I've seen many other journalers go through this dilemma of self-cencorship versus letting it all out there. Some have, one, compromised their journals by only writing about "safe" subjects which has led to dull reading, or, two, the journal itself becomes the story of so-and-so reading their entries and the ensuing conflicts created, or, three, the journal just shut down. I had succomed to scenario number three.

So my solution was that I just wouldn't say anything the least bit insulting or negative about anything and I wouldn't write about, for example, conflict between A* and me, or when my father pisses me off, or how frustrated I get with my brothers. And I also wouldn't ever write anything negative about work lest my employer find the site. And thus I would have one of the journals that fell into category one.

But then I realized that if I can't really talk about work or friends or family, then I don't really have much to say. No one wants to read about the soy nuts I bought at the grocery store or that my cat drooled right into my open mouth this morning (all true, and maybe the latter is funny, just in passing, but that happening does not constitute a whole entry). But I sure as hell am not going to set out to write a train wreck journal, either, a catergory two. And this process led me to think about why I wanted to do this in the first place.