Better latethan never. Here is part three of my Easy Peasy Journaling Tutorial. It'sanother lengthy one! I have tried to beextensive in my writing about writing, but If anything is not clear or if youhave any questions, please let me know in the comment section so others canprofit from it too.
I wouldalso like to thank all of you who have commented on the other two parts of thistutorial. Believe me, if only one of you gets something out of it, it will beworth my time. Hope you enjoy this last installment!
THE EASY PEASY JOURNAL PART THREE - WRITING
It seemsthat when I post my journal pages the one thing people are most intrigued by isthe writing. There's so much of it and it seems so neat and straight (I dareyou to put a ruler to my pages however and you'll see I'm not so perfect afterall, haha). How do I do it? Whatever doI write about? Where do all those words come from? My life can't possibly bethat interesting, can it?
Writing byhand is quickly becoming one of those mysterious acts of the past, a lost art.I notice it when I sit in a public place and write. People are amazed andcurious, they stare at me and some even comment on my handwriting. Reallypeople, I'm not fishing for compliments, nor am I trying to be modest when Isay: my handwriting is nothing special. I work in an office where people haveto file for local taxes once a year and around that time I see a lot ofhandwritten filled in forms and you would be surprised how much more beautifulmost people write and also...every personal handwriting is unique and special.I think the point really is that hardly anybody does it anymore, writing by hand I mean. So when you do, thatalready sets you apart from the masses and makes you look special. Keep that inmind: if you write by hand you're alreadydoing something special, no matter what you write about or how your handwritinglooks. Isn't that a great way to start this tutorial? Just like with allthe other aspects of journaling: journal writing is something you cannot failat, there is no right or wrong way to do it. Just as long as you do it!
Still, ifyou never write you may be completely mystified byit and I hope to give you some ideas for writing today. This tutorial will beabout the two aspects of journal writing. One is content and the other is form.I have decided to do it in the following way: I will do a lot of writing on thecontent of writing (what to write about)and I will illustrate the form (howto write it all down) with examples from the Easy Peasy Journal. I will also give some resources at the end of this post.Let's go!
Forjournaling there's really not that much that you need. This is the mostextensive list I could think of:
· Yourjournal
· Somethingto write with
· Anopen mind
You mightlike to have some different types of pens for colour effects or differentlines. I find that ballpoint pens will write on just about anything. Experimentwith markers, gel pens, felt tip pens, paint markers, pencils, etc. etc. Somebackgrounds, especially when very structured and layered can ruin some pens. Inthat case try pens with a brush tip, they work like a charm and don't getdestroyed by too many rough effects on the page. As with the other instalmentsof this tutorial, you will have to try and find out what works best for you.There's no one pen that fits all situations.
Stream of consciousness writing
I am oftenasked what I write about and when I post pictures on my blog or on websitespeople are always wishing they could read what it says. I think they are underthe impression that my writing is full of profound prose, deep feelings andfascinating ideas. Let me burst that bubble for you: it is not! ;-) What I dois called stream of consciousness writing. This is a very neat term forsomething very simple: write down your thoughts. Note that I don't say: "writedown your deepest thoughts", or "write down your most brilliantthoughts", or even "write down the thoughts that matter". No! Just.Your. Thoughts. Whatever comes to your mind, write it down! I truly believe that anybody who has thoughtscan write, and I dare you not to have any thoughts! You're not an air head are you? ;-)
Want toknow what I write about? Most entries start with observations about theweather, about how I slept, about the day behind me and the day ahead of me.It's full of trivial repetitive drivel. I often write in the morning and I hategetting up early, so guess what some of my very first thoughts are about? Yup,there's usually some complaint about not being able to sleep late or aboutbeing tired or feeling dazed and a curse on the daily grind. Fun stuff, right?;-)
What stopspeople from writing is not that they have no thoughts or ideas, it's that theycensor them before they go to the page! They think they are not page worthy.This is a big mistake in thinking. It's thinking of journal writing assomething that will be read. But journal writing is not about reading, it'sabout getting it (whatever it is) out of your system. It's writing for writing'ssake. It's the act in itself that matters. It's expression. You're clearingyour head by putting your thoughts down. That's all. You're not writing a novelhere. You're not trying to win a Pulitzer or a Booker Prize. Don't look at your journal assome kind of sacred spot where only the most profound and deep feelings have aplace. Look at is as a dumping ground for everything that's in your head. Spelling,style, grammar and all that stuff have no importance in the journal. You're notlooking to publish, you're looking to get it out of your system. Journaling isultimately an instrument, a tool, it's not a purpose or goal. The point is tosit with your thoughts and get them out in whatever way they presentthemselves. If anything else, consider this: how can you ever get to theprofound thoughts and feelings if you don't clear away all the crap that's infront of them?
