How to write an anonymous diary
An anonymous diary is not the same thing as a secret one. A secret diary is private: nobody else can read it. An anonymous diary is written under a name that is not yours. It can stay private, or you can make it public and still keep your real name out of it.
Pick the name first
Your username is the name on the diary. Choose one that is not your real name, not your email name, and not a handle you already use on a public account. The diary name, the title people see, can be ordinary. "Notes" is a fine diary name. The point is that a reader who does not already know you cannot get from the page to your front door.
You can change the username later under Account. Do that before you make anything public, not after a year of entries have been read under the old name.
Private, or public and unknown
If you only want a place to write, leave the diary private and you are done. Anonymity matters most when you want readers. A public diary on this site can be read by anyone, and people can comment if you allow it. They see the username. They do not see your email address.
That is enough only if the entries themselves do not identify you. These are the usual giveaways:
- A full name, even once, in an old entry you forgot about.
- An employer, a school, and a city, together.
- Other people's full names, especially family.
- A photograph of your face, your street, or your desk with a badge in the frame.
- A writing style and a set of facts that match an account you keep under your real name somewhere else.
Read the diary once as a stranger before you switch it to public. If you can tell who you are, so can someone else.
What you can still say
You can write about work, family, a city, and a hard week without handing over an identity. "The office," "my sister," "a city I moved to last year" are enough for the entry to be true. Specific feelings and specific small events are what make it worth reading. Your national ID number is not.
If one entry is riskier than the rest, keep the diary private, or use the subscription's mixed setting so that entry stays private while others are public. Switching the whole diary back to private hides it again. The details are in how to keep a private diary.
People write this way because they want to say something their household, their job, or their real name cannot carry. That is a good reason. It is also a reason to be dull about the facts that would find you, and precise about everything else.
If the diary is meant to be read as a story rather than as you, see how to write a fictional diary.