Morocco Journal 2007 - pg.65-66
by retro traveler, on Flickr

A young woman's bookcase is filled with large hardcover spiral notebooks. On the cover of each, some with floral or paisley designs, others in solid or checked colors, is a label recording dates. These are daily records of her life, her thoughts, her problems, her observations, her dreams. Since she was a young girl she's religiously recorded a sentence or several pages on a routine basis. Periodically, she pulls them out and flips through the pages, reading excerpts - often smiling and occasionally frowning or dabbing at the tears that dribble down her face.

She is not a writer. Her words will never develop into characters, her thoughts will never be expanded into stories to share en masse. It won't be until her death, when her daughter is done raising her own children, that these journals will be skimmed, most dumped for space.

And yet, while she knows this, she still writes.

Why?

Because it's cathartic. Therapeutic.

Cheaper than a psychoanalyst.

Less invasive. Less critical.

Imagine. If a non-writerly type of person can catalog thoughts, feelings, observations on a regular and consistent basis, glean from the pages, for strictly their own personal purposes, some order, some purpose that keeps them along the path in life they've chosen - imagine what a magical and wondrous tool this is for a writer.

If you are the reluctant journalist, ask yourself why. It can't be that you don't like to write. It can't even be that you don't like to write routinely. Surely you've pored over a manuscript for hours each day and even then never feel that there are enough hours in the day to be afforded to write. Is it that the writing, in a journal, in a journal, you feel needs to be central to a theme? That it should be a daily record of your life, what the weather was like, who you interacted with and why, what you said or should have, what you thought about, dreamed of?

A writer's journal should be thought of as a toolbox. It's a place to keep notes that you can reflect upon as you develop a story. It can be observations about people - quirks, dialect, style of dress, even their gait. It can be how the weather affects mood, the scenery, magnifies or mutes sounds or visual details. It can be a guide as certain elements of a plot come to mind. It is and should be considered a playground for your Muse. A safe place to romp freely, uninhibited, and allowing unlimited freedom.

If you're having a hard time giving yourself permission to journal, get out your planner and pencil in a slot of time weekly, to begin with, to write in the journal. And once you start completing this task on a consistent basis knowing that you don't have to contain it to just those days, step it up. Add another day. Schedule the time for when you are most creative. If the thoughts come to you in the bathroom, leave your journal nearby. If they come by way of the loading zone as you wait to pick up your child from school, keep a journal in the glove box or fashion some index cards on a key chain and loop it around the strap of your purse or belt-loop.

What goes in a journal?

Simply anything.

Need some ideas?

Janet Burroway, author of Imaginative Writing: The Elements of Craft gives these suggestions:

• An observation
• An overheard conversation
• Lists
• Longings
• Your response to a piece of music
• A rough draft of a letter
• Names for characters
• Quotations from what you are reading
• The piece of your mind you'd like to give to so-and-so
• An idea for a story
• A memory
• A dream
• A few lines of a poem
• A fantasy conversation
• Titles of things you are never going to write
• Something else

And as Ms. Burroway states right after her list of suggestions, "Your journal is totally forgiving; it is 100 percent rough draft; it passes no judgments." (Burroway, xxv)

Free write. Set aside a block of time weekly, to start with, then step it up to a few times a week, ultimately at least once a day, to write anything that comes to mind. It doesn't even have to make sense. Don't worry about spelling, don't be concerned with punctuation. Don't like using quotes? Here's your chance to abandon them! Just set a timer and write.

Prompt writing. Your prompt writing can be as wide as picking a topic and then writing on that topic much along the lines of a freewrite, for 10-15 minutes; or using more finite prompts, such as the ones offered here.

Brainstorm, is an idea suggested by Ms. Burroway. She suggests, "Start with the question "What if . . .?" Finish the question and then free-associate around it, absolutely anything that pops into your head--ideas, situations, connections, solutions, and images, no matter how bizarre. This is a problem-solving technique that can also generate energy for imaginative writing. If you need an idea, or if your character is facing a decision, or if you don't know what your setting looks like--whatever the problem, whatever the idea might be struggling to surface--brainstorm it and let your mind run free." (Burroway, xxvi)

Observations. Use your journal to jot down characteristics, mannerisms, dialect, and anything else in the world around you. These are your resources, what help to make the setting, your characters, dialogue, and much more come to life. Writing down what you observe and referring to your notes as you develop your novel will help to make the fictional world you are creating that much more believable to your reader.

In our May issue, we will discuss the topic of writing journals in more depth. In the meantime, go shopping for your journal. Make it one that inspires, one that you look forward to opening up and writing inside of it. And while you're at it, add to your toolbox with some nice writing pens and pencils! Enjoy.

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