Customer Reviews

Dear Diary: The Art and Craft of Writing a Creative Journal

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I found this book to be just the thing I needed to get started writing the journal I always wanted to keep. The author has shown me not only the how and why of journal keeping, but the many benefits to be derived from journals. In the first week, I began seeing some of the benefits in my own life. I recommend this book to all!!!!!!

are about all that this book has to offer. I found that it was full of suggestions like 'get a really nice pen to write your journal with.' I was hoping to learn more about the actual mechanics of writing a journal entry. Other books I have read recently suggest starting simple with a record of the daily weather, or a record of the people you met during the day. Then you slowly start increasing the details that you write on a daily basis. In contrast to this type of concrete suggestion, "Dear Diary" offers far too many generalizations to be truly helpful.

How else can I say it? This was a very poor book. To call it a "book" is being generous as it's really the size of a large brochure with A LOT of white space. There are many ideas that are so basic as to be insulting even to beginning journalers. When she tries to venture out - she's (in my opinion) wrong on a lot of things. For example, she seems big on rules for keeping a diary/journal, (writing at the same place every time you write, write at the same time each day, list events, do this and try not to do that). She even names what she calls the three PURPOSES of a journal. (There's only three?) She says the number one purpose in keeping a journal is to pass it along as a legacy for future family readers. You mean, it's not about expressing yourself on paper - for better or worse - but about keeping a record for future generations? To her, the legacy aspect is the #1 purpose in keeping a journal. Huh?

This is a "creative journal?" Most would agree a "creative journal," would have few, if any, rules and would have future readers far from the mind. Most would probably also think of a "creative journal," as being a constant companion; not something where you write a listing of events at the same time and in the same place each day. One other quick note: the book's "bibliography" lists nothing more than articles from magazines like American Heritage, Cosmopolitan, etc. Not a single book about historical journals, a single book about creative journals; in fact, I meant that literally - not a single book is listed - only magazine articles! I could go on with more examples, but I hope you get the idea. There are FAR better books for even the most virgin of diarists/journalers.