A WRITER'S JOURNAL

Greetings, my friends.

If there is one thing I have too much of, it is journals. (Not books. One does not simply own too many books.) There are big ones, small ones, spiral notebooks, hardcovers, lined, blank, patterned, everything. Too. Many. I can't ever use all of them, but I recently found a purpose for one I bought simply because it is beautiful (it's Hobbit-themed with Thrain's map imprinted on the front,. Also, it was on sale).

I'd heard of Writer's Journals before but never really considered starting one myself simply because I was sure I would never keep up with it. Knowing me, that was a pretty realistic worry.

My friend Nele started an Art Journal sometime last year, which is basically the same but for artists. It is kind of like a diary but in creative form, meaning the owner transfers thoughts and emotions into artwork. Although that can be very personal, Nele was so lovely as to show me her work every now and again, and as always, I was extremely jealous of her skill and talent.

A Writer's Journal can work the same way, like a diary, but I thought that if I were to use mine like a diary I'd just end up writing down reports of my days and whine about my problems. So instead I decided to use it to practice skills and build up my confidence when it comes to writing.

So I wrote and signed a commitment, swearing I would work on my journal at least every Tuesday and Friday to avoid abandoning it - so far, that has worked very well, I even exceeded my goal. As of today, I wrote a sense-experience account of a walk through nature, a list of why I write like Shakespeare, a poem on why writing is hard, and several sort-of-short-stories based on creative prompts I found on the Internet.

And guess what - I'm proud of all of that. I like what I created. And that's a new feeling. I might even share a few of those pieces here on the blog, which is terrifying as I usually only publish FanFiction online. I can read through what I've written before and not cringe at clumsy sentences or bad choice of words.

My journal is helping me to gather the courage to create because I'm basically forcing myself to do it. I feel way more confident and also I pay more attention to the world around me, simply so I can find something new to write about. Inspiration comes more easily now.

I can only recommend starting a creative journal of some sort, be it for art or writing or photography or music (although you may have to change the physical journal to a metaphorical or virtual one). It certainly did not harm me at all and I am slowly building up creative confidence - at least, until I look at Nele's drawings again.

See you soon (hopefully)!

Jojo