The New Diary: How to Use a Journal for Self-Guidance and Expanded Creativity

by Tristine Rainer

The New Diary is the definitive text on contemporary journal writing. Originally published in 1978, it has never been out of print and remains the bestselling book on how to get the greatest psychological and creative benefits from keeping a diary. For the first time, it is available as an e-book, revised and updated to address the urgent need for profound self-guidance during this time of seclusion. Because personal journal writing is so valuable during periods of transition, the author has severely reduced the market price, making the e-book available to everyone for the duration of the shut-down.

The New Diary is as much for those who already keep a journal as it is for those who have never kept one. It does not tell you the "right" way to keep a diary; rather, it offers numerous possibilities for using the diary to achieve your own purposes. It dismisses correctness in writing and judgments because you cannot do it wrong. It presents a way to know your true self intimately, to come into harmony with your values, to focus your energies, and to free your intuition and imagination. It is a workbook for exploring your nighttime and your waking dreams, your past, and your current evolution.

It is for everyone seeking concrete methods for dealing with personal problems and challenges, for discovering writing as a way to grieve, for maintaining mental health, and achieving your individual brand of happiness and inner liberation. It is also for artists and writers seeking techniques for overcoming blocks to creativity and helpful companionship in developing a creative work.

Genres: Writing, Journaling, Nonfiction, Self Help

Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 1978

About the author

Tristine Rainer, Ph.D, is a pioneer in the fields of contemporary journal writing and narrative autobiography. Her book The New Diary, how to use a journal for self-guidance and expanded creativity has sold over 200,000 copies and has been used as a text in university Psychology and Occupational Therapy courses, although her degree was in English Lit. After a quarter of a century in print The New Diary will see a new, revised edition in 2004. Her book Your Life as Story, Writing the New Autobiography, published in 1997 hit the Los Angeles Times bestseller list and is presently being used as a text in many college writing programs.

Rainer is the founder and director of the Center for Autobiographic Studies, a non-profit educational organization that encourages the creation and preservation of autobiographic works. A founder of UCLA’s Women’s Studies Program, Rainer was also a grad student there. She taught personal writing for 25 years through the English Departments at UCLA and at Indiana University, with her friend and mentor Anaïs Nin for International College, through the UCLA Extension Writers program, and privately as a writer's coach to a diverse array of clients, many of whom have successfully published autobiographic books with her assistance. She is currently an adjunct professor within the Masters of Professional Writing Program at USC. http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/mpw
In a whole separate life, Rainer wrote and produced four award winning network movies for television based on true life stories. It was this experience of shaping stories in the trenches, she says, that gave her the key to how teach anyone to transform their own life experience into a compelling story.

Copyright 2005 Center for Autobiographic Studies

Reviews

[Tea and Spite · Rating 1 out of 5]

My god, how many pseudoscientific misunderstandings of pop psychology can one book have? I was too busy being irritated to keep track.

Listen, I'm all for diary-keeping. I have kept what Rainer would consider a "New Diary" since I learnt to write. But a diary will not let you see into the future. It will not cure your cold. It will not tell you about the father you never met. It just won't. What you are observing when you believe those things is confirmation bias, a term Rainer would do well to look up. Does it make you feel better to believe you're a super special emotional genius who can ~sense~ things? Maybe. Some people are into that. Doesn't make it true.

So, for those of you who aren't into quackery, here are the key takeaways once you remove the bullshit:

- Write when you feel the urge
- Use whatever technology you're most comfortable with
- If you want to share it, treat the diary like a private first draft and then make a second for your partner/blog/publisher/whatever
- Write freely and honestly
- Grammar and spelling don't matter
- Don't be afraid to write the taboo stuff

That's about it. If you really must pick up the book, maybe because you have writer's block or sadistic tendencies, the most practical chapters are 4, 5, and 10. Four and five are on types of diary entries, ten is on overcoming writer's block. Two is also potentially useful if you are roughly the age of the writer (Boomer-ish), but likely repetitive and a bit obvious or ridiculous sounding to anyone under about 50. Skim the rest at your own risk.

