by Gordon Hamilton

Created on: June 06, 2009

Keeping a journal like a professional writer will require a number of things in abundance from any aspirant. It will require honesty, clarity of thought, self-discipline and organisation, among many other sundry points. Keeping a journal in this way will have to be viewed as a definite commitment and not simply a whim that will come and go like a change in the weather conditions.

The first step is to obtain a quality ledger or book in which the journal entries are to be recorded. This can take many shapes and forms but should be sturdy and not something which is likely to fall apart through regular use. The ideal choice may be such as a ring-binder, to which new pages can be added as and when required.

The journalist then has to be quite clear in their mind what they should be recording in their journal. This will include significant events which have occurred in their daily lives - which may of course later be used in writing - and any successes or failures they encountered that day with regard to their writing. It is also advisable to consider why each success or failure occurred and any lessons which have been learned in the process and will stand the writer in good stead in the future.

The journal writer has to be scrupulously honest in the writing of their journal. It is probably the case that no one else will ever read it so there is no cause for embarrassment or shame in writing their true feelings and life experiences. Fiction writers may well write fiction as their craft but they do not write same in their journal. If the writer fails to be scrupulously honest with themselves in their journal they are seriously undermining the effectiveness of the journal itself.

The journal entries will need to be carefully thought out and planned by the writer prior to being recorded. They should take logical form and provide a true reflection of the events of the writer's day if they are to be of significant value at a later time. A professional journal should be a lot more than a collection of random thoughts.

Organisation by the journal writer is imperative in order to ensure that they have the required time to complete their journal entry each day. Last thing at night is a common time for making journal entries as the events of the day are both complete and still fresh in the writer's mind. The writer should also ensure that whenever they are planning any trips away from home - for whatever reason - that they be sure to take their latest journal volume with them.

The writer's journal will become a rather bulky affair over a period of time and they may wish to formally split it in to volumes, perhaps each one recognising a period of six months to a year within their lives. This will also make for ease of reference much further down the line.

Provided the writer bears all of the above points in mind, their journal will serve them well as a permanent record of their lives, their changing circumstances and the lessons they have learned along the twisting road.

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