Journaling - How It Can Help Your Writing Life
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I have been keeping a journal off and on since I received a small denim-covered diary with a lock and key in my stocking in 1975. That expanded over the teen and college years into multiple volumes annually. When I started writing, I found that I didn’t journal as much.
A few weeks into the pandemic, I had the thought that I probably should record some notes of what the plague and lock-down was like. It suddenly became a fancy notebook filled with dread and fear. So I stared a second pandemic journal, A Sudden Glory. This one is filled with stories about helpers and good deeds that I run across. Some are tiny little acts of kindness and others are on a larger scale. I decided if was keeping a record of all the doom and gloom, I needed to record some of the amazing things too.
The contents may never see the light of day, but I think a journal helps your writing life.
It’s a chance for you to write about your thoughts and interests.
It’s a place where you can just write without the worry of editing and rewrites.
It’s where you can record thoughts and ideas. You never know when one will become part of a larger work.
Journaling is a way to record your history and experiences for a future you.
It helps you establish a regular writing routine.
Journal entries help you work through conflicts and sort out ideas.
Journaling is a good way to capture a bit of your life, and it’s a precious time capsule when you go back and look at the contents later.
