Sometimes it's hard to keep a diary, especially when nothing much is happening. But I'm a great fan of Lynda Barry and I use the four-minute diary (sort of) that she describes in this video and in her book Syllabus.

Here's a sneak peek at some of my entries . . .

For me, three things are really important:
1. Don't censor--just get down what you can remember; it doesn't seem like a big deal at the time, but when you go back and read what you wrote it's pretty interesting to see that you went to see Jaws at the movie theatre yesterday. (I did that!!).
2. Use the $1 journal Lynda Barry suggests--this is important for all writing, I think. If you buy a big, fancy journal, you'll feel that only "perfect" stuff can go in. Get something cheap and scribble in it whenever you want.
3. I use colour because it makes me HAPPY. You could buy colouring books, but it's way more fun to draw your own pictures and colour them in . . . you can see I get a bit carried away with the drawing part of the exercise and I usually spend more time than 30 seconds, but if drawing isn't your thing, a quick sketch will do!

T