What do these pictures bring to mind? Share in your journal.
Tag Archives: journaling life
Expand Your Horizons
Journaling has many purposes, and best of all, it’s fine to change direction or add a new purpose any time you wish. Today, I’d like you to consider some exploration in your journal. Try writing in new and different ways! Experiment a little bit, and you may discover a hidden talent or a new passion. Who knows, you might even find a path to making your journal profitable! If you’ve never tried any of these types of entries, perhaps now is the time.
For many, journal entries are an opportunity for self-exploration. Writers share their innermost thoughts and feelings in a place where no one else will look without invitation. It’s a safe way to express yourself. The entries typically take the form of a monologue, with the author saying whatever is on his or her mind.
Some use their journal as a record of what happened recently. It serves as a diary of sorts, and the writer can look back years later to see what was important in life back then and also get an assist to recall. Friends and loved ones can enjoy the family stories from long ago when the journal is shared.
Your journal can serve as a repository for ideas and inspirations. Describe your genius thought in detail, then it will be available for action when the time is right. This is a great way to capture moments when you see clearly and know just what you want to try out or accomplish.
Try using your journal to record your progress through new experiences. Tell the steps you take as well as your thoughts and feelings, the progress you’ve made, and what you would do differently next time. Record your insights and your challenges. This type of journal can easily turn into a “been-there-done-that” publishable book! In fact, you could journal about the process of taking your journal entries to publication….
How long has it been since you’ve written poetry? Your journal is a great place to explore the many creative ways that words can be put onto paper. You can try your hand at the traditional types of poetry, with rhyme, rhythm and structure, or you can write free verse, or anything else you wish.
A descriptive essay can be a lot of fun for a journal entry. Choose an event or activity that you truly love, and write to intentionally engage the five senses. Use the most vivid language you can muster, and take yourself (and other readers) into the scene. Include the smells, tastes, feelings, and sounds as well as the description of things that you see.
Novels and short stories can spring from journal entries, too. Make something up out of whole cloth, or start with a real, concrete experience or thing. It can be fun to create a backstory for a character that you’ve read about somewhere else, or to tell the imaginary story of someone you happened to see on the street. Take the perspective of a pet or a common household item like a shoe or a potato and tell about its day.
Sharpen your persuasive writing skills by practicing on yourself. See if you can write to convince your internal editor to change his or her mind about an issue. Write in support of things you believe in, then try writing in support of the other side (it’s a whole lot more challenging!).
Record your hopes and dreams. What do you wish for more than anything in the whole wide world? Why? And how can you turn these dreams into reality? Or should you?
This just begins to scratch the surface of ways you can be creative with your journal entries. The key is to remember that you are not locked into ANYTHING. Your journal is your own, and you can write in any way you wish. Set your sights on a new horizon and push the limits sometimes.
Topic Ideas: Week of 11-23-15
Here are some ideas for your journal this week.
Focuses for a new journal:
- Thanksgiving traditions
- Your family
- Your blessings
Journal prompts:
- What do you remember about Thanksgiving from your childhood?
- Which person from your family would you love to pull out of the past and celebrate with this week?
- Have you ever shared Thanksgiving with someone who was not related to you by blood or marriage? Why or why not?
- How important are traditional foods in your household? Why is that?
- Have you ever helped with a community or charity Thanksgiving feast? What was that experience like for you?
- What are your feelings about “Black Friday” and the traditional shopping spree that follows Thanksgiving?
- How does the run-up to Christmas look to you right now? Are you excited, bored, dreading it? What will you be doing over the next four weeks?
Remember you can get a daily prompt for six weeks by signing up below:
Finding Time to Put Your Thoughts On Paper
One of the biggest reasons that people abandon their commitments to journaling is TIME. The journal gets set aside during busy times, times of stress, or times when routines are disrupted, then it’s never picked back up again. Years later, you find your empty notebook with three entries and a ream of blank pages. Sound familiar?
