Happy 2023! I’m not necessarily one for new year’s resolutions—but, the one resolution I come back to again and again is to keep a written record of my life.
Keeping a diary is a gift you give to your future self. I’ve been writing in the same diary since January 2004. It’s a gorgeous, large, pink leather journal that my mother gave me for Christmas that year.
Reading it back is always enlightening, consoling, and inspiring. It records travels, friendships, heart-breaks, family gatherings, conversations, and lots of quotations from my favorite books. It’s fascinating to observe how my thoughts have evolved or, in some cases, haven’t—how I reacted to set backs or victories in my 20s, compared to how I react to them today. Writing in (and re-reading) my diary helps me live deliberately.
What better time to re-invest in journaling than the new year? With that, here are 12 ways to write a diary to help kick-start a new year of journaling!
1. Resolutions
In the spirit of the new year, let’s start with noting resolutions. I particularly love Woody Guthrie’s (1912-1967) ambitious list of “New Years Rulin’s.” Check out how the singer-songwriter illustrated each of his goals. They range from the mundane (“5. take bath”) to the practical (“21. bank all extra money”) to the ambitious (“25. play and sing good”) to the global (“27. help win war—beat fascism”).
2. Nature Diaries
I found The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady at a tag-sale in the summer of 2020. At the time, it seemed like the perfect accompaniment to quarantine-days. Edith Holden (1871-1920) was a British naturalist. In 1907, she began a diary to record her observations.
For each month, Holden writes out the word’s etymology (January is “named from the Roman god Janus”) as well as a literary quote and mottoes for the month. She names all the flora and fauna she illustrates like the Blue Tits, Cole Tit, and Great Tit drawn in January:
Throughout the month, Holden documents her observations about nature.
3. Morning Pages
Many of you will know of Julia Cameron’s “Morning Pages”— three pages written without editing or backtracking, first thing in the morning to clear one’s mind. Cameron describes them:
Morning Pages are three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing, done first thing in the morning. There is no wrong way to do Morning Pages– they are not high art. They are not even “writing.” They are about anything and everything that crosses your mind– and they are for your eyes only. Morning Pages provoke, clarify, comfort, cajole, prioritize and synchronize the day at hand. Do not over-think Morning Pages: just put three pages of anything on the page…and then do three more pages tomorrow.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the practice, you can watch Cameron’s explanation here.
Incidentally, last month, I attended a talk by New Yorker staff writer, author, and Pulitzer Prize finalist, Elif Batuman, and she swears by morning pages.
4. Single Line Entries
Some of you might remember my post on Jim Henson’s diary of single-line entries. But he wasn’t the only one to use this method.
Like Henson, Charles Darwin also kept a diary filled with one-line entries. From 1838-1888, Darwin recorded his life in a single diary. In general, he notes professional events on the left-hand pages, while he reserves the right-hand pages for personal notes. Here are entries from 1858:
In 1858, Darwin was working on The Origin of Species. His left-hand notes include: “Began Section V…” or “Finished Instinct Chapter.” On the right side, he notes travels and deaths:“Miriam Parker died in July.” I appreciate how this method takes the pressure off of writing extensive reflections every day. Darwin kept a lot of notebooks, to document the books he read and his research. This will be the subject of next week’s post.
5. Commonplace Books (a Literary Diary)
Commonplace books are personal collections of quotations and information that a reader wants to remember. They were exceedingly useful in a time when books were too expensive for most readers to accumulate personal libraries. So, people would copy down the sections of books they wanted to reference later. Publishers put out blank books with prefatory material explaining how to keep a commonplace book. Here is an example from 1807:
And here is a page from the writer Radclyffe Hall’s commonplace book. It includes quotes from Swift, Fielding, and Shakespeare.
If you’d like to learn more about commonplace books, I’ve just published a book about them—How Romantics and Victorians Organized Information: Commonplace Books, Scrapbooks, and Albums.
6. Review Frame
Lynda Barry, the cartoonist, came up with this ingenious format for recording a day. Divide a page into 4 boxes. Going clockwise, note 7 things you did, 7 things you saw, a drawing, and 1 quote you heard. Here is Barry’s description from her book, Syllabus:
For inspiration, here is a page from Bronwen Tate’s notebook —she’s the author of the fabulous newsletter, Ok, But How? Look out for an interview with her coming soon!
