If you're a writer, this means that you are a writer. You write.
Thoughts, ideas, feelings, stories, experience, all that goes down on paper in some form or another. A journal (different from a diary) is where you can write anything and not expect anyone but yourself to read it. So, it doesn't matter what you write, just write. Journals can be anything, and it doesn't have to be formatted or even type written.
I have a pile (and I do mean pile) of steno notepads (I prefer steno to regular sized notebooks), and even a few smaller notebooks that will fit in my purse. Well, my purse is quite large as I carry everything, including notebooks and several pens in it, along with anything that I may ever need when I leave the house.
The thing about journals is that when you write, it's for that moment in time. These journals can be used for future writing, creating new stories or even writing about real-life events. There are several events in my life, that I wish I could forget or put behind me, but writing about them is a way to get them out. I have this thing about thoughts and ideas that don't leave my head until I write them down. When I write them down, it doesn't go away, but it gets filed away.
I wrote a story "Fractured Tears: A struggle for Justice" where I turned my real life events of being not only a survivor of domestic violence but a survivor of the justice system into a fiction story. I used news coverage references for my writing, as well as journal entries that I wrote. I didn't want the story to be all about me, and I wanted to protect my children, so I fictionalized the story and created the character "Anna Coleman".
Journal entries make great references. When you complete a notebook, keep it. I keep mine. If I write on a scrap of paper that I found in the bottom of my purse, such as an old receipt or old envelope, I keep it. I paperclip it in my notebooks. So, write, and keep what you write. It's like starting a story, and stopping because you don't know where it's going to go, but you keep it in case you ever get back to it. Never throw out anything you write. Your thoughts are precious and may never be the same again.
Fractured Tears: A struggle for justice is available on amazon.com