I first started journalling was an insecure, shy, arkward, unconfident 25 year old bewildered by life - I seemed to be missing the instruction manual at the very least and was unsure of what I was doing or where I was going - the map appeared to have gone AWOL as well. Any place I did want to go appeared to be so preposterous anyway. All the jobs I wanted to do needed 'experience' all the jobs that I appeared to be able to do I was over qualified for and meanwhile all I wanted to do is tell stories and there weren't an job titles or any openings (apparently).

I was advised to start a journal which I did and being unemployed I would sit out on the steps of the basement I lived in and scribble and scribble. I read Natalie Goldberg and slowly realised the joy of developing a voice and from that a point of view, a take on life, and an ability to process and plan without the din of other people's plans for oneself. 15 years later I still journal. Its the cheapest form of self therapy out there and has helped me over so many creative slumps and humps not to mention life slumps and  humps.

Top tips for journalling

1. Avoid exquistely designed expensive journals - you will be afraid to wite in them to 'spoil'  them or try and write exquise prose rather than really expressing what you feel - often it is not exquisite.
2. Plain unlined notebooks help some people more, as lined notebooks remind them of school.
3. Use an ink cartridge pen - usually about £1-£2 at Woolies - the ink flows much quicker and smoother than a ballpoint and if you are writing a lot your arms and shoulders will start to cramp and hurt with the effort of pressing with a ballpoint.
4. Don't get too small a notebook, it will cramp your thoughts, you need space to roam about in figuratively speaking.
5. Never never never show it to anyone else. If you do you will always censor what you write, you will have one eye on a potential audience and your writing will lose value to you.
6. Consider the time you write in your journal. If  you write in the morning you have more effect on the day to come. If you write in the evening you will spend more time reviewing and processing the day that has past.
7. Sometimes it's good to leave your habitual space and go elsewhere to write about a knotty problem. My favourite space is a cafe with a large cappachino by my side.
8. Conjour up a mentor on the page. Ask questions and then answer them. If you don't seem to have the answers 'ask' someone in your field for guidance. In particularly bad moments I would journal and ask my filmmaker hero Derek Jarman. And on the page he would always say something very pertinent!
9. If you are worried about people reading what you have written get journal the size that can be kept in your bag at all times or do as one student of mine did, disguised it as a cookbook as she knew nobody would look there.
10. Occasionaly reread over what you have written. At the end of a notebook is a good time to do so. Note where you have achieved things and give youself a metaphorical pat on the back. Note where you consistently complain about someone/something - what are you going to do about it? Note the things you don't write about it what significance does this have?