I must have been about 6 when, thinking the words I penned were of the utmost importance, I started securing my secrets in a heavily gilded fairy diary with a small padlock on its side. Believing that the padlock absolutely made access to my thoughts impossible to anyone but me, I would hide the keys in my ballerina jewellery box alongside my wishing stones and prized collection of Goosebump cards.
I would continue keeping diaries well into my teenage years, but they were just the hand-written kind that documented my daily activities (mainly eating BBQ Shapes and watching ‘The Young and The Restless’ after school). Most importantly, they also catalogued a list of grievances committed by my sister, which included violations such as the theft of my Lucy Lawless pictures, her ‘dibber-dobber’ antics, and the unjust persecution relating to the theft of all her $2 coins.
It wasn’t until my high school art classes that I learnt about the concept of a visual diary. Unlike my solely hand written diaries, a visual diary is a collection of visual references that could be made up of any kind of materials or goodies that you wanted to include.
A few lessons in, and I was hooked. The sight of one of those black notebooks with the spirals on the side now makes my heart beat a little faster!! I find them to be SUCH useful tools (not just for work related stuff…although I do find them handy for that too) to spur reflection and make me feel like I am leaving behind documentation of my daily lived experiences.
If you enjoy keeping your hands busy and sometimes struggle to find the words to keep a hand-written diary, I recommend starting a visual diary. The pages can be filled with literally anything and everything from your daily life or imagination. You can fill a page with bread tags, glue dried out tea bags to a page, or scribble with your favourite coloured pens. I love visual diaries because over time they fill up with a unique picture of you and your daily life. For some reason, even when I’ve just scribbled and stuck things onto a page, I feel a little clearer in my mind. Best of all, a visual diary can be a sacred space that only you frequents. You don’t have to share it with anyone.
If you’re wanting to start a visual diary but don’t quite know where to begin, I have a few pointers for you that have worked for me when getting started:
Don’t panic if you don’t have any plain notebooks lying around. You can absolutely use a lined notebook for this project, or even construct a little plain notebook by folding a wad of printer paper in half. If you have neither of these things available, you can even use an old magazine and make it a personal challenge to transform all the pages into a visual representation of you-ness.
Decorate the cover. This could just be with some paint / stickers / contact paper… just something to make you feel like this diary is uniquely yours.
Let go of the ‘this blank page is sacred’ feeling. This diary is the place to glue/write/collage as meany things as you want. There are literally no rules other than going for it.
Collect things from your daily life and include them in the pages. This is another reason why I love visual diaries. It’s because it makes you look at mundane things as potential relics and treasures that are simply waiting to be included in your book.
I love visual diaries so much, mostly because there are truly no rules. Your visual diary is a safe space for you to explore and document your thoughts/ideas/ANYTHING and never needs to seen by another living soul. Heck, chuck one of those fairy padlocks onto it if you fancy!