Journal writing is like singing in the shower—I can let ’er rip without fear of judgment.

Write Letters in Your Journal Write to your characters, friends, loved ones—dead or alive.

travel exercise known as a lapidary—an odd name for a writing exercise, as lapidary is a term for working with gemstones, and the point of the exercise is to avoid being “polished.”

As the poet and essayist Henry David Thoreau wrote in his journal in 1851, “The question is not what you look at, but what you see.”

Try writing in different places. (Before you do, gather up all those scattered notes you have and enter all of them in the notebook.) Try to write in at least one new place a week if you can. Carry a list of writing exercises with you at all times if you are worried about having nothing to write.

the importance of journal keeping as a powerful tool for creative expression and self-healing, and a way to help solidify thoughts in both one’s personal and literary life.

Keeping a journal, if you’re capable of being honest with yourself, can facilitate a deeper understanding of the role you’ve played in some of life’s conflicts.

The idea is to record your first impressions of a place as quickly as possible, avoiding the filter of self-consciousness.

The journal is a place where you can shed the mask you wear during the course of your day.