Category: JOURNALING

When one no longer journals, picking up the habit again might become a challenge for some, depending on what has stopped the habit in the first place.

Perhaps life’s many trials and distractions have gotten in the way and you have lost your habit of writing in the journal. Give yourself grace. Also give yourself regular journal prompts to prime the pump. Place your journal in a place convenient for your schedule and your life.

Perhaps the last time you journaled was for an assignment in school many years ago and you would like to try it again. Consider my article on Journal Writing Suggestions to get you started.

Perhaps you have become bored with the writing task. Mix it up a little. Have you tried various elements of a journal to include in your personal book such as art, ephemera, photos, an index? Read the article on Elements of a Journal to Consider.

Perhaps you don’t know where to start again. The previous journal was fine, but you have moved on in life. A journal can be many things. Visit my article on the Types of Journals to Consider. It is possible that the reason you originally started journaling no longer fits your life today. It might be time to find a new reason, and perhaps a new format.

Perhaps someone read your journal without permission and you, understandably, walked away from the practice of journaling. Someone reading your journal without permission is a betrayal best helped by a therapist who can help you reclaim your private space, your personal book.

Perhaps you no longer see the purpose of a journal. Before you give up, read this article on What If I Have No Purpose for a Journal? In it, I give suggestions on how to discover the purpose of your journal.

Whatever your journey, I wish you well in saying hello again to your old friend. Your journal awaits.

Peace,

Deborah

We have discussed before that a journal exists to help you; it is not your master. Think of your journal as a non-judgmental friend who exists to help.

At times, you might procure a journal that does not fit your goals. At that point, it is useful to think of the journal as sunk cost. Be grateful for your time with it, but move away from it.

It is also a good reminder not to believe that all is lost. You did not completely waste your time. You learned something from the encounter with the journal. To redeem your time with it, look for the lesson with the unwanted journal.

For example, I had journaled for years with just words, no doodles, no ephemera. What I had not realized is that deep down I had cordoned myself off into the identity of writer and felt that adding ephemera was to become a scrapbooker, which was an identity that did not seem to fit. I also rarely used guided journals or prompts from other people as I always have something to write, rarely at a loss for words for a private book.

On a whim, I decided to so something different and purchased the guided book titled Wreck This Journal. Unfortunately, the book asked its user to do activities that did not make sense to me and made me uncomfortable, such as grinding dirt into the pages. I did not finish it.

However, as I mentioned in my review of Wreck This Journal, it was not a waste of time. What came from that experience was a loosening of my reticence to add mixed media to the journal. After being told to do extreme things to a journal, the idea of merely adding photos, or tickets -something meaningful to the story I was writing- did not seem intrusive or out of place. In fact, the objects enhanced the story.

The lesson from the encounter with the journal that I never finished was to expand my idea of a journal beyond the way I had always done it. It helped me to become comfortable with an expanded view of journaling and an expanded view of my identity within the journal writing space.

What lessons have you learned from your unwanted or useless journal? In what way can you redeem the time that you have spent with an unwanted journal?

Peace,
Deborah

The contents of your personal book can vary with your purpose for journaling. No two writers or purposes are exactly the same.

Still, here are a few elements to consider using in your journal, if you do not already. Take what works for you and toss the remainder.

Art

We have discussed different Types of Journals to Consider. In that essay, we mentioned the art journal and the commonplace book, among other types of journals with drawings or art in them.

Many set aside an entire journal for painting, sketching, etc. However, for this section we are considering art as an accessory to the words. Some will create a drawing of, say, the location where they are writing – a cafe, a train station – and incorporate prose in the left over spaces.

For those of use who are strictly writers and not artists, drawing in a journal might feel intimidating or forbidden. (Or even embarrassing because we are not Picasso.) We can join the fun as well. We can doodle. We can affix an image to a journal page and write about it. It would take exploring a new type of guided journal before yours truly felt comfortable drawing in a journal, but give it a try. It enhances the book, adds another layer, and catches the eye upon re-reading.

