Writing Memoir: Using Journals & Diaries

Two old journals with blue covers. Photo credit: Michele Leavitt

Old journals and diaries kept during a time in your life you want to write about can provide raw material for more formal, refined writing. But even if you weren’t in the habit of spilling your guts out on the page when you kept a journal, a journal can still be useful for detecting certain elements about the character you were in the past, and the settings you inhabited.