Dear Diary:

Source: here

Those who keep a diary tend to be negatively represented in literature, film and TV.  Adrian Mole, Georgia Nicolson, Bridget Jones - they're all preposterous characters, brought together by their apparent desire to document every last cringeworthy detail of their day to day lives in a journal.  There's that famous quote we've all heard (apparently first uttered by American actress, Tallulah Bankhead) that goes: 'Only good girls keep diaries.  Bad girls don't have time.'  Clearly, it's just massive losers who write a journal.  Massive losers like me.

Loser or not, I'm here to defend the act of keeping a diary.  I've always found it extremely therapeutic.  You might think you wouldn't have anything to write about, but you'll be surprised what comes out once you lift a pen and start writing.  When I kept a regular journal, I would usually spend around an hour writing each entry, and the time would fly by.  It doesn't matter if what you write is embarrassing, offensive or a self indulgent lie because - unless you have nosy siblings or flatmates - nobody is ever going to read it, apart from you.  That's the beauty of a good, old fashioned paper diary.

1. Agenzio small purple ruled notebook from Paperchase (£8)
2. Set of 3 Cavallini Mini Map Journals from Oliver Bonas (£9.50)
3. Laura Ashley Marciana A6 notebook from WH Smith (£4.99)

I kept diaries consistently throughout my undergrad degree, and I favoured A6 size, lined notebooks, which were easy to cart about with me and weren't expensive.  As uni got busier and more difficult, I found less and less time to write in my journal, sometimes leaving three months or more between entries.  I really missed it, though.  Like I said, it was my personal version of therapy.

Then, when I was compiling my Christmas wishlist, I stumbled upon a solution to my problem.  The One Line a Day five year memory book is a small journal with only six short lines worth of space to fill in for each day.  The diary is designed so that you can see what you were up to on any given day across the span of five years, which is a pretty interesting idea!  Although I sometimes miss my long and winding journal rambles, having to sum up a whole day so concisely is a satisfying challenge.  It also usually makes for much more amusing diary entries!  I started writing in my copy on the 1st of this month, and will do my best to remember to fill it in every day.  It'll be nice to keep five years' worth of memories in one, beautifully blue book.

An even less conventional journal idea (which I also received for Christmas, thank you, Santa!) is the Music Listography Journal.  I know that some people are natural born list makers and some aren't, but I absolutely love writing lists.  Even though I am a terrible procrastinator, I find making regular to do lists extremely soothing, for whatever reason.  If you're the same, any of the Listography Journals will be perfect for you.  There are quite a few different versions, but the basic concept is the same.  Each page has a different heading (e.g. 'List moments in music you'll never forget' or 'List band names for your fictitious bands') with printed lines below for you to fill in to your heart's content.  It's a fun, creative exercise, and you'll end up with an extensive record of whichever Listography topic you choose.

If you've never tried keeping a journal before, I would highly recommend it!  As well as being something you can look back on (and a mostly accurate fact checker about past events) it might just make you feel a little bit better when life's getting to you.  If there's something you want to say but can't, you can always write it down.  It's much more satisfying than posting cryptic Facebook statuses, trust me.