Have you tried to keep a journal as a way of improving your writing, but always find your interest waning after the third consecutive entry? Here are eight easy ideas you can use as springboards to keep your entries coming!

When asked what advice they would give to novice writers, accomplished professionals always say, "Keep writing." Like other crafts, writing is a practice-makes-perfect vocation. Yet, the writing these professionals refer to does not only include publishable pieces.

Maintaining a writer's journal is the best way to continue writing while you're in between projects or as a break during one. Because a journal can be very personal, you should not edit yourself as you write. Instead, use your journal as a way to develop your personal voice and style without any outside criticism. Many writers who keep journals agree that their daily practice helps them to overcome writer's block as well as brainstorm new ideas.

Writer's journals don't only have to include narratives or summaries of your day-to-day activities. The point of keeping a journal is to force yourself to write about something different each day, whether you're writing two pages or 2 paragraphs. If you're stuck on how to begin or how to make journal writing a daily habit, try one of these eight starting points:

1. Reaction to something you read.
Writers should read as much as they write, so why not combine the two practices? If you take time to analyze other people's writing, you'll notice techniques and nuances that you can adopt and integrate into your own writing. Writing about what you've read also gives you a chance to remind yourself of your own goals, namely what you consider good and bad writing.

2. Descriptive lists of memorable details.
This type of entry is useful for both fiction and nonfiction writers. For nonfiction writers, finding and naming the important details is imperative to a successful piece. To say that a professor has a book-lined office is just as useful as saying the professor might have read at some point in life. Your readers will get much more out of your writing if, instead, you say: Bible open to Psalms; dusty copy of Camus (paperweight?). By keeping the items in your lists brief, you will train yourself to make concise and accurate descriptions.

3. Personal aspirations.
Writing your own personal aspirations and goals should be simple enough. Many of us know what we want, at least in part. So, when you're stumped for something to write about, why not discuss your goals, or how your goals affect the decisions you've made during your life?

4. Sketches of people.
The ability to analyze characters and people allows writers to better understand how personalities are shaped. Also, you may find that your future heroine or antagonist can be created by assembling traits of several people you know.

5. Analysis of relationships.
All stories are about people, in some way or another. Even stories about technology and finances have a human aspect to them because they are human contrived ideas. So it can only be a benefit to you to understand how two people relate to one another. By analyzing friendships or family ties, you might also come up with ideas to have your own characters interact and react to one another.

6. Commenting on notable events.
What was in the news today? Writing short columns about the events going on around you is another good starting point in a journal entry. As long as the world keeps spinning, there will always be new events occurring that you can comment on.

7. Possibilities for adventure, exploration, or conflict.
Did your coworker mention a trip to Bhutan? Or did your child get in trouble at school today? Use these events as starting points and either describe them as they happened, or create a whole new scenario based on them.

8. Jokes, anecdotes, humorous situations.
Mark Twain's journal was full of these types of entries, and usually, they only included a couple of sentences. Humor writing is very difficult, and analysis of humor writing is, ironically, very dull. But if you can practice translating your sense of humor into print by revamping things that actually occurred, you'll be more comfortable delivering jokes or amusing anecdotes in your work.

Remember, the goal of keeping a journal is to write. It does not matter if all of your entries are polished and publishable. You're simply trying to allow yourself free expression, without editing out your other thoughts. And, if you stay on track, you might have come up with some ideas and concepts for later pieces.