On Keeping a Diary

The Memo for December 31, 2024

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"Whenever I read a passage that moves me, I transcribe it in my diary, hoping my fingers might learn what excellence feels like."

― David Sedaris

A month or two before Christmas, in 2023, I picked up a copy of Theft by Finding, by David Sedaris. It consists of selected diary entries he made between the years 1977 and 2002.

Sedaris is the only author besides Mark Twain who makes me laugh out loud. I knew his writing from Esquire magazine, which I’ve read since I was a teenager. I read his book of essays, Me Talk Pretty One Day, when I was in my late twenties. When I saw the thick paperback volume of his diaries on a clearance table at my local bookstore, I knew it would be great to keep around. I appreciate a good book that I can pick up and put down after reading a page or two.

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Photo by Kasturi Roy on Unsplash

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So, as 2023 became 2024, I spent many early mornings laughing about the writer’s poor decisions and crazy acquaintances, as well as the ridiculous things he heard his fellow customers say at the International House of Pancakes. Even as I skimmed through the book to verify that it was, in fact, IHOP where he ate every day and not Waffle House, the one paragraph I read to confirm this yielded a belly laugh.

As great as the laughs from the book have been, what’s better is that it compelled me to ask myself, considering the piles and piles of journals I’ve filled with words from front to back over the past 40 years, why have I never kept a diary. At one point, I wrote in a journal every single day for at least five years. From time to time, I’ve gone through these notebooks to remind me of someone’s name, or when, exactly, something took place. But, in a given entry, which I usually made early in the morning, I may or may not have mentioned anything that happened that day or the day before. I only mentioned highlights.

Theft by Finding inspired me to begin keeping a diary, a record of things that happened in my life, in 2024. As the New Year approached, I bought a Moleskine Daily Diary, in which I would write each day on that day’s one respective page. Aside from providing a chronicle of life events, it freed me to use the space in my journal to write about everything else. Ideas.

I’m so glad I did this. I wrote not only from the little blue-collar Midwest town where I live, I wrote from Palm Beach, and from Chicago, and from Indianapolis and Philadelphia and Boston. I wrote the night of my son’s final high school performance and after watching him cross the stage at graduation. I wrote when he got the news that he was accepted at the Boston Conservatory, and about meeting the homeless man who he talks to on his way to class there every day. I wrote about my wife seeing my favorite place in the entire world, Wrigley Field, for the first time, and about the jacket she bought for me there. I wrote about us visiting Chinatown in every city we could. I wrote about all the concerts we saw and art museums we visited and all the books I read. I wrote about nearly every piece I published here. And I wrote about the day one of my favorite writers, another Esquire contributor, Dave Holmes, subscribed to this publication. Then, I wrote about the time I messaged him, to tell him how much that meant to me, and about the invaluable friendship I made in 2024 – one that only happened because I follow him.

So, as 2024 becomes 2025, I have my new Moleskine Daily Diary ready to go. Now, it’s who I am. It’s what I do.

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Timid (adjective)

1. lacking in courage or self-confidence

2. lacking in boldness or determination

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Journaling Prompt for December 31, 2024

Describe your writing practice and the writing practice you envision for the coming year.

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Over the past month or so, I’ve posted some Substack Notes related the manuscript I’m working on. Since then, I’ve gotten a number of new subscribers and much more engagement here than ever before.

Welcome, and thank you for being here. Please leave a comment, letting me know who and where you are.

Thanks for reading.

Happy New Year!

For further reading . . .

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