Is There Such a Thing as Too Much?
October 3, 2007 by Heather Goldsmith
Filed under Home & Living
A regular reader posed an excellent question on yesterday’s entry. Instead of answering in the comments section only, I thought it better to answer the question as a blog entry instead.
Laura asked: “In the book Journal to the Self by Kathleen Adams she suggests that there is a point where journal writing, personal writing, goes from just enough to too much. What is your opinion on this when does enough become too much? Is there such a point? For me the mere sugestion also sugests there is a right way and a wrong way to journal.”
Although I haven’t read Journal to the Self
Personally, I don’t think many people would get to the point, wherever that is, of journal writing too much. I see it as a cyclic thing. There are times I write only a little, but other times need to write a lot. Laura asks, is there such a thing as too much? In my opinion, I don’t think so. Each person should know in themselves if they’re becoming obsessive about journal writing. The author is probably suggesting we keep a good balance between living and writing/recording a life.
I am all for saying there are no rules when it comes to journal writing. Each of us needs to write, draw, create, etc, until we discover what works for us. Even if that means writing too much, then we should still do so. The only way to learn what too much, or not enough is, for us, is to go ahead and do that. Write as much and as often as you need to.
What are your thoughts on these questions?
Heather
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“Too much” could be a lot of different things. It could be a situation such as Anais Nin dealt with, where she tried to write her fiction based on her diaries, and could neither completely get into the heads of some of her characters (because she was culling the material from her version of events, without really thinking about how the same events might have looked from another party), nor could she distance herself from criticism (since the fiction was based on her diaries, criticism of the fiction was therefore criticism of her life).
There’s also the possibility that one never really lives in the present, because one is always thinking about how to write about it… which has its advantages, too, in that one can look at a bad moment and think, “it’ll make a great journal entry, at least…”.
I think you’re absolutely right with your closing comments: “The only way to learn what too much, or not enough is, for us, is to go ahead and do that. Write as much and as often as you need to.”
Hi Velma,
Thanks again, so much. I love receiving comments such as this. Journal writing is so much more encompassing than we fully appreciate, for some more than others. Thanks for commenting, especially for your thoughts on Anais Nin.