Tag Archives: make money journaling

But, Save It All!

A big, hearty welcome to my good friend, Sonja Carlo, who provided this guest post.  Please visit her website at Brown Rabbit Books.com

Too many boxes of papers and notebooks

I was downsizing a few years back and hunted for room to stash my ever-growing stack of journals which at that time comprised several good-sized boxes. Boxes full of my writing since 1973, a few of the years from 1973-1988 were already in a 3 ring  binder that I had made before I left Alaska but the majority were not and in fact I had to spend a day sorting them all out in yearly piles in my living room,  like dealing a deck of cards. Many of the entries, pages and poems had duplicates; hundreds of pages and entries that I had copied several times to get edited poems for poetry contests which I used to enter in the 1990’s. A lot of my muse comes out as poetry material. I ended up burning stacks and more stacks of duplicate copies and useless notes and scraps in my driveway that summer. I ended up with several beautiful 3 ring binders of the years of journaling lined up in a special shelf I bought for that purpose.

Problem of too many notebooks

They stayed that way for several more years also moved about and investigated a bit. Finally I had to come to terms with the problem as it took shape. I knew I needed to sort again to downsize the stacks of journals.

Problem of notebooks: a mess of unorganized papers.

About 2011 I began to realize I was not getting any younger and if I wanted to downsize to perhaps move,  I had better get down to business, and do something about those journals. I collected the years 1973-1989 and scanned, edited, cleaned most of the copies and stuck in some pictures taken in Alaska and had it all bound at a local office store that does such things. I loved the finished product and was encouraged and anxious to get on with the rest of the years. 1990 took a longer time to complete and I did not get it done until the following year. I had written a lot in 1990 and other life events put it on the back burner. Never the less it reached the binder too, and I was again thrilled. I surprised myself with the accomplishment and was spurred on to the next one. This collection of 1991 to 1994 took only a few weeks; there were less bad soiled copies, and a deadline, as  I hurried to get it done before my trip to California to see my daughter.

If you have old copies of stuff you wrote, letters, cards, autographs, awards, scrapbook stuff saved in boxes, you can do the same thing because my boxes had all that stuff in them, including some school papers written when I decided to go back to college.

Problem of paper vs computer solved

During all of this collecting, stashing, storing, sorting, and burning, I realized I was using that my computer more and more to write. A down side of that was that I was using 5-subject college lined notebook of choice to write in every year and had a growing problem of transferring it to Microsoft word. It was a chore for me at times when doing so.

But, Save It All!
After retiring in 2009 I discovered self-publishing sites and published 3 years of my journal entries in a book about being an AIDS caregiver.  Still, transcribing from paper to Microsoft word, I was slowly mixing paper and computer entries; that helped but did not solve the problem until last winter when I was sick and spent a lot of time meditating on my couch in the morning and throughout the day. I started to interrupt prayers and or meditation or TV shows to type my thoughts into a notes program on my iPad. Problem solved! Now it’s my iPad notes that comprise the majority of my journal writing outside of my purse journal which I carry with me everywhere.

Expensive binding problem solved

Looking at the problem of paper stacks from 1995 to 2009 and I now hope to scan them all to Microsoft this winter avoiding the expensive bound copies at the office stores. In conclusion, I advise

when in doubt, save it all!

************************

You can find Sonja’s books on Amazon. Many come straight from her journals.  Check them out!

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.

journalquote2

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.

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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?
  7. 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?
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. 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:

 

First Steps to Journaling for Profit

Countless authors before you have pulled it off, so it’s a cinch that you can, too.  Right?  RIGHT??  Many people dream of profiting from their journal efforts, and it is true that some do. It is a common starting point for autobiographies, some how-to books, and more.

Every single author who has published a journal started from sourceschool-93200_1920 material. Most didn’t set out to write publishable prose; the vast majority simply wrote for the joy or benefits of journaling, then found they had something of interest to others.  However, it is possible to begin journaling with profit in mind and to succeed.

So where do you stand? Have you been journaling for years, and then realized that your words might be of interest to others? Or are you just starting out and wondering what topics you could tackle in such a profound way that others would be interested in sharing your experiences?

No matter which path you believe you are taking, the very first steps involve generating content. You have to have a journal to publish a journal. If you have a journal already, you’ll need to cull through it and find the printable meat.  If you are just starting this project, you’ll need to generate content (and lots of it) quickly. So either way, the first steps to profit from your journal are to write, write and write some more, and then to sift and sort and group the entries so that they make a kind of sense.  It’s not a job for the faint-hearted, but if you set this as your goal, and then work towards it steadily, I’m positive you will succeed.

Journal Your Learning Experience

What are you learning today, right now? Are you in the process of working through a new experience? I dollarsignshope you’re writing it down as you go! Not only will you benefit from recording your experiences, but you might also be able to turn a profit from your efforts.

It’s probably already occurred to you that writing down your daily experiences with your project will create an invaluable resource for you to use next time you are in a similar situation. Has it also occurred to you that many others could benefit from your new-found expertise? If you are working through any of a host of common life problems or situations, chances are very, very good that other people would like to read about your problems, solutions, observations and instructions for next time.

The first step is to record the daily ups and downs of your project. Include tips or “hacks” that you discover to make things easier, pitfalls you plan to avoid next time around, time estimates, money estimates, ways to save, resources that others can access for supplies and advice, and so forth. Include instructions to complete each step of the project. If you are handy with a camera, document each phase with photos or video.

Now, when everything is said and done, go back over this source material that you’ve created. Put it into a logical presentation order. This might be step-by-step, it might be chronological, or it might be in some other sequence all together, just make sure it’s logical and others can follow it.  Divide it into steps or phases if your project is complex.  Add the pictures you took along the way or some sketches that clarify things.  If you choose to use others’ pictures, make sure that you can use the pictures without royalties or permission, or pay or get the permissions if needbe.

Clean up your journal entries with a little proofreading and editing. Type them up and expand on them if you need to. Is it starting to look like a “how-to” book yet? Now consider the format that you wish to present to the public.  If it would work best as a print book, look into the many Print-On-Demand services.  Try to find one that has manageable set-up and start-up costs, and make sure that whichever company you choose has the connections to help you market your book or at least get it into catalogs with the likes of the large on-line and brick-and-mortar bookstores.

You might find that your journal is best as a video tool.  That’s pretty easy to set up as well; do a bit of research on how to create videos.  You can even embed videos into ebooks on many platforms today.

And who knows, you just might be able to earn a few dollars from your journal!