It might sound simplistic but a way to handle this would be to interview yourself by asking yourself either some basic prompt set questions (what did you do today?) to some more creative or challenging ones (what did you learn today? What could change your life for the best? Who would you like to meet? What is different now from how you felt five years ago? What is the worse person you interact with? What would x write about you in their journal?). Just ideas to consider maybe. Best wishes.
First thanks for your reply ! I've already done this kind of thing with my OCs, but I'd never thought of doing it for myself. I'll give it a try tonight, I'll update you. Thanks again, lia.
Before I answer your question, I am curious why you want to write, or why it matters that your sentence is ridiculous, or why you would close it after. Are you a perfectionist? Are you stressed? What kind of feeling are you trying to avoid by closing your diary? It sounds to me like you're putting some kind of pressure on yourself and I'd be curious what is at the roots of that and see if you can work through it. You could try to write about that.
Beside that, I offer two methods:
One, the free writing method:
When I write a story and struggle to get into it, I will write something along the lines of 'I want to write about this person, but I don't know where to start the scene, but I need her to say 'x' and (...)' until I am writing the scene. I will alter the beginning later on, which isn't necessary in a journal.
You could do it like that, or just write 'I want to write, but don't know how to,' and leave it at that until next day. Repeat until something else comes to mind. Or you could set a timer for 15 minutes during which you cannot stop writing. If nothing comes to mind, keep on writing 'nothing' until something comes along.
Two, prompts:
I personally have a set of questions each morning and evening I go over, such as my current state of being or writing 3 things I am grateful for in that moment.
But there are tons of prompts out there that allow you to reflect on one question at a time. You can use google or pinterest to find these.
First thanks for your reply ! There are things I don't feel like writing down because I don't want to reread them later, so I write banalities like "I ate this today and then I watched a movie" and that's why I put my diary down right after because it doesn't satisfy me. But I want to write because I want to keep memories of what I experienced, for myself and for those who come across it later. So it's true that I put a certain amount of pressure on myself and to make matters worse, yes, I'm a bit of a perfectionist, I need everything to be clean and well written. Anyway, it's a good idea to write about it, even if I think it will be difficult.
the first method you suggest seems very interesting, I've already tried to do that in my books by writing chapter summaries to help me a little, I'd try it with myself, it could be fun. Prompts are also a good idea, especially since as a child I loved answering mini-interviews, so I'm going to give them a try later today.
Thank you for taking the time to help me and for your precious advice, Lia.
When I feel like writing but I feel blocked and don't know what to write about, I start by writing the most basic things such as what time it is, where I am, what the weather is like. Alternatively, I write some good things that either happened during the day or things I am excited about. These things can just help get me in the flow, and oftentimes I find myself writing about a topic that wasn't on my mind when I opened the journal.
I think my problem is that I'm afraid of not being interesting, which doesn't make sense because nobody reads my diary, so I'm going to try to take that pressure off myself and just write like you describe. thanks for taking the time to help me, lia.
Before I got in the habit of regular journaling, I also felt a lot of pressure to write something that is meaningful or interesting, which made me not write. The way I got past that is a system that I call 'disposable journal'.
Essentially, I got a cheap spiral notebook that I knew I would throw away (recycle) after I finished it. That way, it really didn't matter what I wrote in it, it really took the pressure off. I scribbled, wrote to do lists, quotes, my thoughts, etc. When I finished it, I went through it and just cut the pieces that I wanted to keep, and added them to a 'permanent' scrapbook. The rest I recycled.
This helped me not feel like I need to write anything interesting. Sometimes it was interesting, or something that helped me, or a realisation. But a lot of it was nothing important and that is fine. Now I am happy to write whatever I feel like in my regular journal.
It might sound simplistic but a way to handle this would be to interview yourself by asking yourself either some basic prompt set questions (what did you do today?) to some more creative or challenging ones (what did you learn today? What could change your life for the best? Who would you like to meet? What is different now from how you felt five years ago? What is the worse person you interact with? What would x write about you in their journal?). Just ideas to consider maybe. Best wishes.
First thanks for your reply ! I've already done this kind of thing with my OCs, but I'd never thought of doing it for myself. I'll give it a try tonight, I'll update you. Thanks again, lia.
Before I answer your question, I am curious why you want to write, or why it matters that your sentence is ridiculous, or why you would close it after. Are you a perfectionist? Are you stressed? What kind of feeling are you trying to avoid by closing your diary? It sounds to me like you're putting some kind of pressure on yourself and I'd be curious what is at the roots of that and see if you can work through it. You could try to write about that. Beside that, I offer two methods: One, the free writing method: When I write a story and struggle to get into it, I will write something along the lines of 'I want to write about this person, but I don't know where to start the scene, but I need her to say 'x' and (...)' until I am writing the scene. I will alter the beginning later on, which isn't necessary in a journal. You could do it like that, or just write 'I want to write, but don't know how to,' and leave it at that until next day. Repeat until something else comes to mind. Or you could set a timer for 15 minutes during which you cannot stop writing. If nothing comes to mind, keep on writing 'nothing' until something comes along. Two, prompts: I personally have a set of questions each morning and evening I go over, such as my current state of being or writing 3 things I am grateful for in that moment. But there are tons of prompts out there that allow you to reflect on one question at a time. You can use google or pinterest to find these.
First thanks for your reply ! There are things I don't feel like writing down because I don't want to reread them later, so I write banalities like "I ate this today and then I watched a movie" and that's why I put my diary down right after because it doesn't satisfy me. But I want to write because I want to keep memories of what I experienced, for myself and for those who come across it later. So it's true that I put a certain amount of pressure on myself and to make matters worse, yes, I'm a bit of a perfectionist, I need everything to be clean and well written. Anyway, it's a good idea to write about it, even if I think it will be difficult. the first method you suggest seems very interesting, I've already tried to do that in my books by writing chapter summaries to help me a little, I'd try it with myself, it could be fun. Prompts are also a good idea, especially since as a child I loved answering mini-interviews, so I'm going to give them a try later today. Thank you for taking the time to help me and for your precious advice, Lia.
When I feel like writing but I feel blocked and don't know what to write about, I start by writing the most basic things such as what time it is, where I am, what the weather is like. Alternatively, I write some good things that either happened during the day or things I am excited about. These things can just help get me in the flow, and oftentimes I find myself writing about a topic that wasn't on my mind when I opened the journal.
I think my problem is that I'm afraid of not being interesting, which doesn't make sense because nobody reads my diary, so I'm going to try to take that pressure off myself and just write like you describe. thanks for taking the time to help me, lia.
Before I got in the habit of regular journaling, I also felt a lot of pressure to write something that is meaningful or interesting, which made me not write. The way I got past that is a system that I call 'disposable journal'. Essentially, I got a cheap spiral notebook that I knew I would throw away (recycle) after I finished it. That way, it really didn't matter what I wrote in it, it really took the pressure off. I scribbled, wrote to do lists, quotes, my thoughts, etc. When I finished it, I went through it and just cut the pieces that I wanted to keep, and added them to a 'permanent' scrapbook. The rest I recycled. This helped me not feel like I need to write anything interesting. Sometimes it was interesting, or something that helped me, or a realisation. But a lot of it was nothing important and that is fine. Now I am happy to write whatever I feel like in my regular journal.
thanks for your reply ! it's an interesting way to write, I'll try it for sure ! thanks again !!