Does journaling make you a better writer?

Short answer: yes. Any writing will help improve your writing.
Longer answer: any writing will help but being open to criticism can help more. I know from experience that anyone who stubbornly refuses to accept that their writing can be improved is only standing in their own way. Find a balance between keeping true to your own style of writing and making your writing accessible to your perceived audience. Writing can help clear the junk cluttering up your mind and sometimes a lot of what you write is junk, especially in the beginning. Don’t get so attached to the words themselves that you lose what you are trying to say.

It definitely makes me think more carefully about what I really want to say. Especially as I write more and more by hand.

That depends why you journal. If it is for reflection and actions then not necessarily but if you are doing it to allow creative thought then possibly. The best way to learn to write is to read. It will teach you about what works. Writing for yourself is fine but writing for others takes courage to show what you wrote and accept and gratefully receive any critique without anger

yes it does but dont make it look like life is pef its no make it the rek it is and write your thoughts and I sugest a one with a lock and dont forget stay fab 💜💛💙💙💜💛💙💜💛💚💙💜💙

i don’t think it makes me a better writer but it sure helps with me clear my head of all my thoughts. then i organize them but i don’t use eloquent words for writing.

I don’t write long form or short form narrative in my journal, I created a template that I fill out daily in order to correlate environment, behaviors, thoughts, and moods.

Certainly. It’s the only one way I can write something long. Also, I always have story to write (my impressions of day).

yes i think i can express myself better now then i could before i started journaling and it’s a really good way to write down thoughts i can’t talk to anyone about and i love going back and reading what i wrote a few months back, i always find it very funny.

Yes I believe it does, at least I feel it has been my experience 🙂 more time writing has meant more time reflecting, more time expanding my vocabulary, more time learning to form better sentences and better express my feelings and opinions etc. Journaling is essentially sharing the story of our own life and that directly correlates with growing in our abilities to share other stories in other ways as writers.

Not sure and I don’t care. Writing my journal is for me the be a better version of myself, and not practice to be a writer.

Since it gives you more of an opportunity to practice with your vocabulary and such, I do think it makes you a better writer. If you pair journaling with learning about good sentence structures, active vs passive voice, etc, then you’ll definitely become a better writer.

I definitely think it can help, but becoming a better writer is a combination of A LOT of things (reading, life experiences). The ways in which I think journaling can help is less about the mechanics of writing and more about keeping the creative juices flowing.

Yes. I am a teacher and free writing and journaling along with reading great authors is a way to take in and give back.

I don't know if journaling has made me a better writer. But, although I've only been doing it for a few days, I do feel like it has made it easier to make my thoughts manifest in the physical world on paper.

Absolutely! It's the same as with almost anything else you set off to do. The more you do it the more experience you gain. And if you dont do something for long periods of time you get rusty at it or even forget how. You could possibly forget how to spell, use proper grammer, puncuation or even forget how to write certain charecters. (Especially in cursive.) Practice makes perfect. We had to practice when we first learned how. So it make sense to practice as to not forget.

It can get the brain moving. Sometimes when I don't feel like I have anything to write about I still journal and end up with 3 pages about "nothing". You can be reminded of various life experiences and it can add depth to characters or experience.

Journaling does not make you a better writing. It's a very different type of writing. To become a better writer you have to read a lot. There's no shortcuts.

Yes it did. I developed the habit of journaling at ab early age. We used tji call then diaries. Lol. As I got older I strayed from it. Now, getting back into journaling, it's making me a better writer. I write everything that comes to my mind. So journal entries have become the basis of some of my shirt stories. Any kind of writing can make you a better writer. Just go for it.

Maybe. Being a great writer takes effort. For example, you need to learn the rules of the language you’re writing in. You need to spend time thinking about the audience you are writing for. Finally, you need to consider the structure of the artifact you want to produce. If you focus on bringing these aspects to your journaling, then yes, it’s possible to improve your writing through journaling. I’d argue though most people don’t think about the points I raised when writing their journal so they may not improve in their overall writing abilities.

Maybe in a way? I'm sure its different for others, but for me it improves the flow of writing, it's become easier to put thoughts to words the more I do it. I also feel its helping me be more honest with myself about things, feelings mainly.

I don't think journaling makes me a better writer. I find that reading, personally, makes me a better writer. The books teach me words and phrases I never knew

I have NEVER done this.
It has been a rewarding experience. The guide you give is so helpful to open up verses having to to come up with something off the top of my head. Which I wouldn’t of been able to do.
Thank you!

Of course!! If you are able to write down your emotions and things that may have caused you to feel a certain way, you can incorporate those things into your writing. You also get into a habit of writing, and practice makes perfect so…
Heres a little secret: instead of trying to write poetically, write your raw feelings and what may have caused them. You’ll find that the more you do this, the better you can comprehend your thoughts and emotions. This is an important skill to have when describing a character’s feelings about something. I have found that your journaling gets deeper and more detailed the more you go on, so stick to it!!

I don’t know about a better writer, but it definitely makes me a more confident one and allows me to collect and arrange my thoughts and work through complex feelings.

I also find it wonderful documenting my life in a way that is just for myself. I recently sat and went through a whole stack of old journals and it was so lovely reliving old adventures, remembering old lives and realising how far I’ve come.

For me journaling allows me to get the thoughts racing through my head on paper. It helps clear my mind to then focus on the most important tasks of the day knowing nothing will be forgotten. In a way it clears the trivial from the important tasks meaning that often journal items are either added to to do list later or just forgotten. Since I write the way my brain flows I don't think I could use it for writing a story.

Yes it does. You can experiment with new writing styles, get in touch with your voice, and use the content of your life for creative inspiration.

