How do you keep a journal or diary?

Hey guys! What's up? I just wanted to make a quick, short video asking you some questions about journals or diaries. I've had some trouble with keeping one in the past but I've decided to resume a journal again but I don't really know how to go about doing it. In the past, I've had the problem of writing way too much and this would consume too much of my time, approaching the point where writing the journal was my life rather than the other way around, in which the journal would be a little bit about my life. Of course, that is a little bit of an exaggeration but you get the point. I've also had the problem of writing barely anything. I just wanted your guys's opinions on how to best go about avoiding both of these extremes. How much should I write? How much is too much? Too little? Do you guys keep journals or diaries? If so, what do you usually write about? Is it where you talk about lessons learned during the day? Do you basically write about the "jist" of what you did that day and what happened to you? Do you discuss deep, philosophical questions? Do you talk about your dreams, goals, and aspirations and what you are doing about them? Do you address some big problems or injustices in the world? Or do you just vent about all of your personal problems? I'm just curious and would like to know what kind of journals or diaries you guys keep and how much you write, because I enjoyed talking about certain things but not when I wrote too much, and I anticipate that I will enjoy doing so again but I don't know how to approach doing so. Thanks to you all! Please leave your comments and video responses below. Goodbye and peace!

See also:
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Twitter username: nickt91
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Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• how
• do
• you
• keep
• journal
• or
• diary
• advice
• help

[TheBrainSponge]

I write obsessively. I write about anything and everything. I write mine as letters to a man who doesn't exist...I don't know how many other people do that, I know a bunch of people write "dear diary," though, so I guess it's like that. I've written like this since December 1, 2007, and each journal lasts me about 3 months. Does that answer your questions?

[treehugrurthluvrsupr]

@TheBrainSponge That doesn't answer all of them, but don't worry about it. I've received enough responses. lol. I tend to just start writing on random, different subjects. I usually don't pretend to address it to someone, but I guess that's up to personal preference. Cheers.

[treehugrurthluvrsupr]

Lol. Thanks for the comments, everybody. I think I'm done with them now. tata.

[kevinbreeman]

Hello treehugrurthluvrsupr,

This isn't going to be terribly specific but in answer to the question in your vid: All of the above. I have kept a journal for ten years and I've done EVERY type of writing you mention in your video. I find that when you do that you find you go through phases of say writing personal ventings for a few weeks or writing deep stuff for a month or whatever. And those phases themselves are like extra layers of information the journal then contains.

Peace,

Kevin

[treehugrurthluvrsupr]

@kevinbreeman thank you, Kevin. Yeah, I've decided to settle on that approach, too, but not make it too extensive and draw it out. You only right about your most important thoughts or the most important parts of your day (or if it was uneventful or boring, nothing at all.). Thanks for the input. :)

[kevinbreeman]

@treehugrurthluvrsupr Hey man. I just thought of this vid recently again after experimenting with keeping monthly/yearly summaries in my journal. It's kinda cool what you can find when you end each month in your journal with a summary of what happened that month, and then do the same for each year. Just thought I'd pass that on to you.

[treehugrurthluvrsupr]

@kevinbreeman Cool! Thanks for your thoughts! :)

[iluvphilly4]

I'm gonna look at it when I'm older and show it to my kids! I always start out with like Monday April 7 2008 or something like that then I put dear diary

[iluvphilly4]

I started a diary when I was in 4th grade and mostly just wrote about school and stuff then in 6th, 7th , and 8th grade I wrote about boys, crushes, friends, family, favorite teachers, special events or events I want to remember like when my cousin was born or when I went to six flags and fun activities in my class! Also when I'm mad I talk about the people I'm mad at and take it out on the diary I had an 11 page entry once and sometimes they are 1 page! I am on my 3rd one now and I'm gonna loo

[Writer4ever779]

I write about everything. :) what I do from keeping myself to want to write in my journal all the time is that I make time for other things during the day to distract myself. Like hobbies and stuff if that's what you mean. I think it's good though that you have so much to talk about though that you write a lot. Maybe give yourself an hour a day to write. And by the end of that hour you stop.

[gunthermeyer]

I write about everything that has happened not to me but in the world. I mine a journal because calling a diary is a girl thing and I think that journals are a man's thing. I do vent an awful lot and I write as much as six to eight pages a day. At this moment I have written at 3,000 pages and I do incorporate pictures of storms and news of the day.

[lofdifferently]

I have kept a journal on and off for year but on a regular basis now for the last four years if you are worrying about filing a book too fast may I recommend Diary suite 4 it has free and paid versions and you just download it and your entries are stored in a password protected file that you can later export into word it allows you to categorize your entries too I love it hope that helps