Do you write a journal/diary?

[Connoisseur]

I do write in a diary, every day. I like to write stream of consciousness AND prompts (e.g. "what are 50 things that make you happy?", "what would you do if you had 3 months to live?", etc.)...in fact, that brings me to another question: does anyone know of any good journal/diary prompt books?

[KateNox]

I don't write diary, as much as I would like to. There is something in me that is extremely well informed about all the states I go trough daily and it's like I don't want to see a written proof of that.

[Addo]

I think, writing a diary is so beneficial for one's writing skills. At first, it may seem of no apparent use, or a waste of time, but you will get better at it and may even surprise yourself. I did, not to mention that it clears the head, with all your thought's not clogging your brain. Win win situation if you ask me.

[ZephyraJ]

I have kept a journal off and on for many years now. I have been pretty far out of the habit in the last 5 years but every now and then I will write something. I am not sure how much value there is in keeping a journal. I always wish that there was something more interesting to put in it, but then when I am out doing interesting things I tend to not want to bother writing in my journal. So most of what I write in my journal is more introspective and less interesting.

[rssllue]

I used to. I think that I need to go back to it again. It is always good to put my thoughts/actions down on paper.

[crazyrussianmaria]

I have over the years written in a journal/diary from time to time but it never sticks. The closest I've gotten to keeping a journal/diary is writing on my mommy blog on Tumblr. It's easier to write about my baby and everyone else than myself. Also, I think keeping a journal online is just easier because I can never fully express myself on paper, especially since I have so many things to write and my hand doesn't write as fast as my mind runs. I am a fast typer so I can write much more on the computer and much faster. I guess it's just easier for me. Anyone else feel the same way?

[kronning20]

I've been keeping journals in some way or form since I was 7 or 8 years old. Some of my earlier ones were silly little things, like doodles of poorly done animals or pages of me pretending to b someone else (like a teacher, someone famous, a mom, etc. Pretend games). For a while I stopped keeping them, because I didn't have time or because I didn't feel safe writing out my thoughts. I picked it up again in high school, and I've thrown out most of the books from that time, because I felt ashamed of my thought processes and how manipulative I was acting, even in my writing.

Since then, I've kept a daily journal, and I also like to make "Year Journals", which are kind of visual journals/scrapbooks that I make throughout the year for important things, holidays, season changes, and so on. I'm also thinking about putting together my own version of a smash journal.

[pjswink]

Yes, I try to write something everyday. There is no theme nor course to it really. It is as likely to be serious, as it is silly. Sometimes it is a sentence and sometimes many hours as fast as I can type. I figure it is akin to taking photographs - you snap a 1000 to glean one or two really good ones. It is hard to tell objectively what is quality and what is bunk as you are emotionally attached to fresh writing...I find it helpful to let it mulch until it seems someone else penned it. I can return to it and see what can be salvaged at a later date - kind of like having a bone pile to pick through for goodies.

So yes, I do journal. And yes, I have found journaling to have value.

[Percarus]

I have kept a diary of every day of my life since the age of 24 (I am now 37), and the rest before then I did summarize before then on typed documents. To me a diary helps you with the most difficult of situations when in a legal battle or when you forget something crucial. My purpose for a diary is to share my entire life to a potential spouse(s) and in return I would expect her to write at least 300 pages of direct personal information to the bone (my diary is about 5000 typed pages). It is my sense of achieving marriage communion and becoming a symbiotic living organism optimized for better performance, enjoyment, and things (but this with limits to warrant individuality). And like some posts above, YES, my quality of writing/typing has improved dramatically over the years and it shows in my diary. But if someone else reads my diary I will certainly curse them for all their afterlives to be and may God/Allah have little mercy on their souls... }:-(

[Sarah Penney]

While I do have a journal/diary, I write in it only sporadically despite the fact I've been writing in a journal for years. This is because I favor jotting down story ideas or little short fictions over doing actual journal entries. However, the little ideas and short stories are written in notebooks.

I think I always have a notebook or two lying around. I even have a pocket-sized one that can fit in my purse... Even if said notebook tends to cause some pretty strange looks out in public. While I definitely try to write something in one of them once a day, since I'm a writer on an online site a lot of my writing energy and motivation ends up being channeled into writing chapters for my works on that site instead of journal entries and ideas. Otherwise, I'll distract myself from my current in-progress work and that is never a good thing.

I don't think I'd ever publish my journal. It just feels too personal. Maybe one of my idea notebooks as an anthology of sorts, but never my journal.

[sosimple]

Yes. I've kept a journal for years because writing memoir is on my bucket list...and it's quickly making its way to the top of the list. I capture quotes, conversations, tones, looks, scenery, and mood as often as possible. I say "I'll remember." But, that's a lie. I won't. So I capture as much as I can in writing/type.

[veg_8]

I've thought about writing in a journal, but that's as far as I've gotten as a young adult. I wrote in a diary at a very young age and do enjoy looking back at the silly things I wrote down. My teacher in high school made us write in a journal every day, but for some reason, I feel like I am forcing myself to write when I try to journal instead of just letting ideas flow. I wish I could enjoy journaling—maybe one day I will learn to appreciate it.

[amandab611]

I used to have a journal that I regularly wrote my feelings and life events. That has fallen by the wayside, but 2016 is a new year and I think I'll start up the tradition again!

[LiteratureUtopia]

I started in 2015 with a daily journal book. It has a line a day for 5 years. On my "boring" days I try to write about a song, movie, or book popular on that day so when I look back there is a little bit of entertainment history. I really enjoy looking back and reminiscing with past entries.

[aparsons]

When I moved to the United States when I was a junior, I was in a really bad place. Long story short, I started a stream of consciousness journal on Valentines Day, 2006. I kept it up for about two years or so, I didn't have anyone to talk to, no friends, I just poured it out. I stopped once I met my boyfriend, now husband. He was the first person who actually listened to me, lol. I have since stopped, but I have noticed that when he was gone (in basic training) I started it up again temporarily.