Journaling Therapy

Journaling from day to day tends to open up the creative side of my brain, but also, provides me a private audience to voice my concerns, write out my troubles, and sometimes, just rant to my heart’s content- all of which is therapy for me.

I think the reason being when you write in a journal, you’re writing to your innermost Self. You’re writing to that part that listens, encourages, and stands by your side. Its that part of yourself that’s the ‘parent within’, the mature, know-it-all that realizes the answers to your problems if only the ‘child within’ can stop having temper tantrums. or give into weaknesses.

In my journal, I will rant without hinderance, spewing forth obnoxiousness, to air the emotional garbage from my soul. I then go through what I wrote, editing out the extremes, and adding an answer to that rant. I’ve been surprised at the result.

Indecisions find a decision. Anger gets tempered with compassion. Muddled thought finds clarity. In other words- its therapy.

Try it out- Start a journal where you write out an issue that’s bothering you. Once done, write another entry in response to that, as if you’re your best friend (or parent), and see what bubbles up.

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Friday Fun: Journaling Prompt

I tend to blither in my personal journal, writing without my inner editor to nag or distract. Words just flow and thoughts meander through ponderings. Its very cathartic, for me, as a writer.

Today, I discovered that questioning myself on which short story to focus on for the anthology our writer’s group intends to publish this autumn, I found my own answers.

This is perhaps the best reason to keep a journal if only to voice and lay out your feelings to yourself so that you can sort confusion out.

Journaling tips:

• Ask yourself questions, and answer them honestly. In a private journal, you have no one to lie to, no one to impress. Write as though you were your own best friend giving advice.
• Ignore all rules to grammar, punctuation, and even spelling. A personal journal is for ‘your eyes only’, and the important factor is to stay honest and free-flowing with your writing.
• Switch between yourself and the other Self that you are writing to. You’re writing to yourself, basically, and your Self should answer and respond with your best interests in mind.
• Don’t concern with length. Personal journals are only as long or short as you need them to. If you need to rant, blither, or otherwise pour out your heart page after page- do so.

I often find my own answers through this type of writing.  It is also cathartic. Some journal posts end up being letters to people, or where I talk to my younger or older self.

Journaling prompts:

#1- Write about your goals, where you hope to be five years from now.

#2- Write about any writing weaknesses you have, and explore methods to improve and strengthen those areas.

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Tips for the parent writer

After four days of watching my two year old niece, I found what my fellow writers in the group described as being one of their blocks to writing. Watching a toddler leaves one exhausted. You rarely get any time to do writing, let alone the relaxed moments to piece together a story of fiction.

By the end of the day, I found absolutely no energy to sit in front of the computer to write. Not even during nap time. For me, however, this situation was temporary. For parents of little ones, their temporary lasts years.

So here’s a bit of advice for those too worn out from child-wrangling to type out your novel;

Use a voice recorder. You can work out a story while driving, naptime, or morning through breakfast. Sure, the recording might have a babbling baby in the background, but you’ll get the story out.

Once you find the block of time to write- you’ll have your voice recording to type much like dictation.

You’ll find that many cell phones now have voice recorders built right in. I use my MP3 player which includes this feature.

Notepads also work fine, although not so well for driving. You could write while waiting in a doctor’s office, or during snack time.

Don’t by shy to ask for help with babysitting, or even help with child rearing to get the time for yourself.

If you have any of your tips to share, please leave in a comment below.

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Writing rituals and totems

Long ago, writer’s evoked muses, spirits of creativity, to help them write, paint, sculpt, sing, or even share comedy. In fact, a genius was once considered outside of the self and considered an element/spirit of the Divine that touched a person so they could do great things.

In Chris Bly’s book, No Plot? No Problem, he also mentioned the superstitious methodology of evoking creativity by donning special hats, shirts, or carrying out personal rituals. It makes sense to me.

Totems are also spirits (or sacred emblems) that denote clan or family, but also assist the person as a guide.

Adopting your own unique writing ritual is both personal and evolving. Over time, one ritual’s impact may fade and you’ll have to develop another. You may need to use a trial-and-error method to see what works best for you.

• Wearing a favorite shirt, hat, or jewelry might help. I wear a necklace to remind me of my own inner muses.
• Light a candle or incense. Scent and change in light can set the brain to creativity.
• Play music. Sometimes I also start a background sound such as Rainmood.com before I start writing.
• Say a prayer or mantra. You don’t need to pray to God, unless you want to. Simply speaking the words out loud that you will be writing and creating can evoke creativity.

Feel free to share your own rituals in your comments. I’d love to hear what other writers do.

Who, What, When, and Where of Writing Rituals

10 Best Writing Rituals

Building Writing Confidence

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Unconventional Writing

In today’s society of chaos and overworked scheduled, a writer endures distractions as best he or she can. Finding the quiet time to lose oneself in the inner world of writing often proves difficult, even when jotting down notes, doing research, or brainstorming ideas. The solution takes the form of embracing the unconventional, and to adhere to the focus of ‘the end justifies the means’.

The best ideas often come to me right before I sleep. I either have to spend several minutes trying to burn the idea into my brain to remember for the next day, (which keeps me up at night) or bother getting up long enough to jot down the idea before it flitters away like a moth into the night. Other times of inspiration include when I drive my car, sitting in the waiting room at a doctor’s appointment, or when I homeschool my son. (Did I mention I multi-task all the time?)

The best tip I found in my writer’s journey takes the form of keeping a small journal with me at all time. This allows me to easily write down my ideas, plots, character summaries, and so much more. Not so easy when driving, however.

A voice recorder works even better. Not only does my cell phone, a Sony Ericsson, have a camera and video capabilities, it also includes a voice recorder. My sister offered me her small tape recorder, which also works very well for interviews. The tape either is replaced, or used over and over. This allows me to talk while driving, often brainstorming ideas for blogs, articles, or even short stories.

Nights where I have an idea and actually get up to type it all out is often where I write my best stuff. My husabnd, however, finds this annoying. He’s stuck on the idea that early morning wake-up is the norm, and ‘normal’ people get up with the dawn. You’d think after nine years of marriage he’d figure out I’m not normal, and that night time provides the quiet solitude and stillness I need for my writing.

I think if I want to get serious about writing, I’m going to annoy him and do my writing then.

WordPress.com versus WordPress.org

I’ve encountered the confusing challenge of trying to add Adsense to my blog, only to discover that the blog I’ve focused for months to increase its hits and to gain more readers does not have the means to monetize in any sense of the word. WordPress.com refuses to allow for this, arguing that WordPress.org offers a means to do this for free- providing you have a domain (which costs money).

Through my computer business, I realized the hosting company that hosts my Learnthepc.net offers a free WordPress blog. I thought this might be the answers to my prayers. Instead, I find the http://learnthepc.net/writing domain cannot be ‘domain mapped’ here at WordPress.com unless I pay money. Even then, they do not allow subdomains. I would then have to switch the entire Learnthepc.net site over to a writer’s site, or purchase another domain/host package in which to fix this. I’m not sure if any of it is worth the effort.

I’m very disappointed in WordPress.com not allowing for more say over one’s own blog, cost or not. Blogger.com, meanwhile, allows for widgets to easily integrate into your blog without any issue. (at not cost!) So I’m considering if I need to switch my blog to something else, I’d rather switch to blogger than to WordPress.com or WordPress.org.

Anyone have any experience similar to this and have advice?