Why do you need to keep a diary? Part 3
As pointed out by the writer Tristine Rainer in his book “The New Diary”, the diary form meets all four basic mechanisms of human perception, which include emotions, feelings, intuition and intelligence. Try to develop each of these qualities, avoid monotony. And then, quite possibly, the diary will become your fertile ground for the development of ideas that goes beyond its limits and will find expression in real creative projects.
Five rules of diary writing
- Write honestly.
As honestly as possible. Even records that no one but you will see, you will be embarrassed or ashamed to write about some of the things Should look, where there is this awkwardness, where do you hide from yourself the truth. No one is so often successful and does not deceive man as he is. But to identify the sources and causes of self-deception in the diary is much easier than mental reasoning.
- Restrain your inner censor and critic.
We not only hide from the truth, but strive to put their sincere feelings in a bad way. This is the role of the inner censor — the embodiment of the Freudian “superego”, i.e. internalized social attitudes and beliefs about “how it should be”. He is the inner critic, whose fine artistic taste and depth of reasoning is more important than sincerity. To get rid of these pesky creatures, try to write in “stream of consciousness”. Write down everything that comes to mind: images, emotions, vague feelings and memories.
Reflection is useful, but this is not the only way to understand what is happening to you and your life.
- Write for yourself.
We’ve learned that any message intended to some destination. But a personal journal does not have to focus on the audience (incidentally, this is one of the many differences of a diary from a blog). If you write for an audience, even the narrowest, the internal censor and critic will ruthlessly edit any of your messages. Better try to write for themselves. Might be a good destination would be your “future self” that will read the diary a few years.
- Pay attention to the details.
So then you can resurrect in memory the past events, try to capture the details and nuances of what is happening. If you write just “it was bad”, it will tell you a lot less than “I’m laying here on the couch, one kick kicked out of the world, await a dream that won’t come and if they come, I will only touch me, my joints aching from fatigue, my lean body exhausting a shiver of excitement, a sense which it does not dare to have a firm grip knocks in temples” (quote from the diary of Franz Kafka).
- Use paper and ink.
This is a recommendation not here for conservatism and misoneism. When you do write by hand, handwriting can tell about feelings no less than the words themselves. In addition, the paper notebook can be everywhere to carry unlike laptop (and smartphone to take notes is not very convenient). Sometimes it is enough just to feel in their hands the rough surface of a paper notebook where you write, to feel a sense of confidence and security. Better way to use a notebook with the blank pages, not lined diaries. Well — chosen accessories for writing so that the journal gave you pleasure.
Some believe that the entries in the diary need to make daily. It seems to me that it’s not necessary.
It is better to write when there is a desire or need for something to understand that journaling is not turned into another boring “have to”. But first, has not yet formed the habit, you will have to force myself to open Notepad and write something. But if the first word was found, and there are others.
Do not forget that each diary is a reflection of the personality of its owner (albeit incomplete and distorted). Therefore, these recommendations are somewhat General in nature. But even they should not be taken too literally. What works for conditional Leo Tolstoy, may be quite useless for you. An individual style of journaling develops over years and changes with time. But to understand what benefits a blog can bring you, you need to start to start it.