If you’re hoping to someday turn your journaled thoughts and musings into published content, though, this absolutely will not work. In order to make your dream of publishing come true, you have to have material to publish, and the only way to get that through journaling is write regularly over an extended period of time.
The secret is priority. How badly do you want to create that journal content? Are you dedicated to the concept? If so, then read on for some hints about how to make sure you write in your journal nearly every day.
- Put yourself on a schedule. Figure out what time of day is best for you to get creative juices flowing, and then make sure you are in a position to write, undisturbed, for the amount of time you feel best. This might mean locked in your room with notebook and pen, or it might mean in a quiet place with computer and keyboard, or even in a position to dictate your thoughts onto your voice recorder or phone.
- Start small and work your way up. You don’t have to write thousands of words at a time to start being more consistent with your journal. Try setting a minimum time limit instead. Write for at least five minutes at first, then work your way up to writing for fifteen or even thirty minutes.
- Make a date with yourself. Put an appointment into your personal calendar (literally!). I don’t just mean to intend to write and make a mental note; I mean actually pick a time and put an appointment into your personal calendar just like you would for a lunch engagement or a doctor visit. Write it down. If you’re using a digital calendar, make it a repeating appointment. This way, you won’t accidentally schedule yourself out of your journaling time.
- Save time in other areas and use it for journaling. If you’re like most of us, you have some room for improvement in the efficiency department, especially in routine tasks such as house or yard work. Look for ways to get more done in less time, and you will free up time to write in your journal.
- Add a few moments to your day by rising a bit earlier or going to bed a bit later. Myself, I do best early in the morning, but that’s completely up to you.
- Give up a little television time. Let’s face it. Most of us spend way too much time in front of TV. Keep an honest log of your TV time and you’ll see what I mean. Could you give up a show or two to make time for your journal?
- And don’t get me started on digital distractions. How much time are YOU spending on games and social media? It’s time for an honest assessment of that, too. Could you shave fifteen or thirty minutes off of that time, then put all of the minutes together to make time to write in your journal?
- Make a production goal. One reason NaNoWriMo works so well is that it pushes people to write more than they ever dreamed to be possible. 50,000 words in a single month is a VERY ambitious goal, yet each year hundreds of thousands of writers participate. Now, you don’t need to write that much in one month, but you can set ambitious goals for yourself. How about filling your notebook within a certain length of time? Be sure to keep track of your progress in some visible manner, and consider setting up small rewards for yourself at milestones, such as 1/4 or 1/2 way done. Plan a celebration when you do finally reach your goal.
- Keep your eyes on the prize. Once you’ve set a goal, keep it in front of your space all the time. This might be with a sticky note on your keyboard or a home screen graphic on your tablet or computer, but make your goal visible.
- Accountability helps, too. Find someone to be a journaling partner. You don’t have to share your actual writing to do this; just agree to trade word or page counts on a regular basis and to offer encouragement to one another.
Experiment! Find out which of these tips will work for you, and your journal will grow right before your eyes. And remember, if you need a regular dose of writing prompts to build the habit, you’ll want to sign up for the Journaling Life mailing list! You’ll get six weeks’ worth of ideas to write about! Just complete the form below:
Toward More Vivid Writing
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.
Topic Ideas: Week of 11-16-23
Just sharing some ideas about what you could write about this week!
Starting a new journal? Try these themes:
- Your cooking experiences
- Your prayer life
- Favorite family outings
Journal prompts:
Write about these if you are looking for ideas:
- What emotions are prompted by the change from fall into winter for you?
- What comes to mind when you see the trees without their leaves?
- How does journaling help you?
- If you could do any job in the world, what would you choose and why?
- What problem would you wipe out of your life right now if you could?
- What has been your biggest blessing this week? How so?
- Where would you go on a vacation get-away if you could leave today?
Remember you can get a daily prompt for six weeks by signing up below: