On the topic of Journal and History

So I love the idea of having these.  I feel it can really enhance RP.  However I have a couple of questions.

Help History is pretty self explanatory, but how long should this be? A wall of text is hard to read through, so I'm thinking about the size of a description?

For Journals, could someone give me an example of how they would use it? I assume only you and the immortals can read it.  I'm thinking a paragraph or so once weekly (real time) would be about right. (I don't want to be too spammy)

Also can you make hard copies of these to carry around as well?  It seems like a cool idea to be able to carry around a leather bound book with pieces of parchment in it. If someone kills and loots you, they could take your journal and learn all about your past thoughts.

Thanks guys!

History - Whatever you think appropriately defines your character's life. It could be a certain moment in his childhood or even adulthood that has forced his hand into whatever path he has taken. Why did he join a guild? Did he have a tormented, tortured existence or did he have a great childhood? Remember to put the appropriate spacing for paragraphs and you won't just have a wall of text.

Journal - Journals can be a weekly entry if you like, but I use them to let the IMMs in on how my character behaves when he isn't being watched or in a social environment. I'll make up random stuff about my character walking through Val Miran or I'll write about an RP session that happened recently and describe my character's emotions in detail. Use them to further your character development and less of a "checking in" kinda thing and you'll find that the IMMs will tailor certain interactions for you specifically.

Parchment - You can buy parchment from shops and write on them. If you want to have a journal seen that way, you can. I've also seen characters have IMMs post a journal for them for the rest of Aabahran to see.