1. What is your current online diary's URL? (Please provide a link to your diary!)

2. When did you first start a diary, and why? What did you write about at first? How long have you kept diaries, and was that consistenly or just here and there?

3. Whether your first diary was electric or paper, do you still have it?

4. Do you read your old diaries? What do you think or feel when you read your really old entries?

5. What type of writing do you mostly do now? (examples: 1- talk about what happened to me recently, 2- talk about things I think about, 3- talk about relationships, 4- write down dreams, my art, or any other creative thing, 5- complain, 6- write down quotes and interesting things I find such as in the newspaper).

6. What is more important, the style of the diary or the actual content, and why? What do you like to see in a diary?

7. Do you edit your entries or do you just let loose and don't look back?

8. What are your pet peeves about diaries, such as things that bug you that you notice other people do with their diaries. What bothers you the most about what you tend to do in your diary?

9. Is your diary anonymous? Why or why not? Do any of your friends or family read your stuff and does that influence what you write about or how you express yourself?

10. What does keeping a diary do for you? Why do you think that you like it?

I started my first diary (on paper) when I was a little kid. I think my Mom got me going to practice my printing, writing and spelling. It is a good way to get lots of practice. My earliest diaries didn't say much. A few comments about the weather and a line about something going on that day. As I grew old my journal entries grew longer and more interesting.

I do read them, the old ones. Its nice to remember something that happened. Without a journal there are lots of things I would never think of a second time. Most of my diary writing now is just whatever I'm thinking about, a little about things going on in my life and ideas I get about life, the world and everything.

I have an online diary now. But I won't share the URL here. I'm not a kid, I have adult thoughts, experiences and feelings and those aren't things kids need to be reading about. Kids should just be having fun, going to school and all that good kid stuff that you will miss later when it's your turn to be the adult.

The main reason I keep a diary or journal, whichever you prefer to call it, is to have a place to keep my thoughts, ideas and all the little things I don't want to forget later. I also like the idea of a scrapbook but I use my weblog that way with anything that's online or digital.

If you have a diary, what do you think as you write? I used to think that someday an archaeologist would find my diary in a big dig and read about life in "the old days". Sometimes I think that my daughter will read it and other times I think I'm writing to a biographer who is researching my life to turn it into a book about the great woman I became. For me keeping a diary is a way of leaving something of my thoughts, experiences and what I did with my life behind. It's a way to keep a bit of me around even after I'm long gone.

This came from an email list I just joined, Online Diaries.

The Diary Survey

1. What is your current online diary's URL? (Please provide a link to your diary!)

2. When did you first start a diary, and why? What did you write about at first? How long have you kept diaries, and was that consistently or just here and there?

3. Whether your first diary was electric or paper, do you still have it?

4. Do you read your old diaries? What do you think or feel when you read your really old entries?

5. What type of writing do you mostly do now? (examples: 1- talk about what happened to me recently, 2- talk about things I think about, 3- talk about relationships, 4- write down dreams, my art, or any other creative thing, 5- complain, 6- write down quotes and interesting things I find such as in the newspaper).

6. What is more important, the style of the diary or the actual content, and why? What do you like to see in a diary?

7. Do you edit your entries or do you just let loose and don't look back?

8. What are your pet peeves about diaries, such as things that bug you that you notice other people do with their diaries. What bothers you the most about what you tend to do in your diary?

9. Is your diary anonymous? Why or why not? Do any of your friends or family read your stuff and does that influence what you write about or how you express yourself?

10. What does keeping a diary do for you? Why do you think that you like it?

Do you keep a journal? Sometimes its called a diary, I think that's the old fashioned term. What you write in your journal is up to you. Be creative, rant about your family, chronicle your life, or just spin your thoughts on the web.

Keep your journal in a secret place if you don't want anyone to read it. Or, if you feel like sharing you can read what you write to friends or even keep your journal online with sites like Blogger. Of course, you can do both. Have an online journal and another secret journal for just yourself.

Journals can be kept in plain notebooks or fancy lined paper books you buy in stationery stores like Hallmark. I like to write with a fine tip black pen but you can experiment with all kinds of pens and colours. Add stickers or stick in clippings from newspapers and magazines. If you really want to put in a lot of clippings have a look at scrapbooking. That's another form of journaling but there tends to be less writing and more drawings.

There are lots of websites about journaling and scrapbooking. Have a look around and see which appeals to you.