Date

Adding a date to your entry can be useful, especially for those of us who re-read our journals or expect someone else to read them someday (such as with heirloom journals). The date dredges up lots of memories that the rest of the content does not. Dates give context and enrich the content.

Date Headers

Now that we have established that adding a date might be useful, let’s go one step farther. Date headers are an embellishment of the date on the page that can help your eyes see the start of your day’s entry with the greatest of ease. For example, drawing a box around the date might arrest your eye quickly. This is especially useful if you write more than one day’s journal entry on a page.

You can be even more creative than that and draw banners around the date or chevrons. The sky is the limit. We have discussed this before with examples here: Date Headers for Your Journals

Index

In the back of your journal, you can preserve the last page or two for the index of your new journal. In alphabetical order, write a few topics that you think might come up in the journal, leaving space in between for other topics that will come to you later. You can mark the index with the topic and page number (or some use Topic + Date). Alternatively, you can leave the index blank until you have an entry.

After you write an entry, think about what topic or topics it represents and note that day’s entry in your index. For example, you have written about your birthday at a water-based theme park. This entry might be placed under “T” for “Theme Parks” and/or under “B” for “Birthdays.” Choose the topic you are most likely to look for to re-read the journal.

Note that some journals come with an alphabetized space for indexing, which can save you time.

If you have already completed journals and would like to do this, consider using the end papers to create an index.

Also note that digital journals solve this problem with the ability to keyword search.

Page Numbers

Page numbers are another wonderful addition if you plan to re-read your journal. They work well in concert with indexing and with tables of content.

Some journal writers write the page numbers on every page before writing an entry. Others do it afterwards or as they go along.

The top corner on the outer edge, near the fore edge of each page, is an eye-catching spot to place the page numbers. In any case, it is helpful to put them in the same or similar spot on each page for ease of finding them when you re-read. Use your pen to write them or use number stickers to make it even more noticeable among the handwriting.

Some journals are pre-printed with page numbers, which can save you the trouble of having to write them yourself.

Place/ Setting

Noting where you are when writing is another element of context that can enrich the journal if you plan to re-read the book. Doubly so, if you draw the place or take a picture of it and affix it to the journal.

For example, you penned an entry about feeling exhausted and tired; you decided to rest all day. You jotted down the place – Asbury Lake. Now, when you re-read that entry, you realize that you traveled 30 miles to get away from whatever stressed you. You allowed the quiet of the lake (with noisy, greedy geese) to help you to heal.

By noting the place and how it helped, this activity can be replicated some day if needed.

Special Spaces

People who use Bullet Journals sometimes add a special space to their personal book that they want to highlight regularly. Among the to-do lists and errands (for that is what a Bullet Journal is – a hand-drawn planner and calendar with bullet points), one might draw a square in the middle of the page called a “Gratitude Box,” forcing oneself to write at least one thing per day for which to be grateful.

Think about a theme that you might want to highlight each time you write and consider giving it a special space, perhaps even a header.

Table of Contents

A table of contents for your journal is another way to help you re-read your personal book. In fact, a table of contents can save you time in re-reading the journal since it is a summary of what you have written.

You set up the table of contents as any published book might do it – at the beginning of the journal. You preserve one or two pages in the front of a new journal. After you write your journal entry for the day, you can summarize that entry with a title or a word or two. Place that title (and preferable the date or page number) on the first page of the table of contents. Rinse and repeat.

Some journals come with pre-printed spaces for your table of contents, saving you the time of having to create the space yourself.

For completed journals that have no table of contents , you might consider using the end paper of your journal for the task.

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Ultimately, your journal is your own and it works to serve your purpose. It is our job to Make Progress, Not Perfection, so fiddle around with how you organize your personal book and have fun with the journey.

Peace,

Deborah

Author and creativity expert Julia Cameron espouses what she calls “Morning Pages” to help “provoke, clarify, comfort, cajole, prioritize and synchronize the day at hand.”

What are Morning Pages?

