The Question of Historial Fake Journals

Above: this is the page spread from April 14 in my 2009 IFJM journal. I used Ziller Acrylic ink, dip pen, and Schmincke pan watercolors. Click on the image to view an enlargement.


A number of folks have been writing to me and telling me that they are keeping historical fake journals. Their authors are living in past times (no one has written to tell me they are writing a future fake journal, but I'm sure one of you is doing that!).

International Fake Journal Month was originally conceived to celebrate and facilitate the creation of fake journals in the month of April, in the present year. This construct was hit upon, simply because it was what I was always doing in my own fake journals at the time.

I see the historical fake journal as a subcategory of fake journals and want to encourage anyone who has a predilection for writing about the past (or future) to keep on writing and drawing.

The point of the project has always been to get people to journal more and with greater ease. By writing a fake journal in a contemporary setting the originator of that journal only has to focus on his journal author's character and artistic style and it simplifies the process. Adding historical distance, for some folks can be a detail nightmare, requiring research and planning, and extra thought to avoid anachronisms and other such pitfalls in historical work.

But for some people there is great charm and fun in doing the research involved in doing an historical fake journal. Things that would bog down other folks, actually free up the mind or engage the mind of the historical fake journal originator.

There is another advantage that might lure some folks into the historical arena—the shifting of TIME as well as place (or dimensions) gives an added level of distance from the author of the journal. This translates into greater freedom for the historically minded. This actually allows them to create a better barrier against the internal critic that might stop any journaling effort.

So if you decide to keep a fake journal, whether you fall into the contemporaneous or historical camp is simply a matter of how best your journaling impulse will be served. Either way, have fun speaking in the first person voice of your journal's author.

Text on April 14 page spread:
Left to right across the top of the spread:

09.04.14 4:30 p.m.
Must have been 59 degrees F today. Sunny with a slight breeze. I was dying to be outside but after last night's fiasco that was not allowed. Only got to sit on the fence and sketch what came by—so what a delight it should be another confirmed sighting of Robins! Two A breeding pair with luck. They bopped around too fast. I can't get their proportions.

Bottom Verso:

closer
can't see the feet clearly because they are the same gray color of the asphalt.
Roger said that lock down last night was because there were non-registered "transients" in the area. Lou, Hopper, and Chuck went out first thing this morning. Some dead pigeons and 4 dead turkeys—remains in a fire pit on Ontario—no other damage or activity. They cleared it all up. I'm still pissed they didn't eat the damn birds!

Bottom Recto:

Shorter
angled out flat
longer just off the page
Fleck too[k] a ton of photos of the 2 robins hopping about. 2 witnesses (on the 7th) are great—but headquarters loves photography for sightings of this nature.