“I Just Wondered How You Got Started Writing?” Tips In Your Pursuit Of A Writing Career Journaling
Journaling: writing down your thoughts, observations and experiences in a specific place like a journal, notebook or computer folder. While I know this is important in the pursuit of a writing career my first thought was my lack of success in keeping a journal. People had given me enough as gifts so I had tried over the years to keep a handwritten journal. I would write a lot the first month of my new journal it seemed and then it would taper off to weekly, then monthly, and suddenly my entries were six months apart.
While I treasure the things I did record in my journal, I felt like a failure at my lack of regularity in writing. That is, until I realized that journaling can come in many forms and types. Mentioning three might give you some ideas toward developing the positive habit of writing consistently.
- (1) A journal-writing your thoughts by hand in a journal or notebook or keeping a journal on the computer is the most common way to begin to write on a consistent basis. Though it didn’t work for me, some people have taken journals and used the entries for stories or books so they can be a good source of ideas.
- (2) A blog- a blog or web log is an online journal that you post to on the internet, either privately or allowing the public to see what you have to say. I started two different blogs a year ago and post to them every Monday. One blog is on my life as a Christian and the other on my life as a writer. Sometimes the two intermingle but blogging is one way to journal thoughts and connect with others at the same time. To check out my blogs go to http://jenlhall63.blogspot.com/ or http://jenlhall63.christianblogsites.com/blog/
- (3) Articles or “idea” papers- the third way and one I used the most in my early writing years consisted of writing about what I was studying at the moment. Since bible study has been very important to me for many years, I began by simply studying and writing my ideas down. Some would take the form of Bible studies while others were taking Biblical principles and real life experiences to format an “idea” paper. I carefully filed them and kept them which came in handy later when I began writing articles for a church newsletter. These “idea” papers have been useful as I now write for article websites and a women’s magazine. Studying and writing about different subjects kept my interest so I wrote consistently over several years.
Don’t feel hemmed in when you take a class or go online and people suggest doing things a certain way. I have certainly tried to learn from the experience of others but when it comes down to it, I had to do what works for me. Time, personality, work, and obligations all equate into the way that you can personally begin to write on a consistent basis. The main thing is to write…write…write…
Next week we will discuss how being a “reader” and reading will make you a better writer.