something sensational to read: keeping a diary

I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.

– Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

I’ve kept a diary since I abandoned single digits; I remember lamenting to myself in my teens that I didn’t have an impressive pile of diaries like other girls in a Christian teen magazine I read.

This was a foolish and stoopid and inane thing to worry about (respectfully to my past self). Slow and steady wins the race, and daily, weekly, or monthly journalling mounts up. I’ve now got a large box that is crammed full of about twenty years worth of diaries. I don’t consider myself an expert on the subject, but I have got experience.

YOU DON’T HAVE TO WRITE EVERYDAY

I’ve gone through periods of my life where I haven’t touched a diary for months. And then, with a burst of productivity and urgency to document my life for posterity, I’ve written nearly every day.

The point is – don’t stress. But if you want to write regularly, keep your diary easily accessible to you. Make sure it isn’t so tucked away that you forget it exists.

YOU DON’T HAVE TO WRITE *EVERYTHING*

There’s always this frantic feeling of ‘I need to document everything about my day/this thing that happened’ and, I’m here to tell you – you really don’t have to. It’s okay. Write a little, write an entire novel; it’s more than if you didn’t write anything at all. (Though of course you can do that too.)

Bullet point it, if you’ve just had a busy period and the idea of documenting it all is just too much.

YOU DON’T HAVE TO WRITE

I have an instant camera and for the last five years, I’ve been putting a few snaps into my diaries to illustrate an event, or even just a snapshot of the everyday.

You can paint, you can doodle, you can sketch, you can add stickers and tape, you can stick the back of a cereal box onto a page (free ticket to a theme park!).

Sometimes I’ve gone over my past diaries and my gosh, they are terribly tedious. (Again, apologies to my past self. But we live in the age of the short-attention span and I didn’t anticipate this. Rude.) So now, I like to spice it up. I try to make a few of the pages colourful. Doodle some ladybugs crawling up the margins, that sort of thing. I’ll copy a few favourite poems down, or quotes from those around me that I thought were funny.

But sometimes, you know, like that robin that speared itself on the thorn of the white rose to turn it heart-blood red in that very strange fairy tale (seriously, what was up with that?), you just can’t help but pour your feelings out …

YOU DON’T HAVE TO WRITE WHEN YOU’RE MISERABLE

… and you frequently might. Especially if you’re a teen. (My condolences. You’ll get through it, I promise.) And if you do, that’s really okay. Writing a diary is an inherently positive thing, and expressing what you’re feeling with words is healthy.

Writing about things you are grateful for is a lovely thing too – it sparks hope. Write down your daily schedule; in future years when life has changed, you’ll look back and it’ll be like a snapshot into the past.

Write about the people you love. Write letters to corporations or things you hate or enjoy or are frustrated with. Write jokes. Write that pithy one liner you were going to post on X or Threads.

YOU DON’T HAVE TO WRITE IN A BOOK

For privacy’s sake, I like to write in a real-you-can-hold-it notebook, but of course – write in a word document if you’d like. You’ll probably be a little more verbose as typing can be faster. However, I think there’s something beautiful about having a physical document that is nowhere near the electronic ‘verse.

YOU DON’T HAVE TO KEEP THEM

If they really are too personal to keep or a reminder of a difficult time, you can ditch them. Host a burning party – attendees? One – you.

My point is – if you don’t want anyone to read them, it’s okay. Sometimes you just need a good vent. This isn’t the burn book from Mean Girls.

There are some diaries that I can’t return to yet – they’re a little too bruising, however, I want to keep them. They, and all the others, are a record of who I was, who I am, and who I hope to be.

IN SUMMATION

I’d 100% recommend keeping a diary. In a world where every thought is encouraged to be spilled onto social media, having some privacy of mind is invaluable. You can reason, wrestle with, and attempt to understand the events in your life.

happy writing!