In a way it does. but more importantly, I find that it does two things for me. 1) it gives me a release when my world spins out of control and 2) it gives me a better understanding of myself, my thoughts, my feelings, and my emotions.

I think so. I think once you begin to write the world as you see it, as you feel it, you begin to understand it better and therefore are able to write better.

Absolutely. Journaling not only declutter’s your mind but also encourages passion to flow through the words because Journaling is personally focused. The more you can train your mind to express yourself on paper for personal reasons, the better you can express yourself for any kind of written reason.

I believe that it does. It enables you to practice writing while also exploring motivations and getting to know your psychology better. Journaling is also a great way to generate and formulates ideas for things to write about!

Read. Read books by lots of different people. Read and appreciate and that will help you understand what makes good writing. Of course you should journal, but you must read good writing to understand what it looks like and how it works.

Any kind of writing will make you better writer but try being varied, trying different styles, as you journal if becoming better writer is your goal. Journaling can also make you better writer in the sense that you get the rawest emotions out. After that it can feel easier to write about things in a less vulnerable, more eloquent way. I for example moved with certain topics from journaling to slightly biographical stories and finally to fantasy stories with reality mixed in. The last ones I’m more able to write in a way someone else MIGHT even want to read. That’s the way journaling develops your ability to view things as a writer.

Yes. English is not my first language, but it’s my business language. Journaling in English helps maintain my language skills.

I am not sure about that, however it certainly gets things off your chest and allows you to reflect on your experiences.

Practice always makes you a little better at whatever you're doing. But it really just depends on what you consider a good writer. If you're journalling you're writing to yourself and not to an audience, so you'll be writing in a style that appeals to you. Journaling wouldn't necessarily make you a better writer of fantasy but maybe it would help you be a blogger or writing an autobiography.

Writing regularly, especially when you first get up, clears your mind for the day and I find it actually shifts your perspective on things throughout the day, you'll pay attention to things you didn't notice before. So in a way, this helps your writing skills as you are absorbing more from your environment.

I'm not a writer and my handwriting has not changed for the better in the time I'm journaling. But it does allow you to think about your day, the nice and less nice parts and write down what bothers you. This creates a space in my mind that I can now fill with more urgent things instead of being focused and occupied with.

Yes! It allows me to process the tornado of thoughts happening daily. When I am journaling regularly, I am a better writer but also I become a more articulate speaker.

I think it makes me a better writer in that I can free write without judgement. Even if what I write isn’t good, it’s a start. Too often, we get scared of the blank page. Now, there’s less pressure to be genius, and more just to follow my instincts. That’s where the truth comes in. And if you put enough sentences down on the page, some of them will be better than others, and some might even be good.

I think it does because it makes me practice writing every day and allows me.to develop my thoughts on a piece of paper

Yes!
I believe that when you write with inspiration you grow in writing the most and you will also grow in life and day to day challenges because of the skill you learn from journaling, stepping back. Giving your day or week another perspective and being able to write down all those feelings gives you an opportunity to help yourself through a lot. So yes, it makes you a better writer but more importantly a better person!!

I think that depends on the type of writing you would like to get ether at and how you decide to write your journal.

Let’s say for example that you are trying to get better at writing novels/stories. Then you might try to write your journal as a narrative of your life. You’d want to focus on conveying the important details in a way that is interesting to the reader.

Another thing you could try is keeping a journal about the writing process itself. So if you’re writing a story you could journal about the characters (strengths, weaknesses, personalities, etc.) or the world they live in.

Having everything written down in one place can help you organise your ideas better which would help keep your writing more consistent or better thought out.

Yes journaling definitely helps you to cognitively sort out your thought patterns therefore makes the writing process more concise

My current contains short descriptions of the day and the overall experience I’m having; however, is short on flowery prose or in-depth instrospection.

I would agree that keeping a log/journal may allow feelings to be understood in the context of the bigger picture, thus easing the trial of writing openly about would are ultimately trivial emotions

I believe it does. I think the more I write in whatever form, the better I become at both finding the right words to say what I am thinking and at doing it eloquently.

Not inherently. It does help build you up to becoming a better writer overtime. Every day you write a small paragraph, it expands your brains functioning and improves your use of vocabulary. You will also notice your writing style reflects your emotions to whatever you are reflecting on.

Being able to transfer your thoughts and feelings into different formats is a valuable talent to learn. Whether into art or literature it is in my opinion a highly desirable ability to learn. So yes, anything that provides practice in learning to better articulate your thoughts and ideas is sure to be valuable.

I think it depends. In some ways it doesn’t really change the quality of my writing. The more I do it though, does improve my consistency and emotional freedom and honesty.

I think that journaling may or may not make you a better writer. If you have this aspiration and you give yourself some time to reflect and express your thoughts when you write in your journal, this can help in making you a better writer. It will definitly give you some exercise in mindfulness and expressing your thought and reflection. If you want to become a better writer, however, I believe you also need to write. Not just in journaling. That is: I think you need to write and practice the genre you want to excel in. By journaling you have the means to become a more fluent writer and a reflective one, but if you never practice to write what you actually want to write, then I don't think your writer skills will improve. You need to practice the skills you want to excel in. Hope my fussy thoughts make any sense to you ^^ good luck

Yes. The ability to flow your words from the unknown of your mind into words takes practice. It's a muscle. Writing will always challenge me but slowly I'm learning how to provide my writing with my individuality.

In self reflection, yes.
Although I’d say that Journaling isn’t the best choice if you’re looking to become better but it’s one step forward if you wanna become a writer!

It makes a better journaler, if you do it well. I think it may have beneficial effects on other types of writing, but, having extensive experience with journaling, as well as writing poetry, short stories, essays, and novels, your biggest returns come from practicing the form of writing you’re trying to get better at.