My good friend in New York, <a href="http://www.jonathanhayes.com/" target="_blank">Jonathan Hayes</a>, set me thinking today. He's asked some pertinent questions about keeping book diaries and maintaining blogs here over the past few months. The latest got me pondering. Simplicity, remember, is the key to everything to do with writing. We want to clear away the clutter so we can think more easily.

In that case why separate a book diary from a blog? Both are journals of a kind? One public, one private. Is there a way to do both using the same rudimentary system? Well actually, there is. Since I'm embarking on a new book shortly I'll experiment with this new method to see if works better than my old system of using MacJournal. It is absolutely free. So why not?

Let's get started.

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The idea's simple. Instead of keeping my book journal as a local file on my computer, why not run it, instead, as a blog? Not a public one, but a private one. This is dead easy to set up if you have a free wordpress.com account. Just create a blog and go to the privacy options here.

<a href="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/wordpress.pngwp-content/uploads/2009/11/Screen-shot-2009-11-28-at-12.53.56.png"><img src="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/wordpress.pngwp-content/uploads/2009/11/Screen-shot-2009-11-28-at-12.53.56-tm.jpg" alt="Screen shot 2009-11-28 at 12.53.56.png" width="460" height="160" /></a>

From this point on no one can see this blog unless they get past that login. So let's create the kind of categories I'd have in a book diary.

<a href="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/wordpress.pngwp-content/uploads/2009/11/Screen-shot-2009-11-28-at-12.53.36.png"><img src="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/wordpress.pngwp-content/uploads/2009/11/Screen-shot-2009-11-28-at-12.53.36-tm.jpg" alt="Screen shot 2009-11-28 at 12.53.36.png" width="460" height="332" /></a>

Note that you can have sub-categories too. So you can have hierarchies in your posts that are equivalent to folders on your computer. Finally, pick a template that suits you - I'm using INove - and write posts that match the categories of your 'diary'. I have an actual diary category for general thoughts, and then tend to break down the others as above. I'll also add in two important tags, 'to do' and 'must use', as I do in MacJournal, for entries that definitely require attention.

The front page of your book blog will simply reflect the chronological order of all the posts you've made.

<a href="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/wordpress.pngwp-content/uploads/2009/11/Screen-shot-2009-11-28-at-12.49.34.png"><img src="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/wordpress.pngwp-content/uploads/2009/11/Screen-shot-2009-11-28-at-12.49.34-tm.jpg" alt="Screen shot 2009-11-28 at 12.49.34.png" width="460" height="324" /></a>

But you can go straight to the category or sub-category by clicking one of those category tabs in the top. One of the reasons I chose INove is that it comes with these -- you just have to select category instead of page in the template settings.

Running a book diary like this has several advantages. It's always backed up for one thing, and you can access through any net-enabled computer or phone. The site will even come up on an iPhone of iPod in a special mobile version that allows you to see everything (as will this site too -- give it a try -- Wordpress is truly wonderful). I can post entries using Ecto or, at a pinch, MacJournal, though MacJournal isn't quite as proficient unfortunately -- I can't see a way to match its categories to those of Wordpress, though this must be me).

Also I'm no longer restricted to a Mac. I can view the diary on my new Windows 7 notebook, and write posts for it using Live Writer (which is a very good, and free, piece of software too). I could, if I wanted, invite people in to take a look at my book blog. I could post extracts of the work and share them with agents and editors. I could ask a friendly technical person to view and comment on questions, all in privacy. I can add stuff to the blog by simply emailing a special email address attached to it. And I can cut and paste other material and links into blog entries too. Pretty neat stuff.

The principal downside is that in order to see a web site you usually have to be connected to the web. What happens if you're not and you need something? There are a few solutions. You can make sure everything in your book blog is synced to an offline editor like Ecto or Live Writer. You can try using Firefox or Google Chrome with Google Gears, a Google add-on that stores web material locally (doesn't work with Safari in Snow Leopard though -- be warned). <strong>Update: </strong>Google Gears doesn't store the entire site locally. You only have full access if you're online.

How well does this shape up in practice? I don't know, and if you're halfway through a book and happy with the system you're using at present then don't even think of abandoning it for this. The advantages are there but they're not worth a lot of pain. Really this ought to be achievable using <a href="http://www.evernote.com" target="_blank">Evernote</a>, and would be if the designers just let people have hierarchical folders instead of forcing them to use complex and unintuitive tags. But given how many users have asked for <em>that</em> over the years with no success I guess it isn't going to happen.

I like the idea of not being chained to a Mac that I happen to own. So I'll give it a try and report back after a little while. Frankly I'm not entirely convinced. If you want to collaborate this would be fantastic. But I don't and I really like MacJournal. The drag and drop simplicity of a local app may be something I'll miss rather too much. But we'll see.

If you want to give it a try you can simply sign up for a free account at <a href="http://www.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">wordpress.com</a> and play. Feel free to say what you think here.