Dear Ask Tina: 

The instructor in my college creative writing class insisted that journal writing was not “real” writing. He said it was fine for getting warmed up, but because it doesn’t follow a structure, it was not serious writing. Because I have been a faithful journal keeper for decades, I assumed that meant I can’t consider myself a real writer. This belief has impacted me more than I thought. Every time I try to produce something “real,” I’m paralyzed. Was he right? If so, how can I turn into a real writer? 

Signed, 

Imposter

Dear Imposter,

I view the idea of being a “real” writer much the same way I view being a step-parent. The skills involved in being a step-parent are much the same as being a biological parent. At some point, it’s all just awkward semantics. In my view, a writer is someone who writes. Period.

Perhaps your instructor never kept a journal. If so, he’s likely in the minority. Though I have no statistics to back up my claim, I believe it is a rare writer who never had a journal of some sort. Some notable writers, such as Susan Sontag, Sylvia Plath, Franz Kafka, and Virginia Woolf, kept journals from a young age. In fact, there are published books consisting solely of journal entries, such as The Diary of Anaïs Nin and Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl. I daresay those authors are considered real writers. 

It’s worth noting that much like the definition of a writer, the definition of journaling is also varied. Some writers keep a diary-like journal filled with emotional tussles and confessions meant for their eyes only; others keep a notebook to record thoughts and ideas that may be used in future writing projects; still, others use journals as a warm-up, to work things out before writing. Anaïs Nin insists her life-long diary writing helped her “discover some basic elements essential to the vitality of writing.” Seems like a good tool to me.

At some point, of course—and solely at the writer’s discretion—words and ideas can be lifted up out of the journal and be shaped into a recognizable form familiar to readers. If a writer doesn’t want to take that step, that doesn’t preclude them from being a “real” writer. 

If you’d like to make that leap, consider putting just as much time and energy into other forms of writing as you do your journal. Maybe start out a writing session with a short journal entry and then shift to another page or screen to do more formal writing, and/or you might employ an adaptation of thematic coding, a qualitative research technique: go through your journals with a colorful highlighter and mark up sentences or phrases that stand out or repeat. Carry them over onto a new page and see if a piece of “real” writing begins to take shape. 

Used in this way, a journal can be a powerful tool in a writer’s toolbox. As such, the debate about it being “real” writing seems irrelevant and certainly shouldn’t define who you are or aren’t.

Finally, your instructor is just a human with a clear opinion, as am I. But since you wrote to me, I get the final say: I anoint you a real Writer, with a capital “W.” Congratulations! 

Now, go write. 

Reference:

• Popova, M. (n.d). “Celebrated Writers on the Creative Benefits of Keeping a Journal.” The Marginalian