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Journal Writing for the Writer

© Kelli Brooke Haywood

Literary works of the past, present, and obviously the future have been, are, and will be influenced by the life of the writer. There are no two ways around it. However, how much influence makes it into an actual work of fiction depends upon the author. We are all familiar with creative nonfiction and journaling. Journaling is how most of those writers keep their information straight. Their pieces usually depend upon the extensive journaling of the writer or an outside source. Fiction does not seem to be a genre that would benefit from journaling right off, though journaling can be a process that will help fine tune your writing ability and give you a place to look for story ideas.

There are two ways of keeping a journal to benefit you as a writer. There is the traditional diary method, where you record daily the events of your life that strike you as important. These journals can be used as a form of therapy, to relieve stress, and exercise patience and memory. This method lends it's usefulness more to creative nonfiction writers though a fiction writer can draw from their own life for the subject matter of their fiction.

The second method is what I will call a writing journal. Writing journals are different from diaries in that they are strictly for exercising your writing ability and recording possible information you may find useful in a piece of fiction. Generally, a writer will spend a certain amount of time or pages daily to the upkeep of this journal. A lot of writers carry their journals with them wherever they go so that they can write at any moment as the ideas and situations come. In the journal, they will respond to writing prompts they draw from books or a site like this one and the ones in my link section that provide writing prompts. Also, the journal is a place to store quotes, conversation tidbits picked up at the mall (or wherever), reponses to books, character sketches, and even diary sections if the personal life just screams to be written about. This is a journal that a writer can go to if they have writer's block, or have forgotten an idea and have written it there. They can act as your memory so you won't forget those important ideas. As you can tell, they can be very useful.

Now, comes the problem. Discipline. A writer must write daily to improve and be successful. I know that currently, I don't keep any kind of journal. It is the hardest thing for me about writing, even though I know that I will benefit from it. I have decided to try every day to devote at the least five minutes or three pages to journaling. Then at least I will be getting some writing in daily. There are many writers, like Sylvia Plath did, that wake up pre-dawn in order to commit to their daily writing. I commend those of you who do.

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