How to Write Journal Entries

Start with this helpful overview of the practice of journal entry writing as it applies to your writing pursuits and some helpful personal journal entry examples, and you’ll find yourself inspired to write in no time.

All your ideas in one place

Keep your thoughts, content, and lists handy with OneNote

Learn more

What is Journaling?

Simply put, journaling is the act of documenting information—either for the audience of only yourself, or for other readers (like a blog). It can be done daily to keep a brief record of what you’ve done and thought, sporadically as ideas and inspiration come, hand-written, typed—journaling can be almost any kind of writing you’re inspired to do however you’re inspired to do it!

Some journal writers enjoy selecting fun or fancy pens or pencils and the perfect notebook in which to collect their thoughts; others prefer to use a desktop or phone journaling app to jot down notes and lists and story starts. Both are appropriate approaches to crafting personal journal entries. Try a few approaches to journaling until you find the one that feels right for your writing.

What is a Journal Entry—and How Do You Start One?

When you keep a journal, it’ll be comprised of entries. A single journaling session may yield one or several entries in your personal journal.

So how do you start a journal entry?

If you didn’t approach your journal with inspiration on your side, consider putting down whatever your train of thought is in the moment—it may lead you somewhere interesting and unexpected. Or browse your old entries and see if anything takes your attention and sparks a new idea.

Personal Journal Entry Examples

Sometimes all you need to jumpstart your personal journal entries is a prompt. Here are a few examples of personal journal entries to get your pen (or typing fingers) moving:

• Lists. Lists are a great way to ease into a journal writing session. You can make lists of anything: favorites, likes, dislikes, to-dos, not to-dos—the list, of course, goes on. Your entry may be the list or lists themselves or spark a memory or story idea you’d like to explore in a new entry.
• Story ideas. Inspiration can strike anywhere. You can make a note of story ideas and return for fleshing it out in a first draft later on or use your personal journal as a place to brainstorm ideas and experiment with new voices, styles, and genres.
• Daily logs. Some writers enjoy using a journal to keep a daily log of what they did, who they saw, where they went—but in short, brief entries. There’s no right or wrong in your personal journal entries, though, so a log can expand into something longer.
• Favorite memories. Those memories you find yourself drifting back to often? Put them on the page! Write down as much as you can about those moments—as truthfully or as fictitiously as you’d like.
• Wish lists and bucket lists. What would you do if you had all the free time in the world? Where would you go? What hobbies would you take up? Who would you like to have dinner with or what theme park would you like to visit? Your journal is the perfect place to explore and document these wants and dreams.

Studies have shown that writing journal entries has myriad benefits beyond deepening your writing practice, including better sleep and boosted self-esteem.¹ To see how others have approached journaling, see if one of your favorite authors have had any of their journals published—you may discover some new topics to explore in your own personal journal entries.

1.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/25/style/journaling-benefits.html