How to write a journal
November 17, 2008 by Dmitry
“What is a diary as a rule? A document useful to the person who keeps it. Dull to the contemporary who reads it and invaluable to the student, centuries afterwards, who treasures it.” — Walter Scott
Make a commitment to write journal regularly.
Set up a schedule that suits you and follow it. Don’t skip writing sessions if you don’t know what to write about — just start with a rough paragraph and keep developing it (see “Write” section below).
Choose tools that are convenient and inspiring.
For instance, Mémoires, our journaling software, is a simple and effective tool that keeps you focused on your journal’s content, not the application itself.
You’d want to keep your journal on your computer, and here’s why:
- it’s searchable (easy to find everything your wrote about);
- secure (no need to hide anything, just remember your password);
- editing and rewriting is easy.
However, you may need a small paper notebook when you’re away from your computer — try tiny Moleskines or Field Notes. Just remember to type entries back into your journaling software.
Just write.
Writing is hard, but it becomes easier as you write more.
“The beginning is the most important part of the work.” — Plato.
Open your journal, type in a few words — just your thoughts — and you’ll get into the flow. You don’t have to keep your first paragraph — it’s just for a warm up.
Add photos to your journal.
A picture is worth a thousand words.
We are lucky to live in the age of digital photography — you can take millions of photos at no cost. Not everything can be described with words, keep some of your pictures in your journal.
Try different styles.
In your journal entries talk to yourself, your journal, or some imaginary or real person. Write as you would write a letter, or a newspaper column. Try different styles to find your true voice.
Review your journal.
Review your journal regularly (for example, once a week) to get inspiration. Keep notes about your feelings (you can even write them down in a new journal entry).
P.S. Click here to try Mémoires, our journal writing software for free.
How to write journal.
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can ugive some example how do a daily journal?! plzzzzzzz
You just pretend that you are talking or telling a story to yourself. Soon after, you have written your first sentence, you will be surprised as to how easy it is. Don’t try to be logic or tell things in a chronological way, just tell it ! The rest will come easily. Good luck. There no laws for a journal. We establish our own preferences as we progress in the writing.
Good luck - HR
Instead of using a Moleskines book or the like, is there a way to create a iPhone app that integrates with Mémoires for when you are away from your computer and don’t want to retype everything back into you computer?
shadx: Thanks for the question! At this time, there are no plans for iPhone version of Mémoires. Anyway, I think writing in a notebook will be much faster than typing on iPhone and it won’t hurt your hand so much :-)
I love this program and often email myself entries made on the go on my iPhone so that I can just cut and paste them into the program when I am home again. Mémoires is just delightful!
This was a great post and great tips on how to write a journal.
Some good points I haven’t seen elsewhere, like using software.
When you usually think of a journal it’s just a pen and paper affair.
Will pass this post along.
Great stuff.
Sir I have to make a travel journal.So is it just like a diary entry or something else.should i add pictures to it.Is it necessary to add pictures?
Hero, if you probably want to have a lot of pictures of your travel. For this, use photo managing applications like iPhoto or Picasa. However, if you’re going to describe a place in your journal, feel free to add a picture or two there.
I’d like to try this software, especially since it has search and keyword functions. My concern is about longevity. Are all the relevant files stored in one folder so that I can back it up? Will it be straight forward for future software to import these journal entries in 10 or 50 years? Thanks.
Ryan, being backup friendly and future-proof are the two points we considered carefully when creating Mémoires.
In addition to these great journaling tips, I have one myself that I’ll share with you… I often find myself in a frenzy if I haven’t written anything in a while in my journal. When I start writing again, I feel this overwhelming urge to “update” my journal about EVERY LITTLE THING that has happened since I last wrote. Resist that urge if at all possible!!!
I have heard from SEVERAL people who keep journals that your “blank spots” in your journal have just as big a story to tell as your daily entries do. Maybe, like me, you were in the hospital. Maybe someone else was in the hospital. Maybe, heaven forbid, your laptop got stolen. Maybe it was just a time in the year at your place of employment where you were incredibly busy.
It’s OK not to write in your journal from time to time! It’s ALSO OK to resist the urge to not chronicle those lost days, weeks, or months with a minute-by-minute or day-by-day recap of events. By all means, if you want to write in your journal about what kept you from writing for an extended length of time, write about it. Just don’t get caught up in the minute details of every day that you didn’t write. I find that that “obsession” with wanting to recap every little thing gets in the way of beginning your writing again. It becomes scary to think about recapping every little detail since you last wrote, and then you just don’t want to write, because the prospect of writing every little morsel of detail becomes too daunting a task. By all means, SUMMARIZE things that have happened since you last wrote, but if, for example, someone has been in the hospital since you last wrote, and is now healthy again, it’s not necessary to write about what their blood pressure was on Tuesday, August 3, at 6:45 PM. It was important at the time, yes, but it’s not that important anymore now that the person is out of the hospital. Hopefully, you can understand where I’m going with this.
I really like writting journals because it allevaites me to keep my day-to-day business going.
Those are excellent comments, Cory. I often suffer from ‘Oh dear I haven’t updated this thing in months what do I say to get everything up to speed AGK’ syndrome and write nothing at all for a few more months. It’s a silly syndrome and I should just get over it! Thanks.