From Journal to Book (or Blog Post or…) by Sandi Somers

 

Some years ago while reading Madeleine L’Engle’s works, I discovered that her family enjoyed a meandering ten-week camping trip in 1959 from their home in Connecticut, across the US and into Canada. Throughout this trip, Madeleine journalled. Profusely. By hand.  

That trip and her journal became the springboard for the young adult novel, A Moon by Night, in which L’Engle fictionalized adventures. The Austen family meets a teenager who follows them across the US. They help rescue children from a flood in Texas. They find an abandoned baby at a campsite in Utah. 

As I read A Moon by Night, I sensed that L’Engle transposed, even verbatim, from her journal their camping life and daily travel. I especially sensed this parallel as she described the ancient cliff dwellings of the Pueblo tribe at Mesa Verde, Colorado and listened to the park ranger’s talk. I couldn’t help but feel I was peeking over her shoulder, reading her notes. 

I, too, have lifted content from my journals for articles and devotionals. At one local writers’ meeting after reading my winning essay from InScribe’s Fall Conference (2012), one listener asked, “Where did you get all those ideas?” “From my journal,” I answered. I had journalled a relationship issue and transferred much of what I discovered into my essay. 

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Your journals can provide rich source material for

books, articles, and more.

Journalling captures the many beautiful, funny, tragic, perplexing moments that you can lose if you don’t record them. Research has shown that we forget half of what we experience within the next hour. Within 24 hours, we forget 70 percent of new information, and within a week, we lose 90 percent. Write shortly after an event—even during—so that you capture more vivid details than if you try to recall the incidents later. 

Like a bee that gathers nectar from many flowers, write on many subjects, ideas, themes, and inspirations. You may open your notebook and begin penning snippets of daily life. The conversation with your family at dinner last night. Or yesterday’s wind smashing hailstones against the house. Or a beautiful sunrise. These vignettes will sharpen your skill in noticing writing vivid descriptions, filled with details, conversations, and sensory images.

Spin your wings outward as you freely flit from one thought to another. Include metaphors, symbolic meanings, emotional memories and associations that transport you back to another time. (These connotations and meanings may come with later reflection.)

Whirl your thoughts wider and engage yourself more deeply. What was happening in the greater world that impacted your events? What implication do you have for going forward? How did the Lord give you a transforming thought or scripture?  As you explore many ideas from many perspectives, you’ll collect a wealth of writing from which to draw your works for publishing.  

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A  journal is a perfect place to “write from a place of raw hurt,” Grace Fox said at our 2022 Fall Conference. With the privacy of a journal, you can think freely, clarify your mind, and draw closer to the heart of significance. Your writing will flow without censure. You’ll discover insights that may become major turning points, and you’ll draw strength and wisdom in your relationship with the Lord and with others. Doing so can lead to greater depth and meaning to your experiences. 

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You’re not limited to one journal. You may write by hand in one journal, dictate other notes to insert into your computer folders and files, or maintain a notebook of quotes and expressions (all of which I do). (You’ll find suggestions from an earlier post I wrote on the varieties and uses of journals. Read it here.)

As you expand your vision through journalling, you’ll be like the bees who, on returning to the hive, transform their nectar into honey. You’ll enhance your skills in all the creative nuances of writing--structuring pieces, developing your unique voice, and writing more fluently. As you practice without pressure, you’re developing your God-given content.

Then when you prepare to write your book, blog post, or poem, you have draft components ready to be refined and polished—or even lifted directly into your work. Ready to your readers' lives.

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And now over to you. In what ways does your journal (if you journal) contribute to writing for publication? I’d love to hear your comments.

 

(image by FamilySearch)