I have written a daily journal everyday since July 2004. If a good writer writes everyday then I can tick that one off the list.
If a book can roughly be 180,000k words or more then with the little bit of maths for fun... 250 words a day average for 17 years adds up to 1,500,000 words. It could be made into several long books but it wouldn't be a terribly good read. Maybe on occasional.
But all the writing must add up to something, right? I can write about what happened in a day succinctly. I can summarize how I felt about any given situation. I can talk about what happened and what will happen and what might happen.
I can even come up with my own spellings for words which I have been probably spelling wrong since 2004. There's no Grammarly on paper. Plenty of bad habits I'm sure.
I'm a writer but am I a good writer?
I have always loved reading, but not all parts of it. Sitting down in one place, and generally not being able to get comfortable, not the right chair, the right light or without distraction enough to enjoy it most of the time. I love what books have given me, which is escape and knowledge which can let me dream. Oh how cheesy, yuck.
I remember writing stories as a child but never read them back and have no idea what happened to them.
In secondary school (comprehensive or high school to you) I remember disliking English class. Only one lesson in particular stood out and I was one of two times I ever had detention. We were set homework to do a Harry Potter comprehension.
For example: What did Harry say when Hagrid told him he was a wizard?
The answer: When Hagrid told Harry he was a wizard, Harry replied with, '' I'm a what? ''
I refused to do it. I didn't do the homework because I though it was unfair and I would not allow for Harry Potter to become something unenjoyable. It wasn't an educational exercise, it was punishment looking to ruin something which should not be ruined. I told the teacher and was given detention. I am pretty sure I was told to do the homework during detention, I didn't.
Looking back, I imagine Professor Umbridge would set some horrid piece of homework of a similar vane.
The only other memories of English class at school were reading Of Mice and Men. I hated it.
During my last two years of school, the English teacher didn't show up and the never ending supply teachers didn't teach us. Just before GCSE exams the teacher showed up and said, '' You haven't done any coursework! ''. Well Mrs Clever-Pants, you haven't been here, what course work? The teacher told us we would all get D's or fail, how charming.
I got a C. In the exam I wrote a story about someone a little bit like King's Carrie but less supernatural, and I have wondered since, was it the story that gave me that C or a bunch of fake coursework marks. I'll never know.
Have I gone off track? No, it's coming back, are you still with me?
In 2017 I went to university to study film. I said I wasn't good at writing so less of that would be great. They said that would be fine. Turned out it was a kind of course heavy on the writing, so heavy in fact it had come from an adaptation of a English literature degree. Hilarious. By that point I was in anyway so it didn't matter, and I was enjoying it.
In the first year my writing was pants, all instruction on what to do made it harder and more confusing and referencing was ancient Egyptian to me. If I could get a pass on writing I could make I through, so I wrote a bunch of waffle and crossed my fingers.
In the second year I understood the instruction and I was getting praise. This was really rather something. I was bad at school, I hated school and i'd dropped out of college 3 times. It was a first to be good at something academic. It was a first to be good at something, to get praise and all my writing got firsts. (Apart from one essay on Alice In Wonderland which was total waffle and was finished the night before, yay to nervous breakdowns and severe burnout... Not)
So, in conclusion and looking back, I think daily journal writing did help. They say to get good at something you have to put in how many hours? I have put in a few. I cannot place or say exactly how it helped but I think it did. Even though the words weren't all directed to something aiming to improve or for an end goal, it was something. Where would I be had a not written a journal? For one I wouldn't have nice handwriting and it would hurt to write with a pen for long.
I think journaling above anything is good for habit forming and committing to something. 2-3 minutes out of most days isn't much but over time it is. Writing everyday is a habit which becomes a ritual; It's meditative, sacred, constant, calming, personal, important to oneself and sense of self and is so good for reflection and putting things in place, as well as the mental wellbeing aspects.
Nobody else is reading so there's no room to lie to yourself.
Imagine if you put the same effort into writing a story. In 17 years time you would be just about finishing your 7th book, you could be rounding up your Game of Thrones Epic.
Yes, journaling does make you a writer. A good writer? Who knows. You can't know if you don't try.
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