It’s a familiar story: You buy a beautiful notebook, intent on starting a journal, only for it to sit untouched for years. While the benefits of journal-keeping are well established — it “can raise levels of optimism and life satisfaction,” says the psychology researcher Justine Richelle, 25, and strengthen creative writing skills (“The lines between what I write for myself and what I will ultimately write for publication are pretty blurred,” says the novelist Pico Iyer, 67) — that knowledge doesn’t necessarily make the blank page less intimidating. Here, a handful of longtime journal-keepers share advice that may inspire you to try again and stick with it.
Consider why you’re writing.
If you’re just starting out, what do you hope to gain? You might want to record memories, untangle your thoughts or lay the foundations for a new creative project. For the writer and actress Tavi Gevinson, 28, a journal “is a place to dump psychic garbage,” she says, and to leave “notes for my future self. It reminds me that there’ll be a future where I’ll feel differently.” Iyer, who’s kept a journal for almost 50 years, sees the practice as “looking at the sky within yourself.” He meticulously logs his days, capturing little details like a song playing in the background to “fix” memories. If one goal is boosting your mood, the social worker Amy Krentzman, 60, who’s developed a journaling method for people in recovery, suggests listing “all the good things that happened in the past day,” things you’re grateful for that “you normally take for granted,” as well as “good wishes for others.”
Don’t be too precious about how your journal looks.
When the filmmaker Albert Moya, 35, needs a new diary, he grabs whatever’s nearby — hotel notebooks being a favorite because “they remind you where you were at that time,” he says. Iyer uses Southworth’s 24-pound, loose-leaf, unlined A4 paper, which he organizes in “endless folders.” Gevinson likes journals from Season Paper, Cambridge Imprint and Midori but encourages those new to journaling to “use a legal pad if it helps you feel less pressure.” You can also keep a digital journal: The journalist and T writer at large Aatish Taseer, 44, recommends Day One, an app he uses to color-code his notes when he’s traveling.
Find a pen you like.
Krentzman suggests “experimenting with different kinds of pens and paper” until you land on a combination that “gives you some tactile enjoyment.” Iyer gravitates toward fine-tipped Pilot Razor Point markers. Gevinson uses .38-millimeter Pilot G2 and Muji ballpoints. Moya loves a hotel pen. When you find a model you like, buy it in bulk so you always have spares.
Find a time of day that works.
Mornings and evenings are often best. Gevinson journals while having coffee just after waking. Moya writes at his desk before or after a morning workout. When he’s traveling, Iyer finds time in the evenings. Krentzman recommends putting your phone away or switching it to airplane mode while you write.
There’s no one way to write an entry.
If you’re at a loss, try beginning each entry the same way. “I always start with where I am and the time,” says Moya. From there, try stream-of-consciousness writing, jotting down feelings and thoughts as they arise, or answering open-ended questions like: What’s been on my mind lately? Or, What’s sparked my curiosity recently? If you’re looking for a more specific prompt, Gevinson recommends “the ‘Audre Lorde Questionnaire [to Oneself]’ or a tarot reading or the I Ching.” You can also just list interesting or funny moments from the day. Above all else, Moya says, try “to not judge yourself when you’re writing.”
It’s OK to miss days — or even years.
For almost a decade, Taseer stopped writing a journal. “I was just not drawn to it,” he says. He cautions those new to the practice to “not go about it like homework. Let the journal call you.” When Gevinson misses a day, she simply starts again the next. “The point is not to have a record of each day. In fact, you can use a journal to decide if you want to measure time by a day or week or month,” she says. “You can change your relationship to time.”
Try less expected approaches.
Recently Moya started writing notes that he calls “postcards” to himself, when he’s working on a film. Gevinson has tried many techniques, she says: collaging mementos, drawing comics, typing notes on a computer and even recording “audio diaries when I need to talk stuff out and don’t want to subject a friend to it.” After trips, the novelist Maggie Shipstead, 41, edits together videos and photos into short montages set to music. They feel like “chapter markers,” she says. “I think when you’re living your life, it can be hard to step back and sort of look at the arc of it,” and the videos “take me back to those moments of change and growth.”
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