This post contains affiliate links; I may earn a commission if you click and buy, at no extra cost to you.
Journaling Introduction
The best habit to have as a creative writer is handwritten journaling. Therefore, you should implement journaling into your natural routine. By the end of this blog post, you will have a better understanding of the benefits of journaling and some prompts to use before you start your writing project.
Virginia Woolf on journaling:
“But what is more to the point is my belief that the habit of writing thus for my own eye only is good practice. It loosens the ligaments. Never mind the misses and the stumbles. Going at such a pace as I do I must make the most direct and instant shots at my object, and thus have to lay hands on words, choose them and shoot them with no more pause than is needed to put my pen in the ink.”
Find more authors’ opinions on keeping a journal to improve their writing on Flavorwire’s article “10 Famous Authors on the Importance of Keeping a Journal.”
The Benefits of Journaling
Ultimately, journaling is a fundamental way to help with your mental and physical well-being. To further this researched fact, it is highly recommended you read Opening up by Writing it Down: How Expressive Writing Improves Health and Eases Emotional Pain by James W. Pennebaker and Joshua M. Smyth.
Inside, you will understand how studies involving participants writing down their traumas have led to faster mental and physical recovery.
What They Found
Pennebaker and Smyth discovered that journaling about stress and trauma proved a fast recovery from the weight secrets and pain hold. Like therapy, by communicating the negative thoughts and memories you have, you separate them from yourself and are able to become a healthier individual.
Such benefits include:
- Improved memory and recall
- Ability to fully comprehend newly learned concepts and form critical opinions by summarizing and connecting material to previous knowledge
- Heal old emotional wounds
- Feel a greater sense of well-being
- Decrease stress
- Declutter your brain and make space for new memories
- Improve relationships
- Boost your immune system
- Lower blood pressure
- Lower heart rate
- Lower cholesterol
- Fully understand your own feelings and detach the pain associated with them
- Improve physical health
- You can positively believe in recovery, helping rewire your brain to not overly stress and slow down your healing process
How Journaling Works
In the modern world, writers are often glued to a computer where AI and other automatic systems are utilized to “improve” their writing. However, in actuality, you are losing the actual connection you have with your writing.
For one, your creativity will not be strengthened, and you won’t fully connect/comprehend each sentence. Therefore, it is much harder to find your writing voice if you do not journal.
Example:
- Take fifteen minutes out of your day three times a week
- Write about past traumas you haven’t quite worked through
- Write about stressors in your current life
- Be honest and don’t stop writing
Afterwards:
- Sit with what you just wrote, and possibly continue writing about what those subjects have made you think about
- Let the pain be realized instead of running from it
- Afterwards, go on a walk or do an activity that requires your body, not your brain
- The next day/week, pay attention to your feelings, and if you feel less mentally cluttered
When you journal through expressive writing, you are honest and unapologetically yourself. Ultimately, your voice is going to be heard, and you aren’t going to censor your feelings.
Journaling for Creative Writers
As a creative writer, the one goal you are striving for is to find your voice. Other authors may inspire you, and that’s highly encouraged. However, there is already one of them in the world. So, you should allude to them, not copy their voice.
Journaling is essential to help not only improve your mental and physical stress, but also find your authorship.
According to the research article “The Role of Reflective Journaling in Creative Writing Learning” by Dina Ramadhanti,
“The reflection process strengthens learners’ engagement in the learning process, creating an environment that supports the exploration of new ideas and the development of creativity.”
Journaling improves your creativity as you write in a free-flow state without distractions or the knowledge that others will read your work.
For more creativity tips, check out the blog post below!
Authors Who Use Handwriting/Journaling
If scientific research isn’t enough to convince you of the power of simply journaling, let’s look at some authors who may not be well-known to you today if they had not engaged with this technique.
If you wish to see their actual handwriting, check out Road To Nara’s article “25 Handwritings of History’s Most Famous Authors.”
Here is the list!
The male authors:
- C. S. Lewis
- J. R. R. Tolkien
- Ernest Hemingway
- F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Charles Dickens
- Oscar Wilde
- Neil Gaimen
- Mark Twain
- Leo Tolstoy
- George Orwell
- Franz Kafka
- Edgar Allen Poe
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- Hermin Melville
The women:
- Virginia Woolf
- Sylvia Plath
- Emily Dickinson
- Anaïs Nin
- Joan Didion
- Anne Frank
- Maya Angelou
- Alice Walker
- Audre Lorde
- Louisa May Alcott
- L. M. Montgomery
- Tina Brown
There are a plethora of great diaries and journals by women in literature to check out to help you enter the mind of trial and error, authorship, and relatable feelings. Check them out to better understand your favorite authors through a new vulnerable lens.
