On Journals and Writers’ Notebooks by Sandi Somers

This month our writers discuss their experiences with writing in journals and/or notebooks. InScriber Violet Nesdoly gave us a prompt when she wrote: "the very act of noticing and writing things down makes us more observant, alert people—all part of the package we need to be successful writers.” 

“Write the vision…” Habakkuk 2:2

My journals and notebooks

Over my life I’ve had different kinds of journals: travel journals, including one from my two years in South America; several binders full of cultural perceptions and classroom interactions while teaching ESL; and a journal of praise which focuses on the positive side of writing. I keep a notebook handy for writing ideas for this IWO blog.

I also have an almost-daily journal, in which I explore and process dilemmas and how God is speaking to me through scripture in my quiet time. Writing helps sort through my thoughts, and I come to a deeper understanding than I would have without writing.

A wonderful benefit of journal writing is that often gem thoughts become the raw material for articles and blogs. For example, while writing an article for our InScribe Christmas Anthology, my writing seemed flat. With divine timing, God led me to a forgotten version I had written some years before. There I found more vivid descriptions, more immediate emotions and clearer details which strengthened that article (it was accepted, by the way).

On the Values and Varieties in Journals/Writers’ Notebooks

Journals and writers’ notebooks are very individual, and the varieties and values are endless: ten minute freewrites of "moments in memory "; an idea journal which you can carry with you; a quotation journal; a submission journal; a dream journal. Or your journal can be the first draft of a memoir, story or other article.

           

Over the years I’ve collected a number of journal/notebook ideas and approaches from various writers. Here are a few.

Julia Cameron, in The Artist’s Way, advocates “morning pages”: three pages of free writing first thing every morning. Doing so, she says, taps into our left brain’s creativity and inner wisdom without concern for that “inner critic”.  Many writers follow her advice.

Judy Reeves advocates another daily approach: writing practice. Her book, A Writer’s Book of Days, includes focused prompts, one prompt for every day of the year.  Writing from prompts, she says, is a discipline that improves writing as well as gladdens our spirit and adds to the quality of life. 

Violet Nesdoly switched from journal writing to a writer’s notebook. Rather than a process of fluid writing of journals, she said a notebook is a place to keep track of: details of life, ideas for future projects, lists, dialog, telling details in a scene, and more. (Read her article filled with practical ideas here.) 

Joan Didion’s notebooks are a “flotsam and jetsam” of ideas. She often wrote just words, locations, time of day, or brief notations—sometimes wondering on rereading why these details had been so important in the first place. She would probably never use these erratic thoughts in her writing, but they often brought back vivid memories and moods from those earlier times--memories she was otherwise likely to forget. (Read her article, “On Keeping a Notebook” here).

Writers have creatively woven journal entries into books or articles. Madeline L’Engle and her family spent one summer on a USA cross-country camping trip. At the end of each day she pulled her typewriter from the car and journaled the family’s excursions. Later this trip became the basis for a children’s adventure novel, The Moon by Night. (As I read the novel, I easily noticed the connection between her family’s travel and the adventures in the novel.)

As Christ followers, we often journal our daily devotions, spending time alone with God and opening ourselves to whatever God want us to hear. Janice Elsheimer, in The Creative Call, called her journal the “artists’ daybook” (a name I’ve adopted). Writing daily for ourselves alone, we come to hear the voice of the Spirit and “understand more clearly the relationship between journaling and listening, between listening and being an artist.”

Jack Popjes, past-president of InScribe, has incorporated a unique approach to journaling daily devotions:  he writes his regular prayer requests as conversations with God—question-and-answer format. Writing his prayers this way helps him keep track of his requests and God’s answers.  The additional benefit, he wrote, is that he’s also practicing his writing craft. (You can read his article, “Let Your Fingers Do the Talking,” in our InScribe anthology, 7 Essential Habits of Christian Writers.)

In conclusion, Phyllis Theroux in The Journal Keeper wrote that your journal or notebook “should be a wise friend…Choose what you think has some merit or lasting value, so that when you reread (it) in years to come, it will continue to nourish you."

 What varieties of journals/notebooks do have, and what value do you place on yours?

PS Writing this blog has been inspiring. My daily journal had come almost to a standstill, but last week new ideas began flowing and I resumed my morning pages with a renewed vigor. Hmm, I think I’ll try Jack’s conversations with God, too!

Further resources In her blog on notebooks, Amy Ludwig Vanderwater’s guests explain different ways they use notebooks. (Check it here)    Famous authors discuss the importance of keeping a journal (Read here) Here’s another read on keeping a notebook or three.

