Daring to pour your heart out onto the pages may seem the most challenging aspect of writing but the truth is, it takes a lot more to become a good writer. Writing a journal is a matter of discipline and focusing on your objective. Moreover, writing for yourself only is much easier than doing so with a particular reader in mind, but it is the latter that adds more sense and self-criticism to your work.
Writing a journal certainly takes a lot of discipline. But the discipline is needed not only to make you take the pen in the hand but also to guide you throughout the process. Create good writing habits and plan your journal penning time with a reserve for sketching an outline of your entries and reviewing them later. Although drafting something as spontaneous as a journal entry may sound like a profanity to you, you will appreciate the practice when you compare your free written pieces to those brainstormed and drafted beforehand. Storming your thoughts out onto the paper without focusing on the style too much may even bring you emotional and physical relief without a bitter aftertaste of shame at looking at the ill-structured and overly dramatic entry already in your journal.
The next thing to do after brainstorming is drawing conclusions from your experience. Did you act right? Was your anger or regret just? What really caused your feelings? You can only answer these questions when you take a distance to yourself. Once you have found out the truth, it is precisely what you want to record, rather than all the feelings which crowded your mind during the described events. If writing a journal helps your learn about yourself and become a better and more mature person, your entries should document that.
As has been suggested, your journal should serve a larger purpose than just personal relief. Of course you are not writing an instruction book but if you do want to feel a deeper sense in what you do, write with a particular reader in mind and account for his or her needs as well as yours. Real or imagined, readers help us maintain the objective of making our entries contributive to their lives and be more critical about our style and the choices we make. After all, even if you do not want to share your work, one day it simply may fall in the hands of your granddaughter or a nosy stranger and it is always better to give them food for thought rather than feel compromised.
But do readers not affect our thinking and writing, or even our capacity for honesty? Do you always have to write in the space between you and them? These are the issues which you have to negotiate every time you pick up a pen but here is a hint at how you may deal with them. While always trying to write honestly, consider writing double or even multiple entries for one experience. Time consumming as it is, it allows you to write a version for your reader, and one for your eyes only. This technique is also helpful when you actually have more than one opinion or when you want to maintain other points of view on an issue. We are complex beings and our journals should be the place to manifest our personalities' complexity.
Concluding, writing a good journal entry involves more than a pen and a head full of ideas and emotions. If you want to be proud of your writing, take the time and effort necessary to sketch a logical outline, improve your style and structure your thoughts. Reflect on your experiences, do not let your feelings interfere with your work and keep your purpose in mind. Finally, think of offering guidance to your readers but if you need it, leave a space in your journal that will be only for yourself.
Yvonne Wells works as a Web content specialist for EduInfo.co.uk and BizDb. She takes an avid interest in literature and creative writing, especially in journals. Her professional interests include Web design and technology.
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