The predicament of journaling

I kept journals for most of my life, and then at one point I threw them all out. Hundreds of hand-written and typed journals. I had already mined them for material - mostly scenes, places, descriptions, bits of dialogue, ideas, and one-liners - for my novel Midnight Tequila. The novel was what I needed to say, to remember. Yes the novel is fiction, and it's totally not autobiographical - but that's what I need to keep. Not the journals. 

I kept a voice and music journal, too, for many years. Separate from the other journals. That was more technical, so after mining that for ideas for my singing technique book, Vocal Vibrance, I did keep them. Although I don't see why I'd ever need them.

For A Gypsy on Tenth Avenue, my notebooks were specific: research on Romany history, a huge section on the language, all kinds of reviews and references to sociology books. That I'm keeping.

But now I'm working on a new novel, and the whole thing has taken on a different twist. It seems that now it's either the novel OR a journal. Time is precious. What do I want to do? So I'm keeping a journal, but it's completely made up of ideas for the novel. Overheard dialog that had to be preserved. The way a small town feels at 5 am in November in the Emergency Room parking lot. Stuff I think of while driving (I pull over all the time to write notes and journal entries.). 

Sometimes I feel the loss of my regular, personal, day to day journal. But I plan to channel that energy into the book. 

Suzann Kale