Keeping a Journal You Love

by Sheila Bender

Keeping a Journal You Love mixes practical instruction from beloved author Sheila Bender with advice and sample journal entries from respected writers such as Ron Carlson, Patricia Hampl, Jim Harrison, Robin Hemley, Philip Lopate and others. Readers will find dozens of writing prompts and inspiring instruction that will teach them how to get more use and enjoyment from their journals. Beginning journalers, as well as more experienced ones, will learn to write about travel, hobbies, personal thoughts, insights, emotions and theories. A final chapter explains how to move from journal entry to publishable piece. * Dozens of insightful writing prompts help readers get more use and enjoyment from their journals
* Includes sample entries from respected professional writers

Genres: Journaling, Nonfiction, Writing, Self Help

214 pages, Paperback

First published April 23, 2001

About the author

Sheila Bender is the founder of Writingitreal.com. She teaches online and in-person offering classes and writing consults by Zoom as well.

Her passion is to facilitate those who write from personal experience. Visit her at WritingItReal.com and look for her classes as well at Il Chiostro, Women on Writing, and the International Association for Journal Writing.

Reviews

[Bridget]

This journaling book was not what I was looking for. I ended up going back to "Bird by Bird" by Ann Lamott. One of the best journaling books ever.

[Liz Shine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been an intermittent journaler all my life. I’ve used a blog like a journal too. Journaling is something I’d like to do more of in 2018. First on paper, then hoping some of it will make my blog on writing. This book had many tips and samples to inspire and motivate me. Worth the read!

[Allen Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great little book. I'm much more interested in the "how to" and the prompts part of the book--the author gives many examples of ways to get started, keep going, and to dig deeper into our psyche. I'm less interested in reading what others have written, thus only 4 stars.

[Rosemarie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read half.

[Justin Kreuter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great for generating creative ideas, complete with examples from other writers ✅

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book aimed toward journalers who also want to write, although the book description doesn't make that clear. Bender quotes from the journals of published writers (fiction and non-fiction) and lets those excerpts inspire writing and journaling exercises for the reader to try. This isn't a book for people who have never journaled before, yet it doesn't really offer much to the experienced journaler either. Perhaps advanced beginners would get the most out of this book, plus its target audience: people who want to write, period.

[Rebecca Eve · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had some helpful tips and interesting parts, but it seemed confused. I couldn't tell if it was written as a creative writing books, as in "journaling your way to becoming a better fiction writer" or as a book about getting your life down on paper. I thought it would be the latter. It mostly tried to be both, but fell short with each topic. Also, the journal excerpts as examples got old and most of the tips were rather shallow. It's a fine book and a fun enough read, but not one I'll return to for reference.

[Literary Mama]

As my children grew from preschoolers to high schoolers, entries to my childhood diary increased while my responses to writing prompts became more and more sporadic; those one-line prompts didn't always strike the right chord to get my creative juices flowing. I started to rethink “journaling” and how I spent my writing time, and turned to these books for guidance.

Read Literary Mama's full review here: http://www.literarymama.com/reviews/a...

[Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are a lot of great suggestions in this book, and many of the exercises are quite fun. Nothing is particularly revolutionary, but if you do want to start a journal you can keep up with, Bender gives important writing reminders and interesting ways to keep coming up with new material.

Some of the journaling examples, however, are pretty boring and less than enlightening. I feel I could have completely skipped over those excerpts and still gotten just as much from the book as I did.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked this book alright I'm just not sure this approach to journaling works for me. While there were some suggestions that interested me most of it is based off of ideas from others journal writings and while there's nothing wrong with that in and of itself, it can make it harder to let your own voice come through in your writing.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a little touchy-feely, but there is some good advice here.

[Pamela Trawick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had many options/suggestions for journaling that were interesting and productive. However, all the samples were from her previous book so the try-it-yourself portion was the only new part.

[Emily]

@ Weber.

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm in the process of trying to write again and I'm starting with a journal. I kept a journal for years and I picked this book up for any hints/suggestions.

[K. Quincey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Has a few general writing tips, prompts and journal examples.