View Full Version : My trail journal
I am not a writer or a literary genius but one of my goals on my hike is to provide a quality journal for my family, friends, and others who are interested in the AT. I have 4 journals up now, a few random pictures, and most of my gear list.
I would really appreciate your honest feedback, tips, and ideas for my journals so I can make them better and a quality journal. My main hope is for my passion and excitement for the trail to be expressed through my fragments and run-on sentences.
Oh and I am open to trail name suggestions too, I've decided to not give myself a trail name.
Thanks.
http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?trailname=14548
The best place to get your trail name is on the trail ;)
Looks good so far! I enjoyed the few posts you put on so far. Keep at it!
You asked for it. There are several common journal types that I usually give up on by the time they get ot Damascus. The first one is what I call the "Dear Diary" type where the hiker dribbles on about thoughts and abstract descriptions of personal views and judgments of other peoples behavior. "I think that if people want to behave like that they should just go home"......and then the long drawn out description of the offending behavior". They also pour there heart out with way too much emotion and information. Makes for bad reading.
The "Facebook" type are usually young people who spend alot of time on facebook. Your journal readers are not just your loved ones, or your friends from school. Most of us could care less about non trail relationships or information. While a little is good, alot is not.
"The Bitcher", I have trouble keeping this out of my own journal. Page after page of endless complant about the weather, the blazing, the condition of the trail, the rocks, the climbs, etc. It makes for boring reading. I now try to limit myself to one per week and I have to think about it for a few days before I write it. There is also no real need to assasinate anyone because they made you mad. No need to make up bad things about others then write about it in the journal. There has already been one of these this year I hope it was not made up fiction.
"The Peracher", If you find that you bring up god or jesus every day, you may be causing some of your readers to tune out. Are you writing this journal so that others might read about your adventure or are you attempting to convert some poor sinners? Few things will make me skip your journal quicker that preaching.
Some things that will keep me tuned in.
1 Humor, find some every day.
2 Frequent updates
3 Use the milage counter
HikerMom58
02-16-2013, 11:15
Moldy... that is really funny ^
The Facebook, The Preacher, and The Bitcher. Haha...
Thanks for the feedback! Moldy thank you for honesty and a good break down. I agree with you on a lot of that. I hope my journal will be a fun read.
See you on the trail!
How EXACTLY do you maintain your Blogg/Journal while on the trail? I want to start one, but am concerned that I wont be able to maintain the journal while on the Trail.
Camel2012
02-16-2013, 18:11
Smart phone or pc's in town, and some have people at home transcribe and post their entries.
Following some advice I was looking at Postholer for a journal. Seem like they have a lot of information, to the point of being intimidating to someone who is new to blogging. Their Forums seem vacant in comparison to WB. Trailjournals is another site I am exploring. They seem much more active, but not as detailed as the journals from Postholer.
I write a hard journal daily while hiking, it seems to me that I would then be able to convert the journal from written to typed while in town or in a hostel. but with a week or more between towns, it just seems as if it is not as fulfilling to either the author or reader, as the info is not very current. I dont think that I would enjoy texting out a long entry daily from a cell phone and then having it uploaded when I find a signal, but it seems like a better option for the reader.
Typed vs. Texted, Whats your opinion?
Why havent people been using WB's own Blogging? Problems?
People don't use the WB journal section because people don't use the WB journal section. It get's gets so little use and action that nobody bothers using it. In the same light over on Trail Journals, nobody gets much use of their blog section for the same reason. Every once in a while someone will ask an interesting question over there and I will direct therm here for an answer. The Trail Journal website was once called Trail Place and it was the only game in town for years for posting your journal. Trail Journals is also easy to use. If WB was smart they could build a better mouse trap for the journaling public, they could make it easier to use and also make it so new technology like I phones can adapt to it. A useful app for AT journals with data points installed.....
SCRUB HIKER
02-18-2013, 15:05
Write your journal for yourself. Pretend when you write it that it's never going to be posted online. You'll stay honest that way. When the time does come to put the entries up online, redact anything that might be a little too personal for the general populace ("I woke up this morning from a dream about that foxy cashier at the Exxon station in Atkins," or "That guy Blah Blah Blah is a real asshat and I hate him."). But otherwise, go ahead and post it unaltered. Don't write or edit for an imagined audience, because you don't know who that audience is. Everyone could be reading your journal or no one could.
It's _your_ record of _your_ hike, and _you_ are going to be the only person looking at it 10 years from now and relying on it to remember how things really were. If you're not honest about each day, or you're overly selective, or you include a bunch of stuff that's just pandering to an assumed audience, you're going to look back years later and find that it sounds hollow.
I really like the journal I kept entirely for myself on the AT in 2011. Looking back on it, the words sound right and they sound like me. On the other hand, I'm already a little sick of the style from the two entries that I've written on my blog (see below) about my upcoming PCT hike. I was quite clearly writing those for an audience. I have to break that habit before my hike starts, or else my only written record of it will be full of dumb jokes and showy language and not really reflect the true events and impressions of each day.
So think about it as if you're writing it 100% for yourself, and try to forget that you're actually showing it to other people. If those other people get bored with it and stop reading, it's their fault for not being out there themselves.
tauwillow
02-19-2013, 02:13
I like a metric ton of photos, instructive entries, and stories that allow me to feel like I am experiencing the trail along with you. I also love to know the 'why' of things. Why make the choices that you do - be it gear selection, timing, hiking on for the day or stopping, sleeping in or getting up early, etc. I love to learn the details and encounter the questions that I might when I hit the trail myself in the future.