D) Writing Tips

A New Year’s Writing Tradition

January 1, 2012

There’s something about the end of one year and the beginning of the next that invites review and reflection. Without this calendar marker, it’s really just another day—but, for me, January 1 always feels momentous. It’s like drawing a line in the sands of time between the past and the present: whatever happened in the [...]

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A Week’s Worth of Journaling Prompts: Reflections for the Future

September 19, 2011

I have just been reading Writer Magazine’s June 2011 interview of Gail Godwin, regarding her recently released The Making of a Writer, Volume 2: Journals, 1963-1969. Godwin’s purpose in publishing her edited journal entries is to inspire other writers by sharing her journey and growth as a writer, as well as how she mines her [...]

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Journal Writing Tips: Using “If” Statements

June 17, 2011

Life is a never-ending source of journaling prompts. We can write about current events, past events, and imagined future events. One fun (and often revealing) kind of journal writing prompt is the “If …” statement or question. If I had been born male, instead of female, what sports would I have played, and why? If [...]

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Journal Writing Tips: Journal Themes

March 23, 2011

ONCE journal writing has become a regular part of your life, you may want to have more than one, keeping different journals for different purposes. Here is a list (in alphabetical order) of journals that I keep or have kept at different times in my life. I invite you to browse the list for [...]

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Journal Writing Tips: The Benefits of Freewriting

February 23, 2011

FREEWRITING is one of the most effective and easy forms of journaling. The idea is to write for a specified length of time (usually ten minutes), or to fill a specified number of pages, and not to stop until the timer’s sounded or the pages are full. What you write about is not important — [...]

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Journal Writing Tips: What Will Happen to Your Journals?

January 21, 2011

AS JOURNAL KEEPERS, it’s important to think about what will happen to our journals when we are gone. Or even — and of course we hope this never happens — an accident befall us. This may seem like a morbid topic and something we’d rather avoid thinking about, but our journals are arguably our most [...]

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Journal Writing Tips: Telling the Truth

January 4, 2011

Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true. ~ Demosthenes ONE of the most challenging aspects about journal writing for the purpose of self-knowledge and growth is learning to tell the truth to yourself. After all, we don’t really want to uncover those dark, shadowy places [...]

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