Apple’s New “Journal” App Will Revolutionise Memoir Writing
Not sure if you’ve heard the news, but journaling is coming back big time.
Millions of iPhone users will wake up in September with a new version of the latest iPhone operating software (iOS 17), including some incremental updates, new features (more emojis?), and fixes. It’s the Apple way of doing things: new iPhone = new iOS.
While the internet will be flooded with content about the brand-new iPhones, there’s one new product that Apple has kept somewhat under wraps – the “Journal” app. Originally announced at the June WWDC with the latest iOS, the new app is veiled with secrecy. Even though it was announced as part of iOS 17, it is believed that Apple will postpone the release of the new app until “later this year”.
So, let’s get into why all of this would be of interest to a memoir writer such as myself?
Unlike many of their product launches and releases, the Journal app has not received much attention in the tech world or among the writers' community. To the best of my knowledge, the app was not even included in iOS 17 beta, and the wider tech community couldn’t start testing or writing about it.
However, all of that is set to change soon, as millions of people will be able to start capturing their feelings, emotions, thoughts, hopes, and fears on their iPhones daily!
The new app launch, coupled with the deeply integrated Apple ecosystem, which involves Photos, Music, Fitness + (hello Mindfulness!), and Maps, will have a significant impact on our appreciation and approach to managing the vast collection of memories we have stored on our devices over the years.
The Apple way of doing things means that you shouldn’t be surprised if a notification suddenly appears on your screen after you go abroad, prompting you to write a personal reflection about that landmark you visited or the people you went with. With the upcoming Apple (AR/VR) Vision Pro headset, we are on the verge of a mini-revolution in storytelling and computational memories.
Only recently, in January, I started to take journaling seriously. With the fresh launch of my new business, I thought journaling would be a great way to start documenting my journey as a memoirist and a solopreneur. I’ve been using the “Day One” journaling app, and I find this app to be an excellent platform for digital journaling with cross-platform support and tons of handy features. At the same time, the release of Apple’s own journaling app has made me nervous for Day One. Think of Dark Sky and how that ended.
As a memoir writer and a tech enthusiast, this kind of news and shift doesn’t happen often, at least not on this scale. More than one billion people (yes, billion with a B) worldwide will be equipped with a new tool through which they can be in touch with their emotions and feelings. And if you follow the tech world, you know that once Apple does something, other big names in the smartphone world, such as Samsung, will follow suit with their own iteration of the same thing. That will be a game-changer for our interaction with our memories and, ultimately, great news for the memoir book genre.
That is why developing a journaling habit now would be of immense help if you ever wondered about writing a memoir. Below, I’ve listed a couple of areas where journaling could make your memoir writing journey more enjoyable and productive, easier to navigate and add substance to your life story. Let’s dive in.
Will journaling help your memoir?
The short answer is yes. It is undisputed that journaling helps immensely in several important areas for your memoir. The way I see the interaction between journaling and memoir writing is that journaling offers an excellent foundation for your memoir journey, as it can be viewed as a fountain of personal stories. A never-ending catalogue of events and experiences that have been put there for a reason, and tapping into those memories for your memoir writing is a natural progression of our need for self-expression.
The second layer I see forming when we get into the habit of journal writing is the refinement process that this daily or weekly effort makes possible. We develop our writing skills, become better storytellers, and get access to an unparalleled platform for introspection into our lives.
Preservation of memories
The most apparent benefit of journaling is preserving important experiences in our lives. Think of how important photos are to everyone ever writing about their life journey. I would put journaling right there on the top. It provides chronological value to the writer and access to abundant, unfiltered, raw emotions.
There are many different ways of journaling. Regardless of the purpose you are using it for and your writing style, your journal is a depository of feelings and emotions that need to be processed and systematised to get their place in your memoir.
There is a never-ending debate among memoirists about how much of what we think we remember is authentic and objective and whether it is factual or our own representation of certain events that took place. My view is that no one can factually recall every given moment of a particular situation. As our memories fade, the way we interpret them evolves as well. The use case for journaling is evident. It can become your best friend and a fact-checker when you write about a particular episode of your life.
A particularly useful scenario for relying on journaling in memoir writing is capturing dialogue. Let's face it; dialogues are mostly our own representations of an event—a subjective reconstruction. No one can remember verbatim dialogue. If we are talking about a significant event in our lives, there will likely be a journal entry about it. From this entry, we can get closer to the raw feelings we experienced at that moment and, based on that, construct a dialogue.
Location, Location, Location or Details, Details, Details
Apart from the chance to tap and explore your feelings, regular journaling also offers a great way to recall details about places, people and things. Our brains cannot process every single aspect of a given information, and, as a result, store fragments of it.
I did a Camino walk in June, and despite my every effort and how recent it was, I need help remembering the names of the Spanish villages and places we visited or stayed. I journaled daily and recorded the names of the more memorable places we stayed on the route.
No more staring at a blank page
Over time, the journal entries would be super helpful when faced with a blank page or dreadful writer’s block.
The abundance of data stored in the journal can almost instantly put us back into writing mode. There’s bound to be something in there that would prompt and spark your creative writing process.
The great thing with digital journals nowadays is that these apps can bring up additional reference points automatically through machine learning. Connecting corresponding photos or audio is one of the best features that immediately helps me get new writing ideas.
It makes you a better writer
For many, writing a memoir can be intimidating for many reasons. One of the most frequent obstacles I see in people is the fear of writing.
This can be for various reasons, such as self-confidence or setting the bar up too high and spending months, if not years, shaping the perfect structure of their book. Whatever the reason, these problematic situations act as obstacles, and the project is either prolonged or put on hold forever (yes, it happens).
Getting into the habit of journaling addresses this type of concern. It offers a platform for constantly improving and fine-tuning your writer’s voice. You can be creative and free to try different forms and narrations. This would give you a better idea of how to structure your memoir and which writing style would work best. You can write as good or bad as you like in your journal. The fear of judgment is non-existent – null.
The nature of journaling is to be fragmented and disorganised without following any particular theme, and our journal entries lack cohesiveness at first sight. If you think you have lived an “ordinary life,” spending some time with your journal logs may show something different.
These fragments might give us clues to many important changes in life, allowing us to explore the causation and correlation between events, thoughts, and emotions. When we go back in time, we might witness that the bad breakup could have been foreseen months before. I wouldn’t be surprised if some journal entries hint at this direction as we talk about frequent complaints and mood changes in the partner or disinterest in doing joint things anymore.
It is therapeutic, and good memoirs don’t conceal pain
It is no wonder that Apple sees their new journaling app as an integrated part of the mental health and wellbeing push that they’ve been doing recently:
“Journal is a new app that helps iPhone users reflect and practice gratitude through journaling, which has been shown to improve wellbeing.” Apple
With my journaling process, I tend to write more when negative things happen and I am clearly upset about something. I don’t feel like this is a coincidence.
Journaling has therapeutic effects as it offers a first aid patch, a window to express your emotions, pain, fears and anxieties unfiltered. Because of the lack of barriers or the fear of judgment, journaling encourages us to be true to our emotions, which is a great starting point for writing a memoir.
I find that occasional rereading of past entries can also be an excellent tool for self-reflection and a way to witness first-hand personal growth or change in me as a person. This is what every good memoir needs – evidence of our personality evolution.
Do you have the habit of journaling? Comment below and share any journaling tips and what works for you.
Thanks for reading,
AB
Loved reading Andreja’s piece? Why not buy him a coffee. It’s a great way to say cheers.
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