Dearest Diary~

*le doctor infomercial voice*

You have a poor writing life and
--you run or move around quite a bit without really feeling tired inside
--you feel an urge to tell personal sob stories to strangers
--you mope
--you eat a lot of junk food
--you feel as if you can't feel a single emotion and can feel every emotion all at the same time
--you snap at people more than normal
--you want to cry, but you can't

If you have one or more of these symptoms, you may have to take a non-journalling-itis test!  This disease is very serious and rampant amongst authors who spend too much time experiencing life without the necessary means to expel their emotions.  Do not take this message lightly!  Avoidance will lead to death!  (…eventually…)  Once again, if you have one or more of these symptoms, you may have to do a non-journalling-itis test and begin your journalling rehabilitation sessions immediately!

*le doctor informercial voice goes away*
*back to my voice*

So yep, I'm here to blog about legit journalling today, and, before you run away, terrified that I'm leading you into some cultish writing habit, let me clarify what I mean by "journalling":
1.) You write whenever you feel like it.  I don't want you to turn into one of those psychopathic ten year old girls who ritualistically cuddles up under their blankets at night with a flashlight to jot down the meaningless things they did that day.  Just, if you've had a rough evening, if you met someone who really inspired you, if you had a great evening, an unheard pet peeve tirade, a problem that needs sorting out, anything that you feel passionately about, write about it.  Whenever.  Once a month.  Twice a day.  I don't care, just whenever you feel like you need to write.
2.) You write where it is easiest to write.  If I tried to pump out 2000+ word entries on an actual piece of paper with a pen, I would most definitely do some damage to my hands…and, you know, I'd burn through trees pretty quick.  Therefore, I email entries to myself and, at the subject line, put the date and the title of the journal entry.  When the entries come into my inbox, I file them in a folder titled "Junior Journal" (versus last school year when the folder was titled "Sophomore Journal").  It's easiest for me (and private), so I do it.  You do what's easiest for you.
3.) You write how you like to write.  Yes, I still encourage the proper use of grammar and punctuation, but you should personalize everything about your journal so that you feel like you can relax and be yourself when writing, instead of trying to format everything into uncomfortable perfection.  To be entirely honest, the only formatting rules that I have for my personal journal are 1.) start out each entry with "Dear Me" (because I'm speaking to myself) and 2.) end each entry with my name.  That's it.

Okay?  So, I'm not talking cutesy, silly, quaint; I'm talking personal, private, and comfortable.

But now presents the question as to why.  Why go into all of this effort?  Why will journalling help you get out of your non-journalling-itis problems?
Well, if you experience a lot of life without having a way to verbally, clearly vent all of your emotions, they can get bottled up and stuffed down inside of you, so that, when you sit down to write, you end up making miniature plot points about your life instead of keeping to an outline.  Journalling allows you to get out your problems and rants and squeals and debates and passionate descriptions and calm analyses onto solid paper, draining you of all that blockading feeling.
Journalling also makes wonderful character development arcs.  If you start journalling today, in a few years, you'll have quite a lot of well-written, raw emotion to work with and include into your stories in some form, shape, or fashion.

So try it out and see how it all works for you!  Or, if you've been journalling before, let me know about some journalling benefits that you've experienced in the comment box below, and, as always...

Write on!
Clove