How To Turn Your Journal Into 100's Of Substack Posts
+19 Prompts To Help You Do It
Hey friends!
I got such a cool trick to show you today.
The other day I was reading a photography book I bought years ago, and I just could not, for the life of me, read the damn book. The writing was so atrocious that my eyes kept glazing over after reading for 30 seconds.
After wrestling with each page until sweat poured from my forehead, I got an idea..
‘Why not take photos of the pages, upload them to ChatGPT, and ask it to summarize what’s on the page?’
I spent like $70 on the book, and I didn’t want it to go to waste.
So I did.
And ChatGPT did a damn good job summarizing it.
Sure, it was a little bit of work to take a photo of each page and upload it, but then again I was burning 49,000 brain cells per second trying to understand the author’s writing anyway (stick to photography, buddy).
In summary: It was worth it.
A week later, I was in the middle of trying to digitize everything I’ve ever done since 2017. Every month in my bullet journal, I handwrite a monthly summary of what happened in my business. Over 12 pages, I can see an entire year’s worth of progress.
The only problem? Copying all that text into a word document would’ve taken me hours. Then I remembered the ChatGPT trick I used with my cursed photography book to summarize the pages.
‘Could AI read my own writing if I took a photo of it?’
Intrigued, I took a photo, uploaded it to ChatGPT, and within 10 seconds flat it transcribed everything I wrote digitally.
🤯
It was perfect, too. Not a single mistake was made.
Friends, I felt like I unlocked the secrets of the universe that day.
For all the polarizing things people say about AI, it sure is a damn good assistant.
Anyway, the other day I was on a call with a client, and they mentioned to me that they write in their journal copiously.
Many studies show that writing by hand improves the quality of your writing. And many authors like Neil Gaiman and J.K. Rowling have praised handwriting for creative first drafts.
Heck
publishes her journal entries on her publication! There’s something about the act of writing by hand!So my brain, in an instant, made a connection, and then I said to my client:
“Steve, why not take a photo of your journal entries, upload them to ChatGPT, and use that as the basis of your Notes and articles?”
They loved the idea!
And I think it’s such a cool idea that I wanted to give it to you today.
Friends. Here’s how to do this.
Take photo(s) of your journal entry.
Upload them to your computer.
Go to ChatGPT.com
Setup an account if you don’t have one.
Press the + button in the chat window, and select “Upload from Computer” from the menu.
Select the photos you just took.
Now type this into ChatGPT “Here are some photos of a journal entry of mine. Can you help me transcribe this into a digital format I can save in a word document?”
Press enter.
Go make yourself an old fashioned because you’re an absolute baller.
This is so cool because there’s thousands of words that are cooped up in your journal, sitting there not doing anything, that you can use to create Notes and articles.
Here’s a couple use cases for you..
1. Get Help With Your Direction As A Writer
Imagine that you take photos of, say, 20 journal entries and digitize them with AI. Then you put them into one google document. Great, now you can download that Google Document, upload it to ChatGPT, and ask it questions like:
“I’m a blogger online, and here are some of my private journal entries. I have issues coming up with what to write about or who my audience even is. Can you read through these and help me discover blogging opportunities—from a branding/writing ideas standpoint—that I might not have been considering?”
Boom. There’s a free prompt for you. It’s a little lightweight, and there’s a lot more you can do, but that’s a good start.
2. Create Dozens Of Notes
Another fun thing you can do is create Notes. You can either:
Edit the journal entry down into a Note (recommended)
Copy/paste the raw transcription into a Note (not so recommended)
Given that Substack really loves short Notes lately, I don’t think copy/pasting the raw journal text into a Note is a great idea.
Therefore, what you can do is plug the raw text into my NoteSmith tool to see what it says. It will help you edit it down into something publishable, and it may even go viral!
You can plug your self-edited journal entry into the NoteSmith, too. It will polish it up until it shines!
3. Write An Article With It
Obviously, you can also write an article with your journal entry. Heck, you could copy/paste it directly as a newsletter, like
does.You could also:
Use the journal entry as an intro or conclusion.
Copy specific paragraphs or sentences from it and sprinkle them throughout your newsletter.
Copy your journal entry into ChatGPT and ask it “I want to use the concepts, stories, and lessons from this journal entry to create a newsletter for my Substack publication, can you help me outline that blog post?”
There’s so many things you can do with these entries that the sky is kind of the limit here.
4. Compare Your Journal Entries With Your Blog Posts (For Fun)
One final thing here.. You could copy/paste a few blog posts into AI alongside these journal entries, and ask it this..
“Compare and contrast the writing style of my private journal and my public blog posts. How do I write differently in my private journals compared to my public blog, and vice-versa?”
There might be some interesting discoveries there waiting for you..
19 Premium Prompts To Help You Fully Unlock Your Journal
If you’re sitting on a pile of handwritten journals, I made something for you.
Introducing: The Journal-to-Substack Kit (Paid Subscribers Only)
This is a premium collection of 19 deep-dive prompts designed to help you unlock your best stories, discover your true themes, and turn private journal entries into public resonance.
These aren’t fluffy prompts. These are strategic, emotionally intelligent writing accelerators you can plug into ChatGPT (or any AI you use) to turn raw thoughts into polished Notes, viral ideas, and deeply honest essays.
Here’s a short summary of all the prompts, and what they do.
📝 Turn Raw Writing Into Notes & Articles
Journal-to-Note Converter – Reshape raw entries into punchy, post-ready Notes.
Note Polisher – Take a rough draft and shine it until it glows.
Article Builder from Journals – Expand a single reflection into a full-length post.
Story Recycling Prompt – Repackage one story three different compelling ways.
Messy First Draft Prompt – Find the hidden gem inside the chaos of a brain-dump.
🧠 Reflect, Analyze & Grow
Inner Writer Therapist – Get insight on what’s really going on behind your blocks.
Writing Energy Diagnoser – Spot the parts of your writing that feel most alive.
Overwhelm Organizer – Categorize your journal pile into usable themes.
Time Capsule Prompt – Reflect on your growth and turn it into a story arc.
“What’s Missing?” Prompt – Find the emotions you’re almost (but not quite) writing about.
Core Question Extractor – Pull out big questions from your entries and build content from them.
🧭 Discover Your Voice & Direction
Writing Focus Finder – Uncover your core themes and strengths as a writer.
Public vs. Private Style Analyzer – See how your writing changes when no one’s watching.
Creative Direction Prompt – Spot the body of work your journal entries are building toward.
Audience Mirror Prompt – Learn what parts of your voice could build deep trust with readers.
Voice Consistency Coach – Bring your public and private writing styles into alignment.
🎯 Build Audience Resonance
Resonance Radar – Identify the stories that make readers say: “I’ve felt that too.”
🔐 All 19 prompts are available down below for all paid subscribers.
If you’re already a member, scroll down to find them.
If not, upgrade to a paid subscription now and unlock it instantly.
Thanks for reading!