You are here: Home > Blog > 10 Reasons Why Writers Should Keep Journals
10 Reasons Why Writers Should Keep Journals
Thursday, October 15th, 2015
- Journals are a great place to deal with rejection. (They’re also a great place to bask in your success.)
- You can choose to use a journal as a space to figure out if you should or shouldn’t write about a particular topic, person, event, or feeling in your more public writing.
- You can write about your creative process in case you become famous and people want to know how you worked!
- You can just enjoy playing with words and concepts without having to shape them into high-quality writing for public consumption.
- You can do exercises that will provide specific and tangible information that you might use in your more public writing.
- It’s a place where you can let out words regularly, just to know that your creative voice is always there and doesn’t shut down even if you’re not writing for public consumption.
- You can do exercises that will help you remember events and feelings that happened a long time ago.
- In a journal you can consciously choose to write in a different mode than you usually do; maybe this new way of expression will become something you begin to use in your more public writing.
- Most writers are introspective. A journal is the perfect blend of words and self-awareness.
- Journals offer another opportunity for you to buy “school supplies,” which most writers love – and to tax deduct them!
Watch Janet
Janet Falon explains the immense value of keeping a journal and/or scrapbook as an integral part of cancer therapy.
Journaling Exercise
Write a list answering the question, “Why do I want to write?” Follow this with a second list: “What will happen if I do (write)?”