History Main / Diary

* ''Film/AmericanScarecrow'': The diary of a little girl is found in a secret compartment under some floor boards in her room. [[spoiler:Since the girl is still alive, she starts adding to it.]]

* ''Fanfic/ACertainDrollHivemind'': The chapters are presented as entries in Misaka-11111's. Unlike most diaries, they are labeled by entry number and not by date. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] however, as Misaka-11111 has been ordered to keep a diary by her mental health professional and is unfamiliar with diary-keeping conventions. [[FridgeBrilliance Also allows the author to not keep track of the date]].

* In ''Manga/{{Change 123}}'', [[TeenGenius Kannami]] suggests that Motoko use a shared diary as a means of communication with her [[SplitPersonality alters]]. While Fujiko doesn't write in it much, Mikiri and Hibiki certainly do. . . To Motoko's horror.

* ''AudioPlay/WereAlive'': The story is being told through the journals of the main characters.

--> ''Every one should have a diery. Becos life is too hard with the things one must say to be perlite and the things one must not say to lie.''

* In ''ComicBook/CerebusTheAardvark'', the tavern owner Pud Withers keeps one in the ''Jaka's Story'' arc. Initially it's very dry and repetitive, with each entry almost a carbon copy of the previous, but about halfway through it starts becoming more sinister.

* The ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfic ''FanFic/BackgroundPony'' is told through the diary of Lyra Heartstrings, although one chapter is [[spoiler: the diary of Alabaster Comehoof, who suffered the same curse as Lyra a thousand years ago.]]

Men and women from all walks of life have kept all kinds of diaries and journals, but they've become increasingly gendered over the last century or so. Partly due to the popularity in the Victorian era of fictional works in diary form, diaries became culturally coded as "feminine", in spite of the fact that some of the greatest diaries by men were written in this period[[note]]George Templeton Strong, the Goncourt brothers, UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt[[/note]]. Even now, diaries tend to be seen [[https://www.themorgan.org/blog/do-real-men-keep-diaries primarily as a tool of women's empowerment]].[[note]]largely due to the immense influence in the 1970s of Creator/AnaisNin and her protégée Trula La Calle, author of ''The New Diary''.[[/note]]. While both men's and women's diaries are covered in Thomas Mallon's ''A Book Of One's Own'', there are no anthologies of men's diaries, while there are several [[https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1974/11/15/to-love-and-to-work-pwhy/ anthologies]] of [[https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/arts/books/article/13013763/no-one-writes-to-the-journal women's diaries]]. This may be a social issue. Men may be teased for having a diary which forces them to be more secretive or use a {{Less Embarrassing Term}} such as "a journal". [[http://www.artofmanliness.com/2009/06/07/30-days-to-a-better-man-day-8-start-a-journal/ The Art of Manliness has this to say about diaries]] and why men should keep them. [[https://wolfandiron.com/every-man-keep-handwritten-journal/ More on diaries and journals from Wolf & Iron]].

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_Maria_de_Jesus Carolina Maria de Jesus]], who lived with her three kids in a shack in the ''favela'' slums of Sao Paolo, Brazil almost her entire adult life, was a prolific diarist, writing the honest truth about her life and ambitions. She composed poems, plays, novels and short stories as well. The diary was published as ''Quarto de Despejo'' (Place of Trash) or ''Child of the Dark'', in 1960 after a journalist found out about it. An unexpurgated version is now available along with her later works and childhood writings.

* There's also a diary in the ''Series/HawaiiFiveO'' episode "Up Tight". This one belongs to young Edie Hastings, who [[DrugsAreBad threw herself off a cliff while on "speed"]] (though clearly LSD is meant). The trail leads to Prof. [[MeaningfulName Stone]], a Timothy Leary {{Expy}}, whom Edie's father confronts with her book. He demands Stone read Edie's words, revealing that the two were lovers, before forcing him to take some of his own drugs (he ends up on the same cliff). Stone reads from the ''front'' of the book, which looks very new; Edie had only made a couple of entries before her death.

