Creativity in a Journal
...iends back home to keep them up on what I was doing while I was down in Los Angeles. I decided what I would and wouldn't put in it, and for the most part I've stuck to it: I would talk about what I did during the day, if I was likely to mention other people in passing I asked their permission, and if I had something to write that was bad or possibly deleterious to someone's character, I either didn't include it or I used a pseudonym. There have been times when I've wanted to write something and I haven't because it's too personal, or it's someone else's story, or whatever. But it's tough. There are no easy answers. There are some pretty decent guidelines: DON'T put incredibly revealing information about yourself on the Net unless you are comfortable with hundreds or thousands of people knowing exactly where you live or what your phone number is or when you're going to be out of town. I mean: DUH. If you put a disclaimer on your pages like, "Friends and family: stay out, this is private," you have just put a big "You better read this!" on your page. If you put something up about friends or loved ones or people you can't stand, accept ahead of time that they will find it. If you say something the least bit critical you will catch hell until the end of eternity for it. (This is true, actually, of all of your writing.) If you have a honest (read: racy, neurotic, sexy, drug-addled, whatever) journal, you will get lots of readers. You will also get other journalers talking about you in their journals, not always kindly. You will also get lots o...