How to write a fictional diary
A fictional diary is a story told as dated entries, in one person's voice. The narrator does not know how it ends. Neither does the reader. That limit is the form. If you publish it, say that it is fiction. A made-up diary presented as a real person is a different thing, and not an honest one.
Decide three things before the first entry
- Who is writing. One voice. They can be unlike you. They should sound like themselves every time, including when they are petty, funny, or wrong.
- When it starts and how often they write. A crisis week, a school year, a voyage. Daily is a choice, not a rule. Gaps can be part of the story if the narrator says why they stopped.
- What they cannot see. They do not know other people's private thoughts. They misread motives. They find things out late. The interest is in watching them catch up.
Write the entries in order. If you invent Tuesday after you have written Wednesday, you will tangle the facts. Keep a plain list of names, ages, and dates outside the diary if the story is long. The entries themselves should feel written on the day, not summarized by someone who already knows chapter ten.
How an entry sounds
A fictional entry has the same bones as a real one: the day, what happened, what the writer made of it. It does not have scene-setting from a novel. The writer was there. They do not describe their own face. They mention a street because they walked down it, not because the reader needs a map.
3 April. The lamp in the stair has failed again and the landlord says it is the tenants' job to notice. I noticed. I also noticed he was not going to climb the stair. Mrs Adel asked me if I had seen her cat. I have not. I said I would look, which means I will open the back door tonight and call a name I am not sure I remember. I think the cat is fine and she wants someone to stand in the yard with her. I might do it anyway.
That entry knows a building, a neighbor, and a small lie. It does not explain the plot. The next entry can pay the lie off, or forget it, the way people do.
If other people can read it
You can keep a fictional diary private while you are writing it. When you want readers, set the diary public, and put in the description that it is fiction. Use a username that is the author's name or a pen name, not the name of a real neighbor. Do not use a real person's full name, address, or workplace for a character who behaves badly. "Mrs Adel" is a character. Your actual downstairs neighbor is not.
Readers on this site can comment if you allow comments. They will tell you when a date contradicts an earlier entry. That is useful. They will also tell you the ending they want. You do not have to take it.
A real diary and a made-up one use the same shape, which is why the form works. For the real version, see diary entry examples and how to start a diary.