★ Lilly Ashton ★: I started a diary

A week ago I found my bulging old scrapbook in my wardrobe and I decided I was going to turn it into a diary and just casually stick my thoughts into it and things that happened to be lying around at the time, and completely forget about trying to be neat or trying to have any sort of theme other than for it to be some reflection of myself and my life. I'm really happy with it so far, I think the emphasis on "just doing whatever" and the lack of obligation has made it so much fun. I'm always excited to sit down and paste something in, and doing this every day is making me think about and engage with art even more than previously, thus giving me lots more ideas for projects and things.

I've tried to keep diaries a few times before, but have always struggled and quickly given up. I think the key to the success of this one is that instead of approaching it day by day, I'm approaching it thought by thought, and I'm not forcing myself to spill out all of my deep and personal feelings onto the pages. Some things belong inside you, after all. Although actually, I think that steering myself away from sharing the over-personal has allowed me to be more open and honest in what I have written, in some sense. I think I'm quite the sharer anyway. 20 minutes after I meet someone they will probably know my philosophies in some detail. I don't wish to minimise myself, and I'm desperate to know the innermost workings of everyone else, so this probably won't change.

These pages have moods too, and I like that. Some are more serious, some are more silly. The more human this book becomes, the better. Eventually I'll be able to send it out to parties in my place and it will flap about telling better stories than I ever could.