Week 1: Running Your Own Diary

Personally, I do not keep a journal or diary. I've tried before--especially when I was younger. I would always get little journals with cute covers and with a lock hanging from the side to hide my thoughts, but I never filled more than three pages of any of them.

The only time I successfully journaled was during the summers of 2014 and 2015. Every single day of the summer, I wrote down exactly what I did so that I wouldn't ever forget. I filled two composition notebooks, and if I ever missed a day, I would fill it in the next night. Currently though, these journals are collecting dust at the bottom of a bin somewhere in my basement, packed away with other random notebooks and papers I collected throughout high school.

It's not that I don't like to journal. In fact, if I had the dedication to sit down and write a entry every day, I totally would. Journaling is cathartic and relaxing. It's nice to get all of your thoughts out of your head and onto paper, and I find myself only sporadically writing everything down when I'm extremely stressed or need someone to rant to.

I think if I started journaling more often, I would only want to post it online if it could be ensured that no one I knew would read it (which obviously isn't possible). If a stranger were to read my thoughts, to them, it would seem like a story. And I can see why that would be entertaining. If someone had a lot of drama or a peculiarly interesting life, I would probably want to read their journal as well.

But, as for sharing personal dreams and thoughts and life complications or drama, it would be harder on the author knowing the audience. In a world of strangers, there isn't anything that constitutes oversharing because, as I mentioned, it's like the plot of a book with extra detail about the protagonist. However, if the author does know the audience? Then it would be harder to admit these things and have to face friends and family the next day in person. This could lead to feelings of awkwardness or embarrassment, even if the names mentioned are censored.

I think writing in stream of consciousness is the whole point of journaling. Calculating and organizing your writing, as opposed to just letting it flow out of your fingers, makes for more of a formal type of story. With diary entries, people expect them to be sloppy and messy with awkward wording and crossed-out sentences or phrases all over. This type of disorderliness gives it character, originality, and proves how "in the moment" the entry was. 

Writing in a stream of consciousness is also beneficial because authors can learn their true feelings. It's kind of like the premise of talk therapy: the more you talk your way through processing a situation, the easier it is to self-reflect and figure out your true thoughts and feelings about it. The same is true for writing. When trying to work through all your thoughts, experiencing word vomit is not only recommended, but also encouraged in order to get these type of self-revelations (just like in talk therapy).

Similarly, diaries shouldn't be overly concerned with spelling and organization and name dropping, especially when written down. Name dropping is suitable because it is quicker, and if the diary is only meant to be shared with you, there's no confusion about who it is or having to worry about explaining the person or giving them a code or nickname.

However, if posted online, these last few points change a bit. If this is intended for others to see (as expected when posting to the web), then there has to be a little bit of order among the chaos. While it may not serve as well in providing a self-revelation, it will be easier for the reader to follow. Having good grammar and spelling will stop the reader from getting distracted from the message of the diary entry, which is the most important goal of posting entries online.

Overall, online versus written diaries differ mostly in regard to perceived audience. Whereas diaries written in a journal or a notebook appear to be for the eyes of the author only (or maybe a few select individuals chosen by the author like a best friend or a close sister), an online blog type of diary is expected to be seen by others. All in all, the message is meant to be the same: an author trying to express their thoughts, feelings, and experiences. ♥