What do you write about when there is nothing to say? I've been doing this for four and a half years and it's rarely come up, so when it does, I'm at a loss.

-- Kymm Zuckert (hedgehog@hedgehog.net), July 31, 2000

Answers

If I don't have anything to say, I take the day off. There will be plenty tomorrow.

Mind you, that's not to claim that what I have to say every day is interesting to everyone.

But I say it, because (1) it's part of the story, (2) what B does not find interesting, A will, and (3) I don't know who A and B are, or what they like.

Hans Koning put it this way. "You don't inquire what is selling those days. You don't worry about what editors or reviewers may like or not like. (That comes afterward.) You don't read chapters to friends or to a long-suffering husband or wife in order to get an independent judgment. Your own judgment is independent. You don't accept any suggested change except where you made a factual or grammatical mistake. My motto has been through all those years: Not a comma."

Of course, you can always write "How To Get an Even Tan," for money, and sneer at writers who hold the banner high. Who tie a kerosene- soaked rag around their ankles to keep the cutworms off and swing for the left field fence. We need cutworms too. Bless their vicious little hearts.

-- Jack Saunders (jacksaunders@mindspring.com), July 31, 2000.

I'll go backwards, and write about something in the distant past. Or I'll talk about something that's been on my mind for awhile, and try to work it out. Or just find some subject that interests me and write an entry about that.

It gets tough to find subject material after awhile, but I think that's part of what's good about keeping a daily journal. It forces you to come up with something new to write about every single day.

-- Patrick (xingcat@yahoo.com), July 31, 2000.

What Patrick said. And if all else fails, I just write a brief entry about what I have(n't) done all day, and try to phrase it nicely so people don't go, "Huh?!"

-- Saundra (headspace@anywherebeyond.com), July 31, 2000.

I sit down and think over the last day or so and decide what is the most emotional moment I've had - good or bad.It might be something really small and outwardly insignificant - so much the better. I write about what I saw and heard and felt during that moment.

Bill

-- Bill Chance (chancew1@aol.com), July 31, 2000.

those are the days i usually decide to write a collab entry. :o)

-- jess (diarist@foxfiremad.com), July 31, 2000.

I rarely have much to say ... I need an exceedingly dull life. So I poke fun at the English.

-- Jackie (jackiec@diaryland.com), August 01, 2000.

I don't write every day (where do people find the time to?) so maybe it isn't so applicable. But, I keep a supply of books of questions or I turn to the cue cards I use when teaching workshops about family storytelling. The oddest entry I ever wrote consisted of free association about anagrams of my name. If all else fails, I write about my crush on Nomar Garciaparra or my burning desire to go to some remote destination.

-- Miriam Nadel (mhnadel@cinenet.net), August 01, 2000.

Get some dogs, something alawys happens when you have dogs.

Or I just write about something that happened when I was a kid.

Or lately, I just don't write cause I don't have time.

Colleen

-- Colleen (triggirl@yahoo.com), August 01, 2000.

well i don't journal on-line, but i do keep a personal journal. and if i have nothing to say, i just don't do that day. of course, its only for me, so no one else gets disapointed....

-- nicole (nicolemrw@go.com), August 02, 2000.

Actually, now I've launched the concept of Secret Celebrity Boyfriends I have a never-ending list of people to write about - it's great.

However, I'm sure I'm going to start getting emails along the lines of 'stop bloody talking about your dull life and tell us about Secret Celebrity Boyfriends instead', and that would kind of suck.

-- Jackie (jackiec@diaryland.com), August 04, 2000.

I mention what my kids have been up to, and usually that sparks a thought, which becomes a theme, which becomes an entry. Usually.--Al of NOVA NOTES.

-- Al Schroeder (al.schroeder@nashville.com), August 05, 2000.