One of my dad’s favourite catchphrases is “document your journey.” He’s a photographer and brand consultant so I’ve always thought of it in terms of taking pictures to remember a moment or capture an emotion, but it’s also great advice for writing. Journaling is the act of regularly writing down one’s thoughts and experiences in order to reflect or gain deeper insight. Journaling is also a key tenet of the philosophy of stoicism.

Stoicism is an ancient Greek philosophy that was popular throughout the Roman Empire. A common misconception about stoicism is that it advocates inaction in favour of determinism. Or says that people should be unmoving and emotionless in response to negative situations. When in truth, stoicism is all about taking stock of one’s thoughts and experiences in order to improve one’s life. Marcus Aurelius, known as the last good Roman emperor, is an important figure in the school of stoicism. Aurelius believed the practice of journaling allowed people to think more clearly and live more virtuous lives. He thought of journaling as a thought exercise.

This principle, like my dad’s saying, can also be applied to writing. By making a daily, or regular, account of your ideas and experiences you can organize your thoughts in ways that will help your writing. I did some researching and reflecting of my own and came up with these ways that journaling can help you improve your writing.

Repetition, repetition, repetition

Hip-hop philosopher Lil Wayne once said, “Repetition is the father of learning.” The same is true of journaling. Ideally, journaling should happen every day at the same time so that it becomes part of your routine. By establishing a set time to journal or work on a creative project you’re eliminating some of the time-management-related stress that often comes with writing. Aurelius believed that discipline is necessary for both journaling and self-improvement. Establishing good writing habits is one of the standard pieces of advice given to writers, no matter if you’re looking to improve your writing, finish a project or just get back into the habit of writing. Plus, like any other skill, the more time you dedicate to it the better you become.

Put Your Characters in Your Shoes

When you’re journaling, it's important to be as honest as possible with yourself and to pay close attention to detail. Think about as many of the interactions with people you had throughout the day as you can. Depending on the kind of world you’re building or story you’re telling, it may be helpful to base some story details on aspects of reality. You could use the events of your day as a model for a day-in-the-life of your characters and adapt details as necessary. The little interactions between characters may not be the most fascinating parts of your story but they are necessary for establishing character, advancing the plot, and setting the pace of the story.

They say one of the hardest things to write in a story is realistic sounding dialogue, and journaling can provide a solution. By journaling your interactions with people, you’re able to see how real conversations play out and the thought processes that accompany them. Another exercise you could try is use the events and thoughts of your day as a way to develop your characters. One of my favourite exercises for developing a character’s personality is to imagine how they’d respond to a variety of different circumstances that they never actually find themselves in during the story. Having well-rounded characters makes it easier to write for them because it allows you to have a more holistic understanding of who they are.

Thinking About Other People

Stoics believe you should think carefully about the impact and influence other people have in your life or have had in the past. What you’ve learned from other people and your relationship to others is a central proponent of journaling. By acknowledging the influence of other people, and your impact on them, you can gain a sense of gratitude and a deeper understanding of why something is the way that it is. You can examine your past and perspective by asking yourself a series of questions and answering them. This is both a good exercise for journaling as well as a great method for developing characters. Some questions to consider are:

What are my best characteristics and who influenced me to develop them?

How does (a specific person) affect and influence my life decisions, feelings, and behavior?

What value has (a specific person) added to my life? What wisdom, achievements, or fortunate events of mine can I give them some credit for?

What characteristics does [person] have that I admire?

When you’re answering these questions, think about how these influences would manifest in the individuals, what event sparked these influences and how they would affect relationships.

Journaling for Mental Health:

Despite being a helpful tool for improving one’s writing, journaling and stoicism are meant to be a guide to self-mastery, inner tranquility, and psychological resilience. A study by researchers at Cambridge University found journaling helps improve well-being after traumatic and stressful events. Like the one we’ve been living in for the past two-and-a-half months. In the study, participants asked to write about such events for 15–20 minutes resulted in improvements to both physical and psychological health.

Whether you’re journaling or considering journaling as an exercise for good mental health or for writing development, the goal is the same. The purpose of recounting what’s happened to you and how you've reacted is to take some time for yourself to do some introspection and make changes to improve moving forward.