The personal diary, also called a life diary, is a kind of notebook in which its owner writes down the experiences that occur in his day-to-day life, and which can have an important medium and long-term impact on his life dynamics.. The texts follow a simple structure: they are fragments with the most interesting anecdotes, accompanied by the date on which they occurred. This is considered to be one of the subgenres of biography, better known as autobiography. In general, this calls for the intimate connection between the reader and the author, while the latter recounts the most important events of his existence.
Life diaries can also focus on the author's own meditation. Also, they can serve as a kind of place for the relief of feelings and emotions that affect the writer. In this way, you can get an idea of how the mind of a certain person works. These, even, can serve as a kind of testimony about the times in which the authors lived and that are considered of historical importance, as is the case of The Diary of Anne Frank.
The narratives that are used can range from the narrative and descriptive, to the argumentative and expository, thus realizing all the author's dreams, thoughts and reflections. The false personal diary format is widely used in literary creations, such as Mary Shelley's The Modern Prometheus or Frankenstein, as well as Sam Stoker's Dracula. Thus, it can be mixed with other literary genres, such as epistolary.
