Any athlete or musician will tell you that if you want to succeed, then you need to practice. The same is true for writers. Yet, some writers may wait for days or even weeks until an idea strikes their fancy before they put pen to paper. If you want to be a successful writer then you must practice each and every day, even if you do not have any ideas to put down in writing. Everyday practice will make your writing sound more natural, and you may be able to teach yourself new tricks. One common technique writers use to get everyday practice at their craft is to keep a journal or a diary. Writers that jot down a few sentences each day about daily events can hone in on weaknesses in their writing style. They can use a journal to describe scenes, pen a short story or two, or just to put down whatever thoughts are floating through their minds.
A simple pen with a paper notebook will serve its purpose as a journal. But suppose you want write about topics that are never meant to be seen by others? You could shred anything you write on paper, but that would defeat the purpose of keeping a journal. You want to keep a history of your entries so that you can keep track of how you improve as a writer. It would be a waste of paper, and could start to get expensive if you shred everything your write, especially if your daily writing practice becomes prolific
Lifeograph: Encrypted Journal Software
If you want to write down deep dark secrets about yourself, then you should look for a journaling or diary software package that has built in file encryption. File encryption allows you to write just about anything in an off line format and save the entry to the hard drive of your computer. File encryption will keep just about all prying eyes from viewing your materials, even if your computer is compromised.
There are several software packages available that allow you to keep a daily journal or diary, but most do not offer any type of file encryption to keep what you write a secret. One such journaling software program that does provide the option to password protect an encrypt your daily journal entries was created by Ahmet Öztürk, and is called Lifeograph. Lifeograph is available as a download from the Ubuntu Software Center, and installs in just a few seconds.
Lifeograph offers private off line writing, and your journals are password protected. You can use Lifeograph as a daily journal, or to simply practice your writing technique and craft. You can evaluate your life, your surroundings, and put them into words, often in ways that you never dreamed of, had you wanted to make the writing public. The journaling format of Lifeograph allows you to practice express yourself in different ways without any fear of others seeing your work.
Lifeograph Interface
The Lifeograph user interface integrates well with the Gnome Desktop within Ubuntu Linux. Lifeograph allows you to make multiple entries for any day and it has an intuitive interface. All you need to do to start a new entry is to click on any day on the calendar. Once the entry screen appears, all you need to do is start typing. The first line of your entry will eventually become the title. You can adjust the format of your entry, and use any font or character size that is commonly associated with an Ubuntu Linux computer. You can also edit any past entry within the Lifeograph software.
When you are done, simply exit the program. Your entire journal is saved a single file. If you enable the password, then the file will automatically be encrypted on your hard drive. Other privacy features are built into Lifeograph. There is a time out option, so that if you accidentally leave yourself logged into the computer, the password protection scheme will turn on.
Other Lifeograph Features
You can tag any chapter entries in Lifeograph. This tagging feature comes in handy if you are writing on a variety of topics, or multiple stories. You can tag each chapter entry individually, and call them up via search. Lifeograph allows you to keep multiple journals files.
If you are an Ubuntu Linux user, and want to do a little more private writing, then download and give Lifeograph at try!
Source for Lifeograph Features: http://lifeograph.wikidot.com/