This format is endlessly variable. As Barry explains, you could use it to record notes on a book you’ve just read or to summarize a year in your life. If you’d like to learn more, you can watch a video of Barry describing the process:
7. Illustrated Diaries
Who says that diaries should only contain words? Many artists, like Frida Kahlo, recorded their lives with a mixture of words and images.
You can read more about Frida’s diary here:
I’ve just finished reading Alan Rickman’s posthumously published journals. They are lyrical, reflective, and (sometimes) quite brutal. But, the best parts are the photographs of actual diary pages. Look at how he transforms a simple Moleskin diary:
8. One Page Diary
Many of you have already discovered the delights of Austin Kleon’s Substack. He’s a notebook fanatic, with the artistic skills to create some gorgeous notes. Check out his explanation of the “1-page diary”:
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And, you can read more about this exercise on his Substack:
9. Mourning Diaries
Let’s be honest: the new year is not always a happy time. For a variety of reasons, the end of one year and the beginning of another stirs up lots of emotions. This is especially true for those mourning the death of a loved one. During times of grief, people often turn to journaling as a way to remember the person they lost and to process their own emotions. The philosopher, Roland Barthes, did just that. On the day after his mother’s death, Barthes began a “mourning diary.” This was not a bound diary. Rather, he used slips of paper—regular typing paper, cut into quarters—to record his thoughts while mourning. This is one of his first entries:
— “Never again, never again!”
—And yet there’s a contradiction: “never again” isn’t eternal, since you yourself will die one day.
“Never again” is the expression of an immortal.
10. Tracking Goals
Benjamin Franklin kept one of the first bullet-journals. In his quest towards self-improvement, he tracked virtues he aspired towards. In his Autobiography, he tells us that he “made a little book in which I allotted a page for each of the virtues.”
Here are Franklin’s descriptions of each of them:1. TEMPERANCE. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
2. SILENCE. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
3. ORDER. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
4. RESOLUTION. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
5. FRUGALITY. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.
6. INDUSTRY. Lose no time; be always employ’d in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
7. SINCERITY. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
8. JUSTICE. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
9. MODERATION. Avoid extreams; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. CLEANLINESS. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.
11. TRANQUILLITY. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
12. CHASTITY. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dulness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.
13. HUMILITY. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.
He decided to tackle one at a time, and would track each day that he practiced each virtue. Here, he shows us the chart for Temperance’s week. Franklin listed the days of the week on the horizontal axis. On the vertical axis, he lists the 13 virtues. Upon examining his day, Franklin would use a black dot to signal times that he failed to practice that day’s virtue. (Silence and order seemed to be particularly difficult for him.)
Franklin devised the following daily schedule to help himself adhere to his virtue of “order”.
11. Recording Other Voices
Mark Twain kept a record of his children’s sayings, which he called “Notes on Foolishness.” Charles Darwin filled a notebook with his childrens’ first words. And the cultural critic, Walter Benjamin, wrote out his son’s words as he began to speak, along with how the child used these words. For example,
Little birds (pieces that fall to the ground when cutting nails. Coined by who?)…
Kiss (his name not only for the actual kiss but also anything damp, fruit juice etc. on his face)
12. Traditional Diaries
In this edition, I’ve highlighted unique uses of the diary. But, of course, brilliant writers often use diaries in traditional ways: they just fill a page with writing. I can’t close out this post without mentioning Virginia Woolf. In April 1937, she wrote one of my favorite descriptions of a diary. After spending the day working with the BBC, she turned to her journal and wrote:
What a mercy to use this page to uncramp in!
This list is only the beginning. I’m sure many of you have your own methods for recording your days. Let us know how you think about (and organize) diaries in the comments section below!
Cameron, Julia. The Miracle of Morning Pages: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the Most Important Artist’s Way Tool: A Special from Tarcher/Penguin. TarcherPerigee, 2013.
Franklin, Benjamin. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. H. Altemus, 1895, p.
Benjamin, Walter. Walter Benjamin’s Archive: Images, Texts, Signs. Verso Books, 2015.
Woolf, Virginia. The Diary of Virginia Woolf. Harcourt, 1985, p. 80 (April 21, 1937).
As someone who struggles with consistent journaling, this post really spoke to me. I guess I need to realize that there's more than one "correct" way to journal and just do what makes sense for me as the examples you gave did.
Great stuff here, thanks!
Love the excerpts, I envy diarists. The only diary I have been able to keep is a dream diary. If a dream is too vivid, I write down a faithful description of the sensation and emotion of it, rather than an analysis. There is no pressure to write everyday, but reading the previous entries once in a while brings up such great patterns 💖