coming full time writer.
2019: will be about being an established writer.

Not quite how it shook out, but that’s still the plan. 2019 was more about finding myself as a sober person, while completing my second novel, getting 3 stories published, building up an online following, and starting to write articles about writing.

2020 may be about becoming an up and coming full time writer. Becoming an established writer (whatever that means) may be a ~5 year goal, realistically.

From 2017–2019, I start focusing my journaling on pure writing feedback, daily schedules, efficiency, and productivity, while abandoning any talk of my emotions.

I’d like to get back to talking about my emotional wellbeing in my journals.

It was incredibly insightful to understanding the person I was 6 years ago, and how I looked at the world.

It’s really hard to have a full conception of who you are, the progress you’ve made, and where you’re heading, just by memory. Having a journal that I use (almost) every day has been incredibly useful for my own progress as an artist and a human.

I could not recommend it more.