No matter what you think you’re doing with your journal, chances are very good that, deep down inside, one of your goals is to have your voice heard long after you are gone. Even if you’re not planning to try to publish your work someday, your children, grandchildren and other loved ones will treasure your written thoughts as a connection to the real you.
Journaling is an opportunity to hone your writing skills. Whether you are describing a special event, the day-to-day pieces of your life, your innermost thoughts or hope and dreams, make your writing memorable by using the most vivid language you can muster.
Vivid language makes your writing come alive for your reader. It will also dance off of the paper when you reread your work years from now. Not only that, but the constant prod to write just a little bit better than you did yesterday will help you continually improve your craft.
How does one go about making writing more vivid? Try a few of these exercises as you journal in the coming days.
- Be intentional about appealing to all the senses when you describe events, places, people or things. Describe not only what you see and hear, but also what you smell, taste and touch.
- Use the most specific words you can muster. Don’t simply describe something as “big;” try fifty-cent words like “gargantuan,” “giant,” or “huge.” If it was frightening, try words like “horrendous,” “terrifying,” or “petrifying.”
- See if you can increase the reading level of your writing by using longer sentences and words with more syllables. You can take a snapshot of a piece’s reading level by typing it into the word processor and doing the more elaborate grammar check instead of a simple spell check. Check your word processor’s documentation to find out how to turn on this feature if it’s not readily apparent.
- Wipe a few of your most commonly-used words from your vocabulary. “Very” is a great example. There are much better ways to express that thought. Try “extremely,” “undoubtedly,” or “surely.”
- Add in some figurative language. You remember these from high school English class: the simile, the metaphor, alliteration, and so forth. You don’t need to name them or analyze them, but add some comparisons to make your writing sparkle, and pay attention to how the words sound if they are read aloud.
