Real Words

I believe that it’s really important for everyone to keep a journal. I know that not everyone feels the same way and I respect that. But diaries and journals have been such an important part of my life for so long - and I have experienced so many benefits from them - that I really feel like it’s something that everyone should try to do.

I especially think that writers should keep journals. Here are ten of the top reasons that I believe this this is true:

1. A daily journal means that you write every day. Even if a million other things are going on and you can’t get any other writing done, at least you wrote in your journal.
2. You get your thoughts out of your head. A journal clears all of the mess in your head. This leaves your brain free to have more creative thoughts which benefits your writing.
3. Ideas and characters will come to mind. Many of the ideas that I have which turned into poems and books and projects began as thoughts and random lines in journals.
4. It gives you a chance to write longhand. I firmly believe that diaries should be written by hand. I think that the writing process is different than it is on a computer and I think it’s beneficial to practice that now and then.
5. You get to know yourself. The better you know yourself as a person, the stronger of a writer you will be.
6. It provides the comfort of ritual. If you commit to journalling for a certain amount of time each day, you create a sense of stability for yourself through ritual. I believe this is something that is very important for all writers to have.
7. You learn to really tell the truth in your writing. Sometimes we hold back in our fiction and poetry and web writing because we know others may read these things. The diary is private and it teaches us how to write the truth.
8. You are honoring yourself as a writer. It isn’t always easy to carve out that time for dairy writing every day. However, a consistently-met commitment to doing that shows you that you’re honoring yourself as a writer. This is important since you are your own greatest support system for your writing career.
9. It creates a history of your work and process. This is something that you can come back to again and again to see your own growth as a writer, get new ideas and track your history of writing over time.
10. It could get published someday. Hey, you never know. If you end up successful in your writing, that diary could be worth something in the future!

What do you think? Do you keep a daily journal? Should you?