I found another journal writing program, LifeJournal2. It’s a demo of the full version and seems to have everything one needs to journal on a computer. I think it will be harder for anyone with average computer skills to learn than The Journal program I reviewed below. However, it does have more built-in features, such as the time line, life history, pulse input and pulse graph, quotes and a writing timer, just to name a few. Everything is compartmentalized in small popup theme-base boxes which can be confusing but can also create a well organized journal once you learn how to use the program.

Here’s what the Web site says this program can do:

1. Write naturally without changing your writing process to adapt to the software
2. Assign topics to journal entries and passages to later quickly find exactly the text you are looking for
3. Track the actions and quality of your day (your “Daily Pulse”) and automatically cross reference that information with journal entries
4. Search for journal entries by date, topic, word, journal type, and “Daily Pulse”
5. Create a timeline of your life in words, images, and sounds
6. Fully customize your journal–choose color themes, add prompts and quotes, choose up to 10 scales to track, and more!

Looks pretty impressive and probably is impressive once you learn how to use all the features. If you are serious about creating a journal on your computer and want to add interesting features with your entries, then this program might be exactly what you need. I like that I could add sounds but have yet to figure out how to do that. I will play more with this program when I have some extra time.

This program cost $39.95 and you can download it and/or purchase a CD. They also offer e-prompts (email writing prompts) for a hefty $9.95 per month and a companion notebook for $12.95. The e-prompts are sent three times a week but I’m not so sure they are worth the cost. I think you could surf the net and get the same creative shot that a prompt might offer.

I have downloaded and trying a journal writing software program, The Journal. It’s actually pretty cool. It can be password protected and has a variety of templates that can be added to the daily entries, like food and exercise logs, free-writing prompts and writing specific prompts. There’s a notebook feature that is not tied to dates like the daily entries. Instead, the entries are named. You can insert the date and time, pictures, tables, and everything else a word processor can do. It has color coded topics like business, dreams, family, etc. and you can add or edit the topics to suit your specific needs. If you have a blog, you can post entries from the program. There’s a lot this program can do and it’s very easy to use. It’s defiantly worth the $39.95 when you consider all of its features and what a word processing program cost.

But, what really excited me was the MemoryGrabber plugin that appeared when I installed the program. It’s a tool to help write an Autobiography. It provides memory grabbing questions, topics, activities, games, resources, lists-to-create and a time line of life events. While this tool may not offer everything you need to actually write an autobiography, it does provide a good start, especially when you have no idea of where to start telling your own story. I did a time line when I was working through The Vein of Gold by Julia Cameron. I found that a difficult task when I first started but as I got more into it I made some wonderful discoveries. Memories flooded to the surface, some good, some not so good but all were important to my life. The MemoryGrabber might have made it easier for me to get started with the time line. I think this feature alone is worth getting The Journal program and some of the questions are questions I would not have thought to ask myself. Yes, there is an added cost, $14.95 or if you buy both at the same time it cost $49.95.

I’m going to try a few other journal writing programs before making a decision since this one is the first I’ve actually downloaded and used. I’m not even sure what’s out there and if they offer free-to-try downloads. If not, I will not be reviewing them. I don’t have the money it could take to pay for software just to review it, especially since I may never use.

If anyone drops by who is using some kind of writing software, please post a comment. I’m not a big fan of writing software in general but for computer journal writing it may be a perfect solution. I’m still leaning toward pen and paper for journal writing but I can see how this software can be useful in many ways other than journaling.

I did a search for online journal writing just to see what popped up. What popped up is interesting if the first return is any indication. I didn’t get past the first site Google showed me. Writing the Journey is actually a resource for personal journal writing, not necessarily for online journal writing. Blogs, journals, diaries, they’re all the same thing when published online in my opinion. I don’t think you can define them by what kind of writing is found within the pages, whether it be in a notebook or on a Web site. The one difference is blogging. You can’t blog without a computer while you can journal and make diary entries with or without a computer.

I wrote about my perceptions on journals, diaries, and blogs when I first started this blog. You can read them Here and Here.

I realize that blogs were originally link-driven sites with a mixture of commentary and/or personal thoughts and essays. Not much has changed except for the technology, the diversity of those using the technology and how they have chosen to use the technology. Rebecca Blood’s piece on Weblogs: A History and Perspective is worth a read for the curious at heart.

I’ve digressed a bit from my original focus … so back to my wonderful find this morning, Writing the Journey. The basic premise of this site is to open the door to an internal dialog with your spiritual self through journal writing. I should note that I believe that there is a difference between religion and spirituality. While a religious person is spiritual by definition, spirituality can live outside of an organized religious structure. It’s an internal state of being, a state of knowing your true self and it can’t be confined by religious dogma. We, as individuals, can and do confine its expression through our own beliefs and thoughts about what’s right and what’s wrong with our world and ourselves. Using journal writing as a way to uncover who we believe ourselves to be is a powerful tool.

The site offers an online journal writing workshop with well defined concepts and exercises. There’s a free monthly newsletter, resources and a review on software designed especially for computer journaling that can be password protected. 1stJournal by NextWord offers a free 21-day trial. If I were going to journal using my computer, I’d try this software but I prefer to do it with pen and paper. There’s something organic about the connection of mind to hand and a pen scratching out words across a piece of paper that excites my senses. That and the fact that I write much differently on my computer. Actually, what’s different is that I edit my words more when using a keyboard than I do with pen in hand and a notebook of perfectly lined paper.

I should write more about my personal experiences with journaling. Maybe it will excite me enough to get me back into the journaling process daily. My mind was much clearer and my writing became more colorful and expressive when I was journaling everyday. I should take my own advice and just do it!