The whole genre of online journaling is less than three years old, according to most accounts. It's a very new phenomenon, and many people involved in it are still trying to define it. If not for everyone, at least for themselves. It's kind of hard to push the envelope if you don't know what the boundaries are.

But for now, at least, there are no boundaries. And even the name for the practice is still being debated.

For example, some people feel the phrase 'journaling' is either too limiting or just plain silly. They prefer to explore something called 'personal narrative.'

As I understand it, personal narrative is where the writer approaches events in their life as if they were the equivalent of a novel or fictional tale.

The most avid believers in personal narrative insist that what you write should not actually be fiction. Even exaggerating or stretching the truth a little bit for purposes of good storytelling is frowned upon.

But others are looking to experiment. How far can one go believably, in regards to telling a tale about their life, without people catching on that their 'honest tales of exploits' are actually very far from real life?

By contrast, the more conventional practitioners feel that in order to truly be 'journaling' online, you should approach your daily journal entry prepared only to talk about your day  to talk about whatever happened, regardless of its interest to the journaler or the reader.

Even trying to define the difference between keeping an online diary and an online journal is problematic. The two terms have become so synonymous that making a distinction is pointless to many.

I don't think so. Here's my take on it, for better or for worse.

An online diary is simply writers' personal documentation of their day. They got up that morning, they had breakfast, they went to work and got caught in traffic, they had lunch with a friend, they went home and watched television or went to see a movie. Then they went to bed.

Very cut and dry. Predominantly focusing on the events of the day. What music did they listen to that day? What movie did they see? How much food did they eat? Did they do any exercise and if so, how many miles did they run or how much weight did they lift at the gym? How much road kill did they pass on the road as they drove to work?

An online journal  to me, anyway  focuses less on just the events of a writer's day, but how those events affected the journaler in question.

If you just say in passing that you went to see a movie with some friends and then went to a restaurant and talked about whatever, that's writing a diary entry. If you write a movie review where you detail how the film made you think or feel, that's journaling. That's cutting through the layers of yourself and revealing a bit of your mind and heart to the reader. For me, that's what makes journaling worthwhile, both as a journaler and as a reader.

Again, this distinction of diary vs. journal is subjective, but it works for me.

Because if you think the events of the day were boring and irrelevant, for me as a reader of your journaler, understanding why you thought the day was boring is ironically all the more interesting. If it was so boring, why?

The answer to that question can be where your day's journal entry can go. Not just what happened and that it was boring, but what happened, that it was boring, and why you felt that way. And are you going to have boring days like this again? Or are you making plans to improve your life so that tomorrow interests you more than today?

If, as a journaler, you ever get stuck, use the question "why" for yourself. If you look at your day and can't think of anything worthy to say about it, why did you do all the things you did that day? Or why did you do nothing that interests you? There are 24 hours in a day. When possible, the average person sleeps during around eight of those hours. That still means sixteen whole hours in which you could have done something interesting.

If you didn't do anything, why not? Are you not motivated? Are you unhappy about something? Are you just content? Are you exhausted from the events of the day before?

Whenever you're stuck, ask yourself why. The answer will almost always give you enough for a journal entry.

And after you write your journal entry, you will at least know you got that much done today, even if you didn't get around to doing anything else.

A sense of accomplishment like that can be enough of a wave to drive you into tomorrow.