Diary Writing: Different Steps, Format, and Examples

Diary Writing

• It is a personal form of writing in a diary.
• Here, you express your thoughts, feelings, and observations of the day.
• These could be on people, places, and daily experiences.
• You use an informal tone as if you are writing to a friend.
• You use first person narrative (I, we, us, my, our).
• It must be written in the past tense since we are writing about incidents that have already happened.
• We can also use the future tense when exploring how we feel about something that will happen in the future.

(E.g., ‘I think tomorrow I’ll get my new bike!)

• We can also use the present tense to quote any dialogue.

(E.g., Jason screamed with excitement! “We are going to the beach!” I was happy for him.)

• There will be a chronological order of events.
• And these could be on:
• Your private thoughts (your ambitions, frustrations, sadness, happiness, etc.)
• A record of events (What happened on a particular day from one point of time to another.
• An amusing/shocking incident occurred.
• Make sure to set the scene with the introductory sentence.
• So, make sure to keep these questions in mind.
• Who?
• What?
• Where? Or,
• When?

Example

“Today was a bizarre day! I woke up to absolute silence (which is weird since I live in Brooklyn). I couldn’t find my brother in the next bed, and he is a late sleeper.” 

These Types Could Be:

• Travel diary – Pen down your experiences in travel
• Food diary – About food
• Reflective diary – Contemplate the happenings of the day. This is the most popular kind

Dream diary – Pour out your dreams (the ones you see at night and your ambitions and goals.)

• School diary – Write about all the things that happen at school

Steps

• Mention the time and date to refer to your entry.
• The diary should be taken as alive and a platform for our thoughts and feelings.
• Make your entries honestly and truthfully; don’t lie to yourself.
• We must close the diary with our name or signature.

Format

Day, Date

Time

Salutation (Dear Dairy/ Hello Dairy)

Introduction

Body

Signature / Name of the writer