Do you want to be a writer? Here are 5 reasons to start with a journal

The key habit of every writer

Mar 24, 2025

Surely you’ve read a book that changed your perspective.

A book that was unlike any other. And you asked yourself: "What if I write?" But your idea stayed in the air. You never gave it shape. You never knew where to start.

I was there too.

For years, I was just a reader, until one day I decided to write a journal. No plans. No expectations. Just writing. What started as a small habit has changed my life: it made me a prolific writer, and it gave me the confidence to write a newsletter that, in a year and a few months, is already read by more than 7,000 people.

Writing a journal changed everything.

It’s the best entry point into the world of writing, an effective way to build the discipline and confidence every writer needs. If you’ve ever wanted to write but didn’t know where to start, keep reading.

I’ll tell you why writing a journal is the perfect way to start and how I use my journal to get the most out of it.

1. It forces you to write every day (and that’s crucial)

The biggest mistake I made when I started was thinking that inspiration is uncontrollable. That one day, suddenly, I would wake up with a brilliant idea, write nonstop about that fleeting idea, and have my finished and shining piece of writing.

It doesn’t work that way. Not at all.

Writing is a muscle. If you don’t use it, it atrophies. And the best way to strengthen it is to write every day. The quality doesn’t matter at first, the only thing that matters is building the habit and avoiding the second failure (two consecutive days without writing).

And why a journal and not another place?

Every day you’ll have the perfect excuse to write, even if it’s just a couple of lines. Write about what happened today, what you thought, what you learned…

Here are the 5 questions for reflecting on daily life that helped me the most:

What did you learn today?
What challenge did you face today, and how did you solve it?
What was the most memorable moment of today?
Who or what are you grateful for today?
What thought kept popping into your head today? Explain it.

A journal is the perfect space to write without pressure.

There’s no need to impress anyone.
There are no critics.
There are no editors.

Just you and the page.

And when you remove that pressure, writer’s block disappears. You’re not thinking about “writing well.” You just write for yourself. It will make you write every day without fail, generate ideas every day, and get to know yourself better thanks to those minutes of self-reflection.

2. It helps you discover your own voice

If you’ve ever tried to write something and felt like an imposter, there’s a reason: you’re trying to write like someone else.

This is normal.

We all do it at first. We copy the style of writers we admire because we haven’t found our own voice yet. But here’s the trick: the only way to discover your own voice is by writing a lot.

And with a journal, you can experiment.

By writing with pure freedom, you start to notice patterns in the way you express yourself. Words you use frequently, topics you always return to, the rhythm with which you develop your ideas, the tone with which you speak, the structure of your paragraphs...

That’s your voice, and the more you write, the more authentic it becomes.

Here’s a piece of advice I wish I’d known when I started: When you analyze your journal pages, you’ll see that your voice usually falls into one of these 3 types:

Pragmatic voice: You focus on how to act and what can be done.
Analytical voice: You focus on the causes and effects of what’s happening.
Humanistic voice: You focus on the cultural, historical, and social context.

This will be your starting point for writing essays, newsletters, blogs, fiction...

If your voice is…

Pragmatic: You’ll be comfortable writing guides, strategies, practical advice.
Analytical: You’ll be comfortable analyzing variables, using charts, and explaining reasons.
Humanistic: You’ll be comfortable writing essays, interviewing, researching the background of what’s happening.

Do you want to see an example of the writing habit?

Pragmatic: How to create your writing habit step by step.
Analytical: The psychology behind habit formation.
Humanistic: What can we learn from the routines of great writers?

3. It’s training for bigger projects

You want to write a book someday. Or short stories. Or maybe a newsletter.

But if you’ve never written consistently, jumping straight into a big project is like trying to run a marathon without ever having trained.

A journal is the equivalent of training every day.

When you write that big project, you won’t start from scratch: you’ll already have the mental endurance to do it consistently and hundreds, if not thousands, of ideas reflected in your journal. Use those ideas and express yourself with your voice focused on one of the 3 types I mentioned earlier to guide your writing.

The journal is a garden of ideas that becomes more and more fertile every day.

4. It improves your ability to observe

One of the qualities of the best writers is that they are great observers. They see things others overlook. They capture small details. And then they turn them into powerful stories, like Virginia Woolf.

Writing a journal trains you to be an observer.

When you write about your day, you begin to pay attention to the details.

The way someone laughs.
The way the light comes through the window.
The exact words someone uses in a conversation.

Little by little, you become more sensitive to these things. And when you decide to write fiction, essays, or anything, you’ll realize you already have a developed skill to describe scenes and people, whether from fiction or nonfiction.

5. It gives you the confidence to call yourself a writer

Many new writers feel like they can’t call themselves “writers” until they’ve published something. As if we need official permission to be one.

But the truth is this: if you write every day, you’re a writer.

And a journal helps you internalize that.

It doesn’t matter if you’re just writing for yourself. What matters is that you’re writing. And every page you write reinforces that identity. Over time, you’ll feel confident enough to share your work with others. Start by showing it to trusted people, and then take the leap to the internet.

We’ve all been there. I felt embarrassed sharing my writings.

✍️ Your turn: Do you already have a journal? Will you start one?
💭 Quote of the day: “Gift yourself a journal for your notes” — Cheryl Barker, Mother of the Bride.

See you in the next letter! 👋