Tuesday, May 18, 2021
Dear Diary,
today I wanted to write a blog post on the subject of writing a diary. I sat in front of my computer and thought for a very long time about what writing a diary is all about. Who writes a diary? And why does one write a diary? By whom and when should the diary be read? And by whom is it better not to be read? Should it be read at all?”
In fact, many questions surround the subject of diaries. Writing a diary is not reserved for a certain group of people. Anyone who feels like it can start a diary – whether they consistently persevere in putting their experiences or feelings down on paper is another question. But someone who starts writing a diary for very specific reasons will probably not stop as quickly as someone who is currently just looking for a pastime.
Many reasons for writing a diary
Probably the most famous diary is the Diary of Anne Frank. It has become so famous that UNESCO included it in the World Documentary Heritage in 2009. Anne Frank wrote the diary over two years during the Second World War and documented in it the time of fear and flight from the Nazis. She probably wanted to come to terms with her terrible experiences and did not expect that her diary would one day become so sadly famous.
Other diaries exist of famous sailors, adventurers, shipwrecked people, mountaineers or emigrants. Mostly they were written to process the experiences on unknown territory in distant countries or to record them as a memory for themselves or for posterity. Some diaries were even written in the certainty that they would never leave some lonely place in the world alive, in order to communicate their feelings or important information to the rest of the world in this way.
Many people write a diary for themselves privately. They do not have the goal to give it to third parties to read – at least not during their lifetime. The reasons for writing a diary can be very different. One can write a diary to come to terms with certain things, to process experiences – positive or negative – or to record the memory of particularly beautiful moments in writing. Teenagers confide their secret love to their diary and mothers document the development of their children in a diary. And many a prison inmate has used his time to write a diary.
Diaries are bearers of secrets
Diaries are full of secrets – especially when written by newlyweds. Some situations can be so embarrassing that you really only want to confide them to your diary. That’s why there are so many places in many diaries where pages have been torn out. Because afterwards one is overcome by the worry that the diary could be read by some unauthorized person. And these unauthorized people include the best friend, the mother or the pubescent little brother who never misses an opportunity to tease the big sister. And what better way to do that than with an embarrassing story from a diary?
That’s why diaries shouldn’t lie around freely and be accessible to everyone. Some people have been unable to restrain their curiosity and have taken a look at someone else’s diary when it was lying around carelessly somewhere. So if you’re thinking about starting to write in a diary, you should make sure that you buy a lockable diary. And you should think about a good place where you can write your diary undisturbed and also hide it safely. Of course, you can also write your diary on your PC and protect the file with a password. But this variant is only half as romantic for newlyweds as the handwritten diary.
Diaries for a specific period of time
There are diaries that are only created for special events or for a specific period of time. On a joint sailing trip, for example, people record what they have experienced day by day. Although sailors call this a logbook, it is actually nothing more than a diary. A honeymoon can also be beautifully recorded in a – joint – diary. Also the experiences and influences, which flow in this Corona pandemic on one, can be processed very well with a diary.
An – albeit sad – occasion is an illness, whose course one records in a diary. One’s own illness or that of a close relative. Simply writing down your feelings, sensations or worries associated with an illness can do you a lot of good and be important for your mental balance.
Writing a diary - what would be the alternative?
The alternative to writing a diary is to have someone write it for you. Of course, this is not possible when it comes to very personal topics that are nobody’s business. But just to the diaries, which are written about a certain period of time, there is a very good alternative:
The Meminto Life Book
The Meminto Lifebook (details can be found at meminto.com) is a very simple way to help you record your experiences. Especially if you don’t like to write and you run the risk to stop after the first few pages because you run out of motivation or the famous writer’s block prevents the successful progress of your diary. Admittedly, the Meminto Life Book is not a real diary in the classical sense. It documents experiences and memories either of a whole life or of a certain period of time. In a conventional diary, on the other hand, the events of individual days are written down chronologically.
How can Meminto-Stories help you with your diary writing?
When you register with Meminto, you will receive a personal access code after the purchase has been processed. With your code, you can then log in and enter information about yourself and your planned book. And then you will automatically receive regular questions from Meminto. Exactly matched to the content you want to bring in your diary. And little by little a real book is created. You can contribute pictures and also develop your own questions that you want to answer in your diary.
Create a life book now!
Get access to hundreds of questions. We'll structure your answers, make sure you don't forget anything, and take care of printing and mailing. In a few weeks you will have a book about your life in your mailbox!
This book from Meminto is just as individual as your personal, handwritten diary. The only difference is that it is professionally printed and has a high-quality cover. The advantage is that you can have this book printed several times, especially if it is based on shared experiences with friends or relatives, and then possibly use it as a gift.
So, the good intention of wanting to write a diary doesn’t have to fail because you don’t like writing yourself, despair of your own handwriting, or at some point reach the point that you just can’t think of anything to write. Because that’s exactly the situation Meminto-Stories was created for. To help you to be able to write a diary, even if your personal writing skills are against it.
