Journaling - A Thought or Two #mfrwauthor

Yes, I know the 52 week challenge is at week 20, and this is the first time I'm popping in. After completing both the 2017 and 2018 challenges, having a new release, and completing the AtoZ in April Challenge, focus was on things other than writing for pleasure. However, I've decided to do a few of the 2019 challenges. This week, the official topic is "Does journal keeping help with the writing process?."

How to write something different than the 2018 topic, Diary or Journal. That focused more on the differences between the two types of writing. No instead this post will be more of the writing life.

One of the pieces of advice I often give authors in my lectures, especially those just starting out, is to keep a journal. No it is not the diary once popular among young girls. It is not a small pink book with a lock whose key was worn on a chain around your neck or hidden in a secret spot in your bedroom. The purpose of the writing journal can be to record feelings, however it is much more. A journal as a motivational tool records each days accomplishments in words written or edited. (Or if in promotion mode, number of social media posts.) Of course, if the numbers aren't what you wanted, that might be motivation to quit rather than continue on. 

Pixabay Image. Used under CCO Creative Commons.

Some might call a novel notebook or a series bible the journal for that particular project. Character lists, storyboards or outlines, and pictures to inspire settings or characters fill the pages.
 
But for the purposes of this post, I'll talk about the small spiral notebook that I jokingly call my journal. And since, it's a digital world I also include the files and folders on the laptop into which some of the data has been duplicated.


What goes into the physical or the virtual journal. On their blank pages storyline ideas develop and expand.  Notes on scenes to write, unique words to add to my vocabulary, also get jotted down, although sometimes in cryptic notes.

One of the main uses of my writer's journal is to accumulate names. The credits of a television program often contain a name that says "I am xxx." I have to admit that my memory for small details (or even some larger ones) isn't as good as it used to be. Age has introduced the shiny object syndrome. Or what I like to call "walk into a room and forget the reason why," because going through the doorway took away all memory of my task. So writing information down immediately upon discovery helps save it for potential use.

But there are problems with having a journal. Handwriting gets illegible. Even worse, they are hard to organize. The information is not grouped by subject but chronological. Sticky notes or paperclips used to mark a particular piece of data fall off.  And you have to remember what information you wrote to be able to search for it.

Still, the act of writing something down helps its capture in the memory, so I will keep my spiral notebook with the black script on the cover that says "Journal."
 
~till next time, Helen