📖 7 Rules (they're not really rules) for Keeping a Writer's Journal

Sonia Simone shares a few ideas about how to use your journal as a pragmatic writing tool

This week, one of my favorite writing mentors Sonia Simone, talks about her writer’s studio journal and how it’s evolved into something that supports writing every day. The elegance of her practice is based on the simplicity of making things easy for yourself. (Go figure! 🤗)

Sonia has been a mentor, an inspiration, and a friend since her Copyblogger days. She’s always been that calm, kind, 1970s college radio voice on the internet teaching the fundamentals of how to get pragmatic, consistent results with good writing. Someone who shows you how to blend your creativity and unique perspective into everything you write.

She’s written professionally and creatively for more decades than she’d like to admit. She was a founding partner and chief content marketer for Copyblogger Media, publishing one of the most influential content marketing blogs on the web.

Today she writes for a handful of business clients and teaches writing and business skills for content marketers.

Based on a back-of-the-envelope estimate, Sonia has written about 1.6 million words professionally. (That’s the equivalent of around 23 full-length business books.)

Right now, she pens a regular newsletter for content writers, with a special report on how to get more writing done. Please check those out and subscribe for free at UnlockYourWords.com.

You’re learning from one of the best! So let’s get to it…

From Leonardo Da Vinci's 20,000 pages of mirror writing to Lynda Barry's raw and moving visual diaries, journals are just cool.

Virginia Woolf kept one. Lewis and Clark kept one. Toni Morrison used hers to develop the ideas for her novels and even to brainstorm her own pen name. (She started life as Chloe Ardelia Wofford.)

And just like every other form of creative work — as rewarding as journaling is, staying with the practice can get tricky.

I've been a daily writer for something close to 40 years now. And keeping a journal has been an essential part of that. 

Along the way, I've picked up some "rules" for myself, to stay consistent and keep my journaling practice fresh and relevant.

I put the word rules in quotes because I'm not big on hard and fast rules for creative work. 

We evolve, and our rules evolve with us.

But I thought I'd share my current set with you, in the hopes you'll find something useful for your own practice. 

And I'd love it if you'd be willing to share your own rules or practices for staying consistent with your creative work.

Let me mention one thing before I jump in ...

I think of my writing journal the way a painter or sculptor thinks of their studio. 

It's a place to get work done, to retreat when the world gets overwhelming, to try out terrible ideas, and maybe to refine some of those into good ideas. 

It isn't precious and it's not intended as a public work space.

So I think of my journal as a portable writer's studio (Jen wrote about it here: The Subtle Art of Noticing) — and that's how I'll talk about it.

OK, let's get started:

Photo by Khara Woods on Unsplash

Rule #1: Get into the studio every day 

This isn't always pleasant to hear, but I think it's important: 

All creative work benefits from daily practice.

That means I would love to gently challenge you to open your writer's studio and do something there every day. 

But.

There's a giant difference between daily practice and overwork.

Because pushing for too much daily output is a proven recipe for boredom and burnout. 

In my experience, the key is to let yourself have some really tiny days. 

No. Tinier than that. Really tiny.

If you write one sentence in your writer's studio today, that counts as your daily practice.

If you write five favorite words, that counts, too. You could decorate them with a doodle if you had an extra jolt of creative energy.

Copying your favorite Taylor Swift lyrics? Yep, totally counts. Copying work you love is a fabulous practice for writers.

Some of my favorite tiny practice options include: 

• Making a few observations about the physical world around me

• Capturing a scrap of conversation I overheard

• Copying a beautiful phrase from a piece of writing I enjoyed (make sure you note where you got it)

• Making lists of things I might want to write about someday

If I remember two minutes before midnight that I haven't done anything with the journal today, I can open it up and write a sentence or two wondering why dog snoring is so much less annoying than human snoring. 🐶

Rule #2: Every page is a fresh start

Did you ever keep a diary as a kid? Maybe it was one of those little ones with a tiny brass lock and gilt-edged pages, and each page printed with a day of the year.

And on January 8th when you forgot to make an entry, that blank page felt so bad you wanted to throw the whole thing in the trash.

I think Ry Carroll's Bullet Journal practice, as simple as it is, is one of the great evolutions in journaling. Partly because it makes getting a fresh start with every page easy.

If you missed eight months — or eight years — in your studio journal, just turn the page and start fresh.

If you think everything you wrote in the last 50 pages was stupid and embarrassing, turn the page and start fresh.

You can reflect (or not) later. 

