With Oprah promoting the idea of journaling, I would have thought everyone was doing it, but evidently that's not true. Do you keep a journal or diary of some sort?

I started keeping a diary when I was a kid…writing about the kids who picked on me at the bus stop, my heavy legs, and the cutest guy on the JV football team who's locker was right across the hall from mine.

As I got older and moved away to college, I kept writing but I wasn't tied down to a diary...I filled spiral notebooks and loose leaf pages.

By this time I had matured to discussing how inferior I felt to boys, my big thighs, and the cutest guy in the Spiritual Life Department who crossed my path on the way to Intermediate Accounting each week.

Then graduating from school to the workplace, I started journaling on my word processor. This time the content had matured quite considerably...discussing how I was so tired of my job and wanting to pursue my passion of acting, my skinny waist, and the cute guy from the help desk who would come by every so often to fix my computer. [sigh]

Keeping a journal was more than just a hobby to me. This was my best friend, my confidante...the only one who I could talk to about the real stuff that mattered in life.

It accepts you for who you are. It never tires of listening to you go on and on and on about yourself. It remains faithful to you when all others let you down.

Throughout my twenties I started pondering the meaning of life, specifically my purpose in life. That's when the serious journal-writing came into play.

I wrote about goals, dreams and desires, broken relationships, successes and failures... Journaling became a staple in my life.

Getting your thoughts out of your head and onto a piece of paper where you can physically see them is enlightening. You don't need a therapist to tell you something new, in fact most therapy sessions consist of you doing all the talking with a question thrown in here and there.

Then, several years ago, I started thinking about writing a Memoir. I certainly had plenty of life experiences to draw upon.

So I broke out my box of diaries, journals, spiral notebooks, notepads, computer printouts and stray pieces of paper containing my precious thoughts and feelings over a span of 20+ years, and I started to reminisce.

What a journey! Reading those pages was like going on an adventure in time!

Now if you have never kept a journal or don’t have any idea where all those captured thoughts have gone, don’t worry. You can start right now with this step-by-step Journal-Writing Action Plan.

If you are already familiar with keeping a journal, then check out these creative writing exercises. Your story is worth telling and keeping a journal is a fantastic way to do it!

Have you considered maintaining correspondence to further enhance your memoir-writing project?

How To Write ::  Suggested Chapters ::  Creative Writing Prompts ::  Journal Writing Prompts ::  Writing Exercises ::  Memoir Writing Tips ::  Ghostwriting ::  Get Published  :: Keep a Journal  :: Write a Letter  :: Make a Picture Scrapbook  :: Submit Your Story  :: Create an MBM Album  :: Publish a Book  :: First Visit to "The Old City"  :: Down Memory Lane  :: America  :: A Star is Born  :: Unconscious Truth  :: I was Touched by an Angel  :: The Middle Child  :: Dad  :: The Music Man  :: Two Dreams  :: 911  :: Once a Man, Twice a Child  :: Mission Space  :: The Night Before Christmas  :: Snow Hill Sniper  :: I Laid My Head in My Mother's Lap  :: Electroboy  :: The Glass Castle