diary entries
When I call an entry in my commonplace book a “diary entry,” I mean a section of text outlining the major events of a time period. I am thinking of diary in the British sense of the word, akin to an American calendar.
The time period you are recording could be of any length - an hour, a day, a week, a vacation, a walk around the block.
Diary entries can be composed in full sentences, brief synopses, or even lists.
While they might include some commentary on how an event made you feel, the biggest focus of a diary entry is simply an account of what happened.
from my commonplace book
example one
“The kids stayed in bed until 7:30 am! Got some work done early, went with M to do her job for Joni, read “Story of the World” to E, Amy stopped by and picked up art for Danielle/her bookstore, B tailgated, took the kids to run a few errands. Just a nice slow morning and early afternoon and looking forward to football tonight!”
example two
“Margaret came in our room at 1:15am - sick. It felt like a long day with poor M being sick until evening. Bud Dad, Connie, and Colleen were all here and we had fun playing a game of Ticket to Ride with Connie and just a lot of chatting and relaxing. We had planned to go out for dinner, but with M not feeling well we got takeout instead and ate at home. Overall, a good, slow day.”
I include diary entries in my commonplace book, from time to time. They are not the focus of my book, but I love how they “flesh out” the good words that I am concurrently saving.
To note: I consider journal entries and diary entries to be different. (Read about journal entries in lesson 4-3.)
diary entry writing prompts
Summer mornings look like…
Today:
On my birthday, I…
Winter:
Vacation highlights:
Friday:
Schoolyear Mondays are for…
A week of ____ is in the books. I…
This weekend,…
A busy, but good day:
We went to…