But while you're working in the studio, keep your focus on what you're doing on the page now — not what happened last week or last month.

And related to that ... 

Rule #3: Finish the book

I swiped this practice from Lynda Barry. Her beautiful book Syllabus teaches a unique and useful approach to journaling for creative self-discovery.

So often, we collect gorgeous little blank books with the intention of filling them with perfect words.

And since there are no perfect words, we write three pages and then set the book on the shelf to quietly gather dust.

If you have some of those on your shelves, grab the prettiest one and start writing. Keep writing until it's full. Then set it on the shelf and grab the second-prettiest one.

Finishing has magic powers. Fill up your journals. 

And keep them lined up on the shelf. They're tangible evidence that you are a working writer. 

Rule #4: Don't get hung up on format

"There is no magic ink. There is no magic paper." - Spencer Nugent

As a general rule, I think paper has a lot of benefits for keeping a journal. It's tactile, it's incomparably flexible, and it doesn't need you to keep any particular tech up to date.

But if you're just not a paper person, paper is a bad choice for you.

Try to stay out of the rabbit hole of the "perfect journal format." 

There's an amazing amount of journaling content on Instagram and YouTube. Those design-inspired "spreads" and "fonts" are a ton of fun to look at. 

But they're entertainment, not writing advice.

If you follow Rule #2 and make every page a fresh start, you don't have to have a "perfect layout" today. 

Or ever.

And if that complicated eight-page calendar spread you copied from YouTube turns out to be a dud, abandon it and move forward.

Rule #5: The studio is private

Maybe one day, the pages of your writing journal will get published. 

After Toni Morrison lost many of her belongings in a house fire, archivists carefully stored the surviving pages of her writing diary in mylar protective folders. 

But for you and me, that’s not happening soon.

To serve you, your journal has to be a place where you can explore any idea — including wildly uncomfortable ideas.

If you have detailed Robespierre fantasies about your least favorite politician, your studio journal is a great place to work through them.

Your studio offers the perfect safe place to be mean-spirited, petty, unreasonable, spiteful, and boring.

As soon as you start coming to your studio with the intention of sharing it, you'll self-censor. 

So keep your studio private for now.

And if you feel like sharing some of those pages later, that's a decision for another time.

Photo by Alice Dietrich on Unsplash

Rule #6: The studio is allowed to get messy (with an exercise for perfectionists)

There are some genuinely gorgeous journals out there. 

José Naranja's delectable combinations of sketches, hand-drawn maps, and beautiful handwriting stand out for me.

Even Ry Carroll's spare bullet journals have an elegant minimalist appeal.

But an artist's studio is likely to have paint on the floor, clay on the walls, and piles of ugly paintings stacked up in the corner.

In your studio, you need to be able to make a mess.

If your handwriting is awful, if you sometimes fill entire pages with inventive combinations of curse words (highly recommended, by the way), or if you're just not a fancy pen person — that's all good.

The studio doesn't exist to be beautiful. It exists to get work done.

If you're a perfectionist and you find yourself getting uptight about "messing up" your nice book, try this exercise. I borrowed it from my sketchbook artist friends, and it works a treat for writers. 

Mess up the first page. 

Spill some ink or some red wine or some black coffee on that sucker. Scribble on it with crayons in ugly colors. Let the dog have a bit of a nibble.

Spend a few minutes to really make that first page or two look terrible.

Once you've made your first mess in that book, the rest of it feels less precious. 

And journals, like studios, are more valuable when they're less precious.

Rule #7: The studio goes with you everywhere 

Ideally, your studio journal will be in a format that's easy to stuff in your pocket or bag and cart around. 

It's so valuable to be able to jot down an observation or a creative idea at literally any time.

But I happen to like the Leuchtturm1917 hardcover A5, which is too big for most pockets. 

And when I switched to carrying a much smaller handbag, carting my studio journal around got less practical.

Also, because the studio is private, you may not want to carry it to work, or to a cafe where it could get lost or forgotten. 

(I have had this happen. It is just as horrible as you would think.)

If your favorite format isn’t perfectly portable, get some index cards or a cheap mini notebook. As you capture thoughts and observations on the go, you can stick them into your permanent studio with a glue stick or some scotch tape. 

Yes, you could use your phone for this. But that means more friction later in copying that wild thought back to the studio where it can do some good.

Experiment with what works best for you. 

How about you?

Do you keep a writing or creative journal? Are you interested in spending more consistent time in your journal this year?

If you have a favorite rule or practice of your own, share it below! Everyone's creative practice looks a little different, and we'd love to hear about yours.