Journal Entry vs Personal Essay
I have built a large library of my personal stories on my Substack channel, Ink From the Embers, where I write about leaving my LDS faith and then later, leaving my marriage.
You can imagine I have more than one journal entry about these super light, not heavy at all topics. (Written in the font of sarcasm.)
So how do those journal entries become an essay? How does a bunch of heartfelt scribbles, and meaningful entires turn into a polished piece to publish?
First of all, the distinction. Journaling is for the writer. An essay is for the reader.
A journal entry has the power to capture an emotion in real time. A journal entry is raw, unedited, and even necessary to have a place to put all those big feelings somewhere!
A journal entry doesn’t need a beginning, middle, and an end. It doesn’t need a hook, a turn, or an aha moment for the reader to follow along with. It can just be its messy self with no judgment, no eyes on it, and can exist for the mere sake of existing.
But how do you know when that journal entry needs to become an essay?
You keep revisiting that moment you wrote down, long after you put down your pen. That moment begins to outgrow the context and begins to mean something much bigger to you than an overheard conversation. You begin to sense a kind of arc in your own retelling when you are thinking about it. You can vaguely see the opening, a turn, a conclusion.
Because an essay needs all those things if it is for the reader. It needs a hook. It needs meaning. It needs a claim. It needs something with substance the reader can sink its teeth into and come to their own conclusions or opinion based on your take.
What Changes Between Journaling and Essay
Less Words
Journaling takes it all. You can include anything and everything in a journal entry. When you go to craft your essay however, you are going to make some significant edits and cuts. Admittedly this is one of the harder things for this particular writer to accomplish, but going in knowing you are going to cut out 60-80% of that entry is helpful when going from journal to essay.
Chronology Ceases to Matter
This is a fun distinction when crafting personal essays. When you journal, its most likely in real time, processing what you’re experiencing that moment. But when you switch to the essay, you can pull up a moment that happened ten years ago because the turn and claim took ten years to get here.
More Context
You may need to add details and give the reader added context to the story you’re telling because you were there, but they were not. Those extras might be needed for clarity.
Craft Moves to Consider When Making the Switch
Write the “why does it matter” sentence first. This can lead you to a claim or turn you didn’t write down when it was just a journal entry.
Draft a version of the story that starts at the end of your journal entry. Sometimes the most effective essay has the ending up front.
Read through your journal entry with attention to any images and metaphors that emerged in the heat of the moment. Can these be elaborated or used as your opening hook?
Finding Your Next Essay from a Journal Entry
Go back and pick out an old journal entry. Read it through and ask yourself these questions:
1 - Would I want someone to read this as is?
2 - Can I find a moment where something shifts? (Even if this is off the page because it was years later, that counts!)
3- Can I say what this is about in one sentence beyond “what happened?”
If you get 2-3 yeses from this exercise, start drafting that essay.
Not every journal entry needs to be an essay and not every essay comes from a journal entry. But having a regular practice of writing, no matter the medium is the only way to continue to get better at writing.
Keep writing!
Kara Dyas is a freelance writer, essay writer, and always has a work in progress. You can find more of her personal essays over on Substack under Ink From the Embers. She is currently working on building her new life and her first novel.