They’re photographs of my mind and they help me make a kind of sense of my development as a person as well as of my development as a writer.

travel exercise known as a lapidary—an odd name for a writing exercise, as lapidary is a term for working with gemstones, and the point of the exercise is to avoid being “polished.”

The idea is to record your first impressions of a place as quickly as possible, avoiding the filter of self-consciousness.

“Writing a journal means that facing your ocean, you are afraid to swim across it,” wrote George Sand, “so you attempt to drink it drop by drop.”

The pages of the journal make no judgments and should be free of editors, critics, and teachers. Whether the writer is expressing deeply held beliefs, recording snippets of overheard dialogue, making observations, listing ideas for future projects, or copying a favorite poem, the notebook should be a vital part of the creative tool kit.

No one can expect to write well who would not first take the risk of writing badly.

A personal journal can be many things. It can be a record of life events, a sounding board, or a tool for personal growth.

writer’s notebook is a safe place for such experiments to be undertaken.

The journal is a place where you can shed the mask you wear during the course of your day.