How Do You Overcome Writer’s Block? – Sandi Somers

Every great work has its impossible moments—or days. Ideas just won’t come. You try and try to force the work, but your mind goes blank. Your creative well has just gone dry.

You’ve hit that dreaded thing: writer’s block.

Prompt: Why do blocks happen for you? How do you overcome these blocks? How do you keep yourself motivated and inspired?  What do you use to propel your writing forward?  How does God encourage you?

Creative Grace for In-Between Places

For the last number of months I’ve had health issues that have left me with little energy to write. Even some of my InScribe blogs—this one in particular—have been difficult to write.

So this summer I’ve set aside much of my normal writing time. Instead, I’ve gone out for coffee with friends, phoned or emailed family members in different parts of Canada.  Friends and I have taken day trips to the mountains or to scenic spots in Alberta. And long walks are building my stamina.

Long rests in the afternoons give me time to read, pray and reflect. I’ve journalled questions and insights, and sometimes I’ve taken out my “work notebook” to record and initial drafts for articles.

Rather than calling this time a “block”, I consider it creative grace in the in-between place. God has been drawing me aside to be renewed spiritually, physically and mentally.

But I also know that I’m in a transition. This extended period is giving me a much-needed perspective. “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves…” Rainer Maria Rilke wrote.

As I wait for God in this in-between place, God waits for me. He is giving me His creative grace as I work through questions on life and writing.

My creative well is being filled with new ideas and new approaches. Louise DeSalvo’s, The Art of Slow Writing, has been particularly helpful, as she talks about more thoughtful ways of engaging with works-in-progress.

DeSalvo advocated we go more slowly and become self-reflective writers. “‘…slow writing’ doesn’t just take time, but makes time. Slow writing is a meditative act; slowing down to understand our relationship to our writing, slowing down to determine our authentic subjects, slowing down to write complex works, slowing down to study our literary antecedents.”

So as I lean into this time of rest and re-strengthening, I meet each day with thankful expectation. I wait in quiet trust and faith as God gradually opens up my way to write more productivity. 

* * *

Don’t be afraid to put down your work during a block; it’s part of the writing process. Some authors even call blocks “friends”, because blocks are voices calling out to you that something is out of balance.

Discern what the blocks are trying to tell you. Listen to the signals, the inner nudges. Invite the Holy Spirit to give you wisdom—creative graces—for those in-between places. This pleases God.

Janice Elsheimer in The Creative Call, sums up my thoughts beautifully: “When we call first upon the Holy Spirit in those dry times and then…wait in… ‘confident expectation’, God will be faithful in His own time—and what he has for us will be worth the wait.”

* * *

Now it’s your turn to flesh out this discussion. Tell us your story.

To kick start your efforts, you may want to read what great writers have said on overcoming blocks. 

What Was Your Writing Eureka Moment? By Sandi Somers

The Greek scholar Archimedes stepped into his bath and suddenly realized that he displaced water exactly equal to his body’s volume. He was so excited that he ran through the streets, shouting “Eureka! Eureka!—I have found it!”

Prompt: Did you have a Eureka moment when you knew you wanted to be a writer? Or maybe you sensed God’s calling as a gradual process. Or maybe you always knew you wanted to be a writer. Tell us your story.

 Writing Retreat - June 2011

My writing life has been a series of turning points rather than Eureka moments.

One turning point came for me the summer of 2011. I was newly retired and had more time to develop my writing.

I also had determined to begin writing more intentionally.

Before plunging into my writing projects, I went on a private writing retreat. My goddaughter Clara was graduating from high school, and I drove from Calgary to Victoria to attend her graduation.

 The drive took two days, and I used that time to think, read, and plan.  I asked God to reveal His vision for my writing,

My guidebooks were my Bible, a devotional book, my journal, and Janice Elsheimer’s The Creative Call, a book that focused on freeing and developing the artist within us. “We will find the artist God intends us to be when we...become open to his plan and to the inspiration of His Holy Spirit. Only then will we experience personal artistic revival,” she wrote.

My mind filled with ideas. Like the jangling key ring of caretakers where I had worked, these ideas called out to be noticed. Yet my goals were not too clear.

I asked God for keys. Keys to unlock God’s  purposes for my writing. Keys to develop my writing skills. Keys to bring God’s love and healing to my readers. And the key to depend on the Holy Spirit for our source of inspiration.

Since then God has been faithful. I look back on that private writer’s retreat and see the beginning of my art becoming empowered by the Spirit, sometimes giving meaning to others that I could never have thought of on my own.

Now over to you. Tell us about any of your Eureka moments, turning points, or gradual opening of the way into your writing