How to Write a Journal: 6 Tips

Do you keep a journal? I do. It is how I remember the travels I’ve taken, the life experiences I’ve enjoyed, and the litter boxes I’ve cleaned. Here are some tips for how to write a journal. We are writers, and so it is even more helpful for us to journal.

Remember details

Record the details of your life so you don’t forget them

• For example, when the IRS called you to say you owed 638 dollars, you wrote down 638 instead of 638 because you forgot to add the correct amount
• The correct amount was 6,846.48
• You’ll remember everything

When to Journal

There is no right or wrong time to write in a journal. Write when you will remember to do it.

• A journal is a diary of your life. Only record the details you want to remember or details you don’t think you will forget.

Find old friends

Keep a journal to reminisce

Write down details

Record details like the time, location, who you were with, what you were wearing. Details will help bring the memory alive when you record using your five senses

Preserve the writer’s history

Keep a journal even if you don’t want anyone else to read it

• Put it in a safe spot, and then remember where you put it.
• It might be read by zombies after the zombie apocalypse, sharing insight into how you felt and thought

Write a lot or a little

A journal entry doesn’t have to be three pages long.

• It can be a few words that describe what happened, a few sentences about the highlight of your day, or a short description of an event from your day.

Practice: write for fifteen minutes about some aspect of your day as though you were writing in a journal.

Please share your writing and comment on someone else’s practice today. We learn by writing and by reading.

Choose your kind of journal

A book, where you write with a pen or pencil onto paper

• Small enough to carry in a messenger bag and big enough to read, but not so big you are afraid to write in it
• Paper is better because you don’t have to worry about a dead battery and can write even when the sun is bright or the airline makes you turn off your electronic devices
• The disadvantage to a paper journal is if you lose the journal and you do not make a copy of it, you have lost all of the writing

Tell the truth

Journal a record of how you felt and what you did

• Telling the truth will make you a reliable storyteller
• Don’t write that you clean the litter boxes every day just because you want your readers to think you had good habits

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