-->-- ''Theatre/TheImportanceOfBeingEarnest'' '''by Creator/OscarWilde'''

-->-- ''Theatre/TheImportanceOfBeingEarnest'' by Creator/OscarWilde

* The ''Literature/DearAmerica'' book series, and its spinoffs, ''My America'', ''My Name Is America'', and ''[[Literature/TheRoyalDiaries Royal Diaries]]''. The ''[[Literature/TheRoyalDiaries Royal Diaries]]'' are fictional diaries "written" by real [[EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses royalty]], including UsefulNotes/CleopatraVII, [[UsefulNotes/ElizabethI Elizabeth I]], [[UsefulNotes/MaryOfScotland Mary Queen of Scots]], UsefulNotes/CatherineTheGreat, UsefulNotes/MarieAntoinette, Grand Duchess Anastasia, and others that aren't as easy to name drop.

* In ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'', [[CreepyChild Maria's]] diary is used by [[FutureBadass Ange]] 12 years after the mass murder on Rokkenjima in order to communicate with Maria herself.

* Many in the ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse stories, mostly used as one of the ways Scrooge finds about some treasure.
** ComicBook/{{Paperinik}} (Donald Duck's superhero alter-ego) found his origin when Donald accidentally discovered the journal of Fantomius, the GentlemanThief that had been active in Duckburg in the twenties. More realistically than in most examples, Fantomius had multiple journals (we know of at least three of them, possibly four).

** Freddy's diary entries often appeared at the beginning or end of the story; it gave the writers a convenient way to set up or wrap up events.
** ''Freddy's Guide to Superhero-ing'' was released as a tie-in to ''Film/Shazam2019'' framed as a series of Freddy's diary entries.

* [[http://people.com/archive/out-of-sight-vol-51-no-15/ Accused of murdering his wife Virginia]], Alvin Ridley's life and reputation were saved [[http://snapjudgment.org/writing-wall-0 by his dead wife's hypergraphic diary]] [[https://krazykillers.wordpress.com/2015/09/28/reclusive-ridley-caused-a-riotous-reaction-in-ringgold/ in 1999]]. Turns out [[https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1999/01/27/from-murder-trial-in-ga-town-a-love-story-emerges/dbe5c208-ad20-4712-9b06-31dcb804f3c4/?utm_term=.ea7788e50528 they really were just an eccentric but happily married couple]] who [[LonersAreFreaks kept to themselves]]. She had passed in her sleep because of an epileptic seizure, but her family had been firmly against their marriage and wanted to blame Alvin for her death, thus the murder charge. On YouTube, look up "Death in a Small Town" or "Virginia Ridley".

* Owenita Sanderlin's ''Johnny'' (1968) is comprised partly of diary entries by young Mr. Sanderlin, who died of leukemia at fifteen, outliving his doct alors' predictions by five years.

* [[http://people.com/archive/out-of-sight-vol-51-no-15/ Accused of murdering his wife Virginia]], Alvin Ridley's life and reputation were saved [[http://snapjudgment.org/writing-wall-0 by his dead wife's hypergraphic diary]] [[https://krazykillers.wordpress.com/2015/09/28/reclusive-ridley-caused-a-riotous-reaction-in-ringgold/ in 1999]]. Turns out [[https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1999/01/27/from-murder-trial-in-ga-town-a-love-story-emerges/dbe5c208-ad20-4712-9b06-31dcb804f3c4/?utm_term=.ea7788e50528 they really were just an eccentric but happily married couple]] who [[LonersAreFreaks kept to themselves]]. She had passed in her sleep because of an epileptic seizure, but her family were firmly against their marriage and wanted to blame Alvin for it, thus the murder charge. On YouTube, look up "Death in a Small Town" or "Virginia Ridley".

* ''Diary of Anais Nin'' 1914-1974 by author Anais Nin, her personal life and detailed portraits of her friends and family.
* Naturalist [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opal_Whiteley Opal Whiteley]] wrote diary notes from the age of five (about 1902) which she edited into a bestselling and controversial book, ''The Story of Opal'', first published in 1920.

** *Freddy's Guide to Superhero-ing* was released as a tie-in to *Film/Shazam2019* framed as a series of Freddy's diary entries.