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Writing in Journals

Thoughts, feelings, memories, hopes, dreams, fears, questions, wonders—these tumble ceaselessly through your mind. There’s so much energy there. You can plug into it by writing in a journal.

Joan Didion said, “I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see, and what it means. What I want and what I fear.” Journal writing lets you find out what you think. As a result, it improves mood and mental health and even speeds physical healing.

Journaling has one other benefit. It increases your writing fluency—your ability to write a lot in a short amount of time. That means, all your formal writing assignments will come more easily. Put simply, journal writing makes you a better writer.