If writingdown your thoughts the way they come to you seems scary or just impossible, youmight like to try getting out of your head instead. How about looking aroundyou? When you sit down to write, you areprobably in some place that's familiar to you, but have you ever really looked at it? What does your table looklike, or your pen, or how does the chair feel that you are sitting on? Whatcolor is the wall in the room, what patterns present themselves? Look aroundyou and tell your journal what you see. You don't have to write how you feelabout it, although you might get to that eventually. Something you see can triggerall kinds of thoughts and feelings. You can choose to go with those thoughts,but you can also choose to ignore them and keep your writing observational.
An example:when I use a new pen or other material or start a new journal I will oftenwrite about how it performs. How does the paper feel, the size of it, how doesthe ink look on the page, how does the pen move across it. Stuff like that.
This kindof writing is especially nice if you are in a place like a museum or onvacation. What does it all look like, smell like, feel like, behave like? Youare writing down clues for future reference, you are putting a memory on paper,how wonderful! The most ordinary thing can become interesting if you reallytake the time to observe it.
You couldtry to seperate your senses when you do this. What do you see? What do youhear? What do you taste? What do you smell? What do you feel on your skin? Haveyou ever just sat for a few minutes, eyes closed, and listened to the soundsaround you? Try it and write down what you hear. It may give you a whole newperspective on your surroundings. Try it in different locations too.
Anothercool thing about observations is that it gets the hand moving on the page.There's a reason that about 90% of my journal entries start with an observationabout the weather. It's simply a place to start. The first words have found thepage and I'm off! The page is no longerblank and scary.
What yousee can trigger emotions. Why not write about them? Now we come to another kindof observation: the internal kind. The one that answers the question "Howdo you feel?" My, you could just write pages and pages on that questionalone, right? You can observe how you feel and you can even dig deeper and askyourself why you feel that way. Maybe that will trigger memories or ideas youcan also write about. I feel that writing is a lot like painting. You cannot betoo concerned about the final outcome, because you don't know the final outcome. You just have to start with a color (orword or sentence) and see what happens and don't be afraid to try a differentcolor (or word or sentence). Don't think too much beyond the layer you areworking on. Just go with it and let it evolve. It doesn't have to make sense,really it doesn't.
For some itis really hard to just write out of the blue without a specific thing to write about. They need a little (or big)nudge to get the juices flowing, because they are just stumped for ideas. Iguess there are as many different kinds of writers as there are people. For youthe gods of journal writing have invented questions and prompts! Yay!
Think ofprompts as specific subjects to think and write about. They can be elaborateand intense or very simple and straight forward. There are websites devoted tojournaling prompts (check the resources below this post) and there are bookswith questions or prompts in them that you can use. Someone like Kelly Kilmerhas online classes where she both teaches her (wonderful) style of journalingand gives loads of journaling prompts to write with. I'm sure there's othersout there who do this too.
Another wayto get prompts that I have used in the past is to read interviews withcelebrities in magazines. See if you cannot answer some of the questions theyare asked for yourself. Of course not all questions will apply to you, but alot of them will or you can adapt them to your personal situation. Think of itas the big interview with yourself. It's fun!
Here's someexamples of prompts that I just make up as I'm writing this:
· Where do you live? How long have youlived there? What does your town look like? What do you or don't you like aboutit? Is this the place you want to stay forever? Why? Why not?
· What do you do for a living? How didyou come about doing this? Is it your dream job? Why or why not? And if not,what would your dream job look like?
· What's your favorite color? Why?What does it remind you of? Do you surround yourself with this color? If yes,in what way? If not, why not? Do you ever wear it?
Get thepoint? A question can lead to another question and another and another. Thereare so many interesting things to know about yourself and your surroundings.Why not write them down and enrich your knowledge of self or expand yourhorizon.
A variationon the prompt technique can be asking questions yourself. Not answering them,just asking them. A few years ago I read the book "How to think likeLeonardo da Vinci" by Michael Gelb, which has a wonderful amount ofexercises in it to broaden your mind and one of those was thinking up a 100questions. You can tell a lot about yourself by the questions you ask. Youmight try it and see if it doesn't strike an interesting nerve. Write aboutthat nerve! ;-)
This is avery interesting technique if there's a specific problem you want to tackle.Talk to it! Huh? Yes, that's what I said: talk to it! Have a conversation onpaper with a person, an object or an idea. It may seem silly, but it can reallyclarify things for you in a way you may never have considered. Maybe you have adistorted relationship with your body for instance. Why not start a dialoguewith it and get to the bottom of things. By putting yourself in the position ofthe 'opposite party' you may gain a new perspective on the situation. Ifanything it will help you get out of the vicious circle of your one sided thoughts.
