This is a writing diary I started while working on what is now my first book. I stumbled on a diary that John Steinbeck kept while writing Grapes of Wrath and in it he was kind of a self-absorbed whiner who felt like he couldn't write. I feel like that when I write and I sometimes treat those feelings as meaning I'm not a real writer. So reading him be like that alleviated some of those feelings. I liked reading it and then though if it helped him maybe it'd help me so I tried it. In her book Write No Matter What Joli Jensen has a good account of why it's beneficial for writers to do this kind of writing, she calls it a ventilation file. I recommend it highly. So that's what this is. My vent file, written to help me stay in the chair and write.