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
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
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.
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