Keep a Journal: The Basics

by Matt Briggs

From the journal is as essential a tool to someone who thinks (as an activity) as a sketchbook is to the painter. We tend not to think of thinking as an activity anymore than we think of breathing as an activity, and yet, thinking and writing and keeping a journal are linked. I often don’t know what I think about something until I’ve written it down, and I often don’t know what I am going to write until I’ve written it. And I do this thinking, writing, and reading what I think in a journal.A journal is different from a diary, although in paging through an old journal you may discover the story of the journal keeper. Unlike a diary which is a chronicle or log of a person’s life, a journal is the private space of the keeper to work out their thoughts, ideas, fears, and dreams in a visible form. The process of keeping a journal clarifies your thought by exposing it in a way where you can examine it with a degree of dispassion. When it remains inarticulate, it remains transitory and prone to evaporation. Keeping a journal has many practical applications from helping you to recover from trauma, tracking your progress in weight loss, guiding you through lifting weights, improving your memory, helping you learn to write with more grace, to helping you grow your creative skills.This booklet introduces the fundamental process of keeping a journal. Future books will look at using the process outlined here along with my experience in teaching classes on writing, creativity, and memory. I have also learned a great deal about keeping a journal by teaching classes for people recovering from chronic illnesses. After you read this booklet, you will have the framework for keeping your own journal.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Self Help, Journaling

32 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 19, 2013

About the author

Matt Briggs grew up in the Snoqualmie Valley, raised by working-class, counter-culture parents who cultivated and sold cannabis. Briggs has written two books set in rural Washington chronicling this life, The Remains of River Names and Shoot the Buffalo. Critic Ann Powers wrote of Briggs first book in the New York Times Book Review, "Briggs has captured the America that neither progressives nor family-value advocates want to think about, where bohemianism has degenerated into dangerous dropping out." Briggs has published a number of collection of stories, including The Moss Gatherers and The End is the Beginning. Of his stories, Jim Feast wrote in the American Book Review, "All of Briggs’s zigzagging stories are told with great attention to the details of lowbrow culture and the contours of the American Northwest."

Reviews

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very limited scope (and length) - super basics

The title is accurate when it says that it is basics, but it is extremely basic and limited in what it talks about. This is a short pamphlet more than a book, and other than describing what a free write is or how to do it, which was interesting, the author describes what a list is, and 2 other super basic concepts. I borrowed this on Kindle unlimited so I don't mind that I read it, but I would have been frustrated if I had paid money for this.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Basics of journaling

This book lays out what a journal is and why it is not a diary. This covers just the very basics of starting a journal. If you decide to proceed you would want to find more detailed directions. Worth reading to see if you actually want to journal.

[Roxie · Rating 5 out of 5]

succinct and accessible

A good summary of the techniques of the “writing process movement.” Not sure how much new information is here but it’s well organized and I like the way he uses language.

[Melody Rider · Rating 4 out of 5]

For beginners

As stated in the title, this is pamphlet is about the basics of journaling. Particular attention is paid to freewriting and its benefits.

[Erwin Blonde · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short and good

Good ebook on Journaling, well constructed and fun to read. Puts you into action and is much more realistic than most journaling ebooks.

[Jo Ann Elmore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Journal

The book is written to start writing. I am going to write as a diary and not a journal. I plan on trying

[Ridwan · Rating 2 out of 5]

A pretty basic book on why to keep a journal. Any blog post on the internet or a YouTube video would be more helpful than this book.

[Rusty Johnson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not much here, sorely needs editing

Not much to offer in the short amount of pages. Replete with poor grammar that is immensely distracting and makes it genuinely difficult to read.

[Cass · Rating 1 out of 5]

Please edit!

This could be a decent pamphlet if all the parenthetical placeholders were replaced with the intended whatever, and the last chapter wasn't word vomit. Clearly a first draft. Can I have my twenty minutes back?

[Debbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Keeping a journal

I already knew how to write a journal but was given a lot of ideas. Also learned a lo about form & free writing. Was a great book, would recommended to my friends. Thank you.

[Mycala · Rating 3 out of 5]

He's not kidding here. This really is the basics. Even so, there are some interesting ideas that maybe some people might not have known about.

[Cim]

This book is really enabling me to take my journaling to new levels.

[Sandy Mathews · Rating 4 out of 5]

Journaling tips

This book was a good reminder of journaling tips that I found to be helpful as I begin to journal.