Schneider, Pat. "Writing Practice: The Journal." Writing Alone and With Others. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

This chapter emphasizes the importance of the journal as an important tool in a creative writer's life. It helps the writer practice his art. More than so, it helps the writer remember that recording his life is important, although bell hooks is quoted as saying journaling (or diary keeping) is an acceptable form in society "because it was not taken seriously as literature. Therefore, even as it was a vehicle for liberation, it also functioned, by being disposable, to maintain women's silence" (64).

However, the journal also has several good functions: the writer can practice writing closest to his own natural speech, thus practicing voice; can find his bad habits (by noticing what habits are repeated, or what is boring in the work, or by trying to approach each entry in a new way); and by reinforcing the need to remember (details).