Stevie Nicks Has a ‘Telephone Book’ Sized Journal to Write About Romance
As a singer and songwriter, much of Stevie Nicks’ work involves writing music. When she’s not doing that, though, she’s filling a massive journal with details about romantic moments in her life. She explained what constitutes the romance she writes about and why she doesn’t often revisit her old journal entries.
Stevie Nicks considers herself a romantic
Nicks’ most famous relationship is likely her tortured one with Lindsey Buckingham, which continues to generate drama decades after the couple split. She doesn’t consider him to be her greatest love, though. She reserves that honor for The Eagles’ Joe Walsh.
“Why do you love somebody? Why do you love them so much that when they walk in the room your heart jumps out of your chest? I don’t know,” she told The Telegraph. “But I fell in love with Joe at first sight from across the room, in the bar at the Mansions Hotel in Dallas.”
The relationship between Nicks and Walsh didn’t last, but she still believes in love at first sight.
“I’m not going out with anyone. And I haven’t gone out with anyone in a long, long time,” she told The Guardian. “But I will say, I am always a romantic and I’m never averse to the fact that it is possible that you might turn a street corner and walk into somebody that just catches your eye, because it’s happened to me a million times.”
She keeps a journal to write about romantic moments
Nicks immortalizes the romantic moments in her life with an enormous journal. She has been keeping a journal since her early days in Fleetwood Mac.
“When I keep my journal, it’s big, like a telephone book, because I always feel that that will never get lost,” she told The New Yorker. “So what I do is I write on the right side of the page, and then on the left-hand side I write poetry, which I usually take right out of my prose.”
She explained that she tends to write about romance, but this doesn’t necessarily mean she’s writing entries about relationships.
“When I say the word ‘romantic,’ I don’t necessarily mean romantic as far as having a guy or somebody in your life,” she explained. “I mean just the halcyon days or, just, remember the way that the air felt on your skin, or the way your hair felt when the wind blew through it, or the way that the trees sounded, or that kind of thing.”
If an entry has a “romantic tinge to it,” Nicks will use it to inspire further art like poetry and songwriting.
Stevie Nicks doesn’t tend to reread her journal
Though Nicks does revisit former journal entries for her poetry or songwriting, she said she prefers not to look back. The journal exists for inspiration, not as a way to reminisce on old times.
“So lots of times, when I go back to them, it’s to look at the poetry for songs,” she said. “I would rather spend the time writing a new journal entry than going back and reading old journal entries, because if you go back you’re not going to go forward. I just try to keep going forward.”