What you dois that you put on paper both sides of the conversation. You write down whatyou say and then you answer through the 'mouth' of your problem/object/person.This is not about what they would say or think, it's about what you think theywould say or think. Get the difference? It's all in your head!
This is ina way a variation of the dialogue, except it is one sided. Write a letter towho or whatever you want to. This can be for a deep troublesome reason, toclarify your mind, to get out your anger at somebody, whatever. But it can alsobe a very light hearted exercise. How about writing a fan letter to a long gone moviestar or a fictional character? Or it can be to stir memories. How about writingto a lost loved one? Or an old friend? Or how about writing a letter toyourself? The possibilities are endless! You could even use pretty stationaryand clip the envelope to your journal pages. You could even mail a letter toyourself. We are getting close to thenext possibility now, creative writing. Just remember, that whatever you write,the person you write to never has to read it, so you can be free to writewhatever you want.
If you arenot one for traditional journal writing, but the idea of putting pen to paperstill appeals to you, how about doing some creative writing? You could writepoetry for instance, or a small story. You could turn your life into amelodrama by writing all dramatically about it and using big words. Write inthird person about yourself and see if it changes your perspective. You coulduse your imagination on anything you see or hear. You could note down overheardconversations and imagine how they would proceed after you left. Creative writing is a whole other realm ofwonderfulness and there are some very cool books about it. (see the resources section below)
Keep inmind that nobody has a right to read what your are writing, your journal is foryou alone. As I said above, it's all about the writing, not about the reading.In fact, keep in mind that a journal is personal. It's not a scrap book, it'snot a show album. It's for you and it'sto be used as an instrument for self exploration. Nobody else has any businessreading it. This does not mean that you should not let anybody read it ifthat's what you want, but who readsit is up to you, not to them.
As you cantell I show most of my journal pages, because there is not much on them that Iwouldn't say out loud too, but there are some pages I will not show, somewriting I will not share. My thoughts are my own. If a loved one thinks he orshe is entitled to read your journal ask them to think how they would like itif everybody could read their mind 24/7. That's what a journal should be, amind uncensored. A free and safe zone.Who you share that zone with is completely your choice.
· Howto make a journal of your life / Dan Price (I dare anybody not to want tojournal after reading this little gem, it's my favorite journaling book)
· Theartist's way - Julia Cameron (she encourages stream of consciousness writingevery morning)
· Thenew diary - Tristine Rainer (the best book on journal writing ever by far, ifyou get only one, get this one)
· Journalto the self - Kathleen Adams (journaling as a therapeutic technique)
· Thecomplete book of questions - Garry Poole (questions for conversation that areeasily used as prompts for journaling)
· Truevision - L.K. Ludwig (this book about art journaling has many prompts in it aswell)
· Theright to write - Julia Cameron (a book about the love of creative writing, withexercises)
· Ripthe page! - Karen Benke (fantastic book originally meant for young people, butfull of fun writing exercises for all ages)
· Thepocket muse - Monica Wood (very cute little book with creative writing prompts)
· Howto think like Leonardo da Vinci - Michael Gelb (not really about journaling,but about curiosity and interest in life, a good thing for every journalwriter)
· Howto be the best bubble writer in the world ever - Linda Scott (on lettering,originally meant for children)
· Thescrapbooker's handwriting workshop - Crystal Jeffrey Rieger (on lettering, withpractice sheets)
· Modernmark making - Lisa Engelbrecht (this is more calligraphy style)
· Scrapbooker'salphabets - Ruth Booth (on lettering)
· 1000artist journal pages - Dawn de Vries Sokol (it is what it says, no text, justpictures from hundreds of journalers, all these pages give you a wonderfulinsight into how varied journaling can be)
And here wecome to the end of our three part art journaling tutorial. I hope you enjoyedit. It was fun, but also quite challenging to put it all together and it'salways much more work than you expect it to be. Still, this blog is a work oflove and as long as it stays that way I will try to keep pushing myself into newdirections.
If you haveany suggestions for future tutorials I would love to hear from you. Until thenI wish you lots of fun trying some of the techniques and ideas from the EasyPeasy Journal. Let me know how it goes!
Travelling is my life
ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon