In My Writer's Toolbox: The Journal, Part 3
Just so daily, or at least a few days a week?
While I’m advocate of writing regularly (daily, if possible, and you have enough spoons), I think some kind of regular journal habit, even if it’s Tuesdays and Saturdays, or weekends only, can really help writers in a variety of ways. Here is a list of things I keep in my journal:
Idea storage
Rambling (Yes, I still do this everywhere, but it’s good to keep some of it to myself.)
Venting (I like choosing this over shouting.)
Mental health check-ins about the good, bad, ugly, interesting, and how to make good choices with all the passionate emotions (is this just me that needs this?)
Gratitude
Rough draft starts of poems, stories, Substack posts, etc.
Goals and plans
Drawings
Maps, or at least scribbly maps with a sense of direction on them for stories
Collages
Pieces of ideas that don’t seem to fit anywhere just yet.
Quotes I like, or I find thought-provoking.
Reading logs/responses/reflections
Things overheard, song lists.
Descriptions in the moment
Writing prompts based on whatever is in front of me while the journal is open or overheard in a movie or show - I have lists of prompts from dialogue that I use and reuse to jumpstart ideas.
Titles I like.
Names I like - I actually watch the end credits (especially with Marvel movie extras placed within the end credits) and mine them for interesting names for story writing.
Information from books I’m studying/research.
Snippets of scenes I love in fiction books.
Snippets of poems I love.
Snippets of song lyrics
Lists of authors I think are awesome, including some really scribbly author “family” trees I would like to be a part of - not that they are actually related to one another other than linked by being beloved.
Books I have read/would like to read.
Scripture verses (because yes, my faith is important to me)
Song lyrics (yep, I can’t play an instrument well, but I like making up hummy songs)
Sermon notes
Notes from conversations I’ve had, both good and bad ones.
Memories I want to expand on or remember, like there’s this particular memory I have of singing “Trouble” by Taylor Swift at the top of our lungs with my daughters and a friend of theirs over the phone while sitting in an air-conditioned rental car outside of a competition venue a half hour before one of my daughters had a race and after we have visited my husband in the hospital (where he had to stay for two days). It was the most beautiful, stress-relieving moment I can think of sharing with both of my daughters at that age and at that time. And we laughed afterwards, a lot. I have this memory written out in technicolor in a journal because I love it so much.
Memories I want to turn over and expunge or reconsider in a new light to see if they added into my resiliency.
Random things… many, many random things.
What if questions
Stories I would like to write/finish in my lifetime.
And a key factor for me in journaling is this: I don’t worry about how pretty it is. I can’t stress this enough. I have friends and family members who won’t write in prayer journals or in any kind of journal because they are afraid they won’t say it “right” or that they might make an error. A journal is not an assignment. It is not meant for the world to see. It isn’t meant for anyone to see. It’s meant to be a safe space for whatever in the world you need it to be in the moment.
I write that, and yet, I have assigned journal entries to high school aged students, and I have “graded” them with a pass/fail or “filled the page for 10 points” kind of method. So, yes, sometimes journals can be assignments.
But, if it is your journal for your writing and life, it is not assignment. It is yours. It is for you. Don’t worry about spelling, grammar, or getting it “right.”
Just write.
Turn off the inner editor and play on the page.
Later, if you want (and only if you want), go back and mine it for the gems that might be the stories you want to turn into another draft which might be the start of something that goes into the world. But not the journal. The journal only goes into the world if you really want to be open with journaling, but otherwise, keep it for you and your writing alone.