Ive been journaling for 30 years. It is a very personal thing. I think the best thing I did starting out is I set aside all the lessons I learned in school about writing and grammar and all the how to's of writing. Then I created my own guidelines for what I wanted my journal to look like. I think prompts are great tools. Prompts that didn't work for me felt too much like an assignment and less of me putting my thoughts and feelings on paper. My journal is my friend and I want my journal to continue to be my friend. If I do prompts I like a book called "Old Friend from Far Away" by Natalie Goldberg. The book is meant to practice writing a memoir. I use it for journal entries whenever I am feeling like doing a topic style entry. Journaling is my favorite thing ever. Recently I started journaling in pencil. This has been amazing. I always wrote my entries in pen. Its so cool to be able to write and not have to change pens several times a day. I love love love to journal. It makes me happy.