It is a style of journaling wherein you produce three pages of longhand writing about anything at the beginning of your day. You can even say something to the effect of, “I have no idea what to write.” Just write whatever is on your mind for three pages.

What is the point of this? Why in the morning?

Cameron says it has been her experience that writing sweeps away the cobwebs of negativity. “What they do,” Cameron says of Morning Pages, “is clear your mind.’

According to Cameron, it is best to write down what you think at the beginning of your day. That way, you have captured the idea before other obligations take over your time.

Thus, if you work a night shift and you wake up at 6pm because your work day starts at 8pm, then your pages should be done sometime after 6pm. It is not an exercise elusively when the sun rises; it is really a Start-of-Your-Day exercise, whenever that might be.

“What I find is when you put the negativity on the page,” she says, ” it isn’t eddying through your consciousness during the day.” This exercise frees you to appreciate the little miracles and other good things during the day.

Tips?

Cameron gives a few tips on her website Julia Cameron Live – “A lot of people think [Morning Pages] should be artful. I say ‘No! They should be whiny, petty, grumpy – whatever you happen to be.'”

Further encouraging the practice, she says, “There is no wrong way to do Morning Pages– they are not high art. They are not even ‘writing.’ They are about anything and everything that crosses your mind– and they are for your eyes only.”

What do you think of Morning Pages? Have you tried them? Do you have your own version of Morning Pages?

Peace,

Deborah

As with anything, there comes a time when you are tired and might not wish to journal.

Only you can decide whether to give in to the impulse and not write for the day or barrel through and do it anyway. Either way, learn to be gentle with yourself.

In the meantime, here are a few quotes that might help you to pick up your will to soldier on and write.

“Start before you’re ready.”

– Steven Pressfield

“Pages [a type of journaling] clarify our yearnings. They keep an eye on our goals. They may provoke us, coax us, comfort us, even cajole us, as well as prioritize and synchronize the day at hand. If we are drifting, the pages will point that out.” —Julia Cameron

“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”

– Jack London

“Let’s end the notion that ideas have no value unless they turn into a business or have some other practical use. Save them all in a beautiful book like Leonardo did. ”
— Barbara Sher

“I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.”
— Flannery O’Connor

“If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word.”

– Margaret Atwood

“Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

I wish you peace in the midst of whatever is exhausting you.

Deborah

If you write for the public, if you are a novelist, screenwriter, blogger, etc., your journals might be a source of inspiration. You might be able to harvest from them.

Let’s say you are a Young Adult novelist. Could your diaries from the age range of your reader help to get you into the mindset of your characters? Could some of the problems of youth become the main conflict for your protagonist? Would reading your older diaries at least get you in the mood for writing for this age range?

How can your private journals help you to write for the public?

Peace,

Deborah

Julia Cameron – author of The Artist’s Way– has a blog post from January 2018 which resonated with me a bit. It is titled,”The Wall.”

The author says that when writers cannot think of anything to write – hitting the wall- they try to force optimism into the scenario, or we doubt our own creativity. This does not work towards reaching your goals. Instead, she says the following:

“…there is a better way to conquer The Wall, and that is to surrender. Instead of trying to convince ourselves of the brilliance of our idea, we need to say instead, ‘I am willing to finish this piece of work even if my idea is terrible.’ In other words, ‘I am willing to write badly.’

The moment we are willing to write badly, we begin to have freedom.”

Imperfection is one of the toughest things to accept in your writing. It has kept many from journal writing again or from ever starting in the first place. I have heard many people state that they did not like the way in which they write; it is not like the published books that they read all the time, so they do not want to come face-to-face with unedited writing.

Does your journal consist of a wall of text? That’s OK. It’s not beautiful, but functional. Is your attempt at an art journal laughably rudimentary? That’s OK. It is fun to do. Sometimes we are our own worst critic which is keeping us from the fun of journal writing. As we keep going, day by day, at some point we reach a journal writing habit which helps to ignore what we have deemed as imperfections, and we just get on with it.

Keep going.

Have you ever hit The Wall in journal writing? What did you do about it?

Peace,

Deborah