So You Want to Keep a Better Journal

Perhaps keeping a written journal in a book has become irrelevant in this age of blogging, but perhaps some of us still keep non-public journals. If so, here are a few thoughts on doing it more creatively than just trying to sit down and conquer that blank page.

Most of these ideas come from the book Thoughts of a Grasshopper by Louise Plummer (SLC: Deseret Book, 1992 — a great read I highly recommend for humorous thoughts on just about everything from journal writing to procrastination).

In my opinion, Plummer’s best suggestion is “rush writing”: writing without thinking, without noticing the “blank page,” without worrying about what you’re leaving behind or censoring as you go. Here’s her explanation: “Rush writing is simply writing down your first thoughts. It is a timed writing. This is how you do it: You set a timer for a short time — five minutes is enough — and you write as fast as you can, never allowing your pen or pencil to leave the page. Keep your mind focused on the paper. If you hit a blank, then simply write, ‘I just hit a blank’ and keep writing that until you think of something else to write. The main rule is to keep writing no matter what . . . .


“The advantage to writing fast, or writing your first thoughts, is that it allows you to record your thoughts before you censor them — before you can say, ‘Oh, what a stupid beginning,’ or, ‘This doesn’t make any sense,’ or, ‘I’m spelling this wrong.’ Our critics encourage the myth that writing is a high and mighty thing, and unless we can do it like Virginia Woolf or Erma Bombeck, we shouldn’t do it at all. I happen to think if you can talk, you can write.”


I love this kind of writing. It’s messy and honest, sometimes trivial, but occasionally insightful — insightful about myself, my experiences, and my problems. I often learn something because I’m following my thinking/writing to wherever it leads me. I think it leaves a truer snapshot of ourselves than the kind of writing that we’ve taken pains to perfect as it goes on the page—like the difference between candids taken when the photographer isn’t noticed versus posed shots in a studio. The first is much more real — more who we are.


In addition to rush writing, Plummer gives the following content suggestions to fill up a “five-minutes-a-day” journal:


· Description — describe your days or yourself (what do you look like right now? what do you look like every March 22?)

· Write memories using as much description as possible

· Cathartic writing — get out your feelings· Free writing — clear your mind and write whatever

· Reflective writing — assess and evaluate your own life

· Lists — your fears, hopes, contents of your purse, what’s in the fridge or under the bed

· Daydreams and dreams — write them down!

· Unsent letters — address a real person or make someone up

· Save your postings to this blog!


Here are some of my own suggestions, not for writing, but for “collecting” history about yourself:

· Keep your planner or whatever you might use to organize your life, even if it’s post-its

· Save letters, emails, birthday cards, ticket stubs—any evidence of significant events

· Keep a running list of books you read, plays you’ve seen, callings you’ve held, people you’ve done temple work for

· Keep a guest book

· Write letters to those you love in a notebook that you give each time you write

· Create a timeline of the major events in your life—illustrate it with drawings or photographs

· Buy a cheap planner and record thoughts, quotations, discoveries, or impressions for each day

· Carry a cheap notebook everywhere and write impressions, observations, and reactions as they come to you

· Every once in a while, save things that are unimportant: grocery shopping lists, metrocards, receipts, written phone messages

Here’s a quote I love: “The truth is that scarcely a moment goes by in your life that doesn’t hold something worth jotting down . . . no day is ever empty of material.” (Peter Stillman, “Of Myself, for Myself,” The Journal Book.)


What works for you? I’d love your suggestions. How do you inspire yourself to keep a journal in a way that is meaningful to you?