- The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
- A Writer’s Diary by Virginia Woolf
- The Unabridged Diaries of Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
- The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
- The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady by Edith Holden
- Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir
- The Diary of Anais Nin by Anais Nin
- A Dairy From Dixie by Mary Boykin Chesnut
- The Diary of Lady Murasaki by Murasaki Shikibu
- Selected Letters by Jane Austen
- A Strange Life: Selected Essays of Louisa May Alcott by Louisa May Alcott
- The Book of Mary Kempe by Mary Kempe
- The Diaries of Charlotte Brontë by Charlotte Brontë
Find more on GoodReads’ article “Women’s Journals and Diaries in History.”
Additionally, check out some male authors’ diaries:
- The Diaries by Franz Kafka
- Notebooks, 1935-1951 by Albert Camus
- A Writer’s Diary 1873-1881 by Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Diaries: Volume One, 1939-1960 by Christopher Isherwood
- Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years by Michael Palin
- Diaries by George Orwell
What to Journal About
Now that you understand the benefits of journaling and how it has helped the writing style of a plethora of famous writers, what do you journal about?
For starters, as previously stated, you need to write expressively. Therefore, if you take the time to handwrite your past traumas or what is causing you stress and anxiety in your own life, your mental and physical health will improve, leaving room for creativity and creative writing.
When it comes time to write on your new creative writing piece, you can utilize journaling to build your world, your characters, and your narrative/emotional arcs. Here are some journal prompts to reflect on and freewrite to.
Journal Prompts for Creative Writing Pieces
World Building
- If you first landed there, what are the first sensual details that would jump out at you?
- How fantastical is your world?
- How safe is your world?
- What would frighten people if they lived here?
- How is your government/laws set up, and are they fair?
- Does each creature/person have jobs or assigned roles? How are they determined?
- Are your characters happy to live there?
- What makes your world unique from others?
- What are some weaknesses in the operating system?
- Are there strange inhabitants/plants?
- Has this world been exploited in any way?
- What is the weather like?
- What interesting landmarks will become important/influential?
- Is there an obvious good/evil?
- What makes the world stay together/fall apart?
- Are there secrets that can’t be exposed about this world’s past?
Character Development
Journal as if your character is answering these prompts:
- What is your biggest fear?
- What makes you feel lonely?
- What is more important to you: love or power?
- What are you most grateful for?
- Who do you value most in your life?
- What extremes would you go to to get what you most desire?
- If you have three wishes, what would they be?
- What has traumatized you the most?
- What makes you angry?
- What do you want most?
- What do you need most?
- What stresses you out?
- How do you want to be perceived?
- How do you think others perceive you?
- How do you show love?
- How do you receive love?
- If you could have a superpower, what would it be?
- What is your biggest regret in life?
- What would your dream life/job look like?
- What is the worst way to die in your opinion?
- Do you feel comfortable sharing your feelings with others?
- What is the biggest weakness a person can show?
- What holds you back?
- What motivates you forward?
- What attachment style do you have?
Read about attachment styles in the blog post below!
Narrative Arc
- Journal about the urgency in your story.
- What is the ticking clock that is driving the story forward?
- What are the consequences if your characters fail?
- What is the evil/good in the story?
- What interrupts the protagonist from going back to their normal routine?
- What will lead your character to the point of no return?
- What will be the large climactic scene?
- What will be your resolution?
- What are the indelible images at the start, climax, and end of your story?
Check out the blog post below to understand what indelible images are!
Not sure of the format of a story? Check out the blog post below!
Emotional Arc
- What is the motivation driving your character to action?
- What human-related issues are they facing that the reader can identify with?
- Are there emotional connections between characters that the reader will be rooting for throughout the story?
- What are some of the obstacles that initially block the protagonist from achieving their need?
- What is a satisfying way the protagonist will emotionally grow from the start to the end of your story?
Books on Writing Techniques, journaling, and Story Formats
Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg is a reflective book in which Goldberg discusses how journaling and other techniques help creative writers improve their creativity and writing voice. While you journal, take a look at this book for more ideas on how to create a routine of writing.
For most writers, the problem lies with motivation. However, motivation shouldn’t be where you get the energy to write. You need to start creating routines and better understand the format of novels that are page turners to find your voice.
Another amazing book to read to help you build excellent habits in writing, alongside story-building techniques, is Thrill Me: Essays on Fiction by Benjamin Percy.
Daily Journaling Motivation
As computers and robots start to monopolize our writing tools, take a step back to the basics: handwriting and journaling. Now that you understand the physical and mental benefits of expressive journaling, utilize those techniques to better develop your story as a creative writer.
Write daily, journal often, and see the progress you make in your own wellbeing and your journey towards finding your authorship.
Leave a Reply