2025 Re-read: Yup, still way too much woo-woo. Even being a bit more open to some of the sillier exercises couldn't get me past the "wtf pseudoscientific bullshit is this" response. Chapters on types of diary entry are still useful for experimentation.

[Stephanie Affinito · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a must-read for anyone who enjoys writing, notebooking and/or journaling and wants to harness the practice as a tool for wellness, creativity and personal growth. Such thorough content mixed with science, research and personal experience.

[Dylan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes this feels like a three star book, but then when I step back and look at the breadth of topics covered that’s where the four star value comes in.

I’ve been journalling for over ten years, and I picked up plenty of things from this book to enrich one of the most rewarding practices in my daily life. But there are also a lot of techniques in here that I have no interest in trying. That’s the mixed bag that is this book. If you already keep a journal, it’s hard to imagine you won’t get something of value from reading this. I say go for it.

However, I’m not sure how I’d feel recommending this to someone looking to *start* a journal. Maybe read the first few chapters and then come back for the rest after a few years, lest you get distracted by all the places this practice can take you and give up on the journey altogether.

[Jessica Toro]

"The diary is the only form of writing that encourages total freedom of expression. Because of its very private nature, it has remained immune to any formal rules of content, structure, or style. As a result the diary can come closest to reproducing how people really think and how consciousness evolves," writes Rainer in her 1977 forward notes.
I've been writing a journal for over thirteen years. I had been unknowingly using diary devices to discover joy, transform personal problems, to reflect and expand creativity throughout these years. My growing interests in various areas of research in rhetoric & composition, the benefits of free-writing, and existentialist views coupled with my love of nature and environmentalism felt so scattered, until I found this book. Rainer describes herself as "an environmentalist of the mind," as she wanted to "proclaim and defend the diary's wilderness beauty". Diary writing requires the existentialist attitude that we create something out of nothing, that we seek meaning, and that we create our own meaning through the use of writing devices and reflection, under the protection that the diary provides. For years, I have recommended journal/diary writing to anyone. This book helps me articulate more reasons why.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked a lot of this book, but I thought the last many chapters could have been cut (perhaps the last half of the book was unnecessary). She started making the same point over and over with slightly different contexts. But, focusing on just the first half, I liked the variety of techniques described, examples from published and personal diaries, and certainly highlighted a lot of quotes I imagine I'll come back to about the utility and power of the journal.

[Gary Fretwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

The One…

If you want to learn the value and possibilities of Journaling, there is no other book I would recommend. This book is comprehensive and written in a very approachable style. I loved it, please give it a read, you will truly learn the magic of journaling.

[Krista · Rating 3 out of 5]

This how-to book offered a variety of methods one could use in their personal diary. Some of it is rather common sense, but there were some things I found myself wanting to try.

[Ralph Washington · Rating 5 out of 5]

wig flew!

[Lacey Louwagie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is nearly fifty years old (although it was updated in 2020), and I still found it deliciously relevant. So many ideas for techniques to use in journal writing to achieve your goals of greater self-exploration and integration. Rainer takes the perspective of journal's main purpose as being an aid to self-discovery and meaning making, so for the most part her tips are not geared toward creating a narrative or publishable journal, although she does touch on that briefly near the end. I enjoyed using some of the devices for a new angle on exploring my psyche, especially in areas that I tend to feel as if I am stuck and repeating the same self-defeating patterns again and again. I also intend to make some of the suggestions a part of my "regular" journaling routine, such as naming each journal at the start to call forth what you hope to "manifest"* in this era of your life and re-reading each journal at the end, leaving a blank page for reflection after your readthrough. While the copyright originally put me off this one, it turned out to be an oldie but goodie!

*Yes, this book uses words like "manifest" and makes a lot of claims supported by anecdotal evidence and "intuition" rather than data. In a book about creativity I can take this in stride, experimenting with whether I might get similar results and tossing out anything that seems silly or useless.