Journals & Beyond

Searching for the perfect journal for yourself or for someone else can create a sense of joy and anticipation. The cover, paper, and size all can hold a special magic for writers and need to be chosen carefully. Receiving or giving a blank book as a gift gives it a special meaning and energy.

E-Mail Journal. Open a new account on a free online server such as Yahoo, Hotmail, etc. Use a pen name. Use the account completely, utterly, and absolutely as a place to store your writing.

Computer Journal. Keep your personal writing files together in one folder in your computer with a code name that you don't share: "Household Warranties" or TAXES 1995 or something equally misleading could be used if you share a computer. Simply labeling it "Fiction" might cover some embarrassing situations. Experiment with using different fonts, backgrounds, and links.

Web Notebook: Use web authoring software (FrontPage, Dreamweaver, GoLive, etc.) to create your own virtual scapbook--a sort of Journal Plus. Done this way, you can easily insert images, links, backgrounds, and special fonts for each page. (You can also do this in Word as well, but it is harder and less flexible.) Doing a journal this way makes it natural to hypertext your journal, that is, create links to and from specific pages and topics.

Hypertext You can create new ways to use hypertext or link pages that allow you to layer your writing. Take a portion of your journal and create links to new pages from key words. When you're writing and know that you want to say more about sub-subject but don't want to halt your main line of thought, underline the word and create a link to a new page. Then you can easily come back and fill it in. Or, as you write, create links to pertinent websites, images, lists, whatever.

There is also journaling software available for your computer.

Life Journal is especially comprehensive & helpful, but currently only for PC.

Here are a few others listed on Google:

ForeverJournal

i*write

The Journal

greymatter includes software for weblogs or blogs.

MacJournal

But it is easy to create your own web journal for personal use.