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Whether you type or handwrite your diary or journal, you’ll eventually need to answer the question, “How can I preserve and protect all this writing from fire, flood or other natural disasters?” Unless you are Mari L. McCarthy, who throws all her journals away (wouldn’t you love to be her trash man?) this question is not easy.
As we discuss the implications of converting all handwritten journals into digital format, Mari and I send listeners to our respective sites for more information: CreateWriteNow’s Facebook page, and my other podcast series, “Capturing Life Through Technology” at Easy Journaling.
Fuel the dialogue! Feel free to write your comments below with more journaling questions. Or, provide your own answers and opinions to this week’s featured question. (JournalTalk Q&A, Episode #6, June 24, 2014)
Credits:
Audio Editing: Netrix Marketing
Music: Pond5.com
Voiceover: Thomas Gerrard
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Handwriting will last if you look after your journals. I have some from 50 years ago and they are quite ledgible. Store them in something like a Rubbermaid tote. Keeps out pests and keeps them dry
Lynne, many thanks for this suggestion. Looks like I should have invested in some Rubbermaid totes. Do you ever wonder if your writings will ever reach your grandchildren’s grandchildren?
I’ve handwritten journals for many years. I keep them all in rubbermaid totes. It’s easy to do and stores nicely in a closet.
Vicki, thank you for the tip. Definitely a more affordable and stress-free way to preserve your writings than what I’ve been doing.
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Hello Nathan and Mari, I have listened to your podcast – it is a hot topic for many of us who love to write by hand. I am an expat, and from time to time I face the situation where I absolutely must reduce the bulk of my journals, because they are almost becoming worth their weight in gold, because of the moving costs. So this is what I am doing from time to time:
I schedule a “re-reading retreat”, where I spend 15-20 minutes at a time re-reading my old journals and writing a summary of the content of what I had written in the old journal. Then I write a reflective response – how do I feel now about meeting my old self? What do I like about her? What practices she had in her life that I have somehow lost and want to invite back into my life? Is there anything that could serve as a lead for self-exploration now? If I come across some pages or passages that I would like to keep, I either photocopy them or simply cut them out of my old journals and put into my newest/actual journal.
My notes that I write about re-reading are not the final product, either. I re-read them and as a final result, I write a “time capsule” in my special “time capsules” book, for example: “In October, 2009, I lived in Pau, France, and I have just returned from teaching narrative practice in Moscow, Russia. The ideas and questions that filled my mind at that time were ___________. This was the task of self-development I set myself: ____________. I was reading ____________. The passages I like from that time can be now found in the journal from 2016, volume X ” etc.etc. The time capsule writing is much shorter, and it is a nice book to keep for my own sake – and maybe my children’s sake.
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