Greetings, Wizard Writers!
Here’s a secret: most of the posts on The Wizard of Writing blog were inspired by or taken directly from my personal writer’s journal. It’s a leathery black book with gold binding, and I’ve been filling it up for years. There are a few different ways to go about constructing a writer’s journal, each one quite personal, so I’m going to break down some of the techniques, as well as offer tips. As far as your own writing goes, I cannot stress the importance of a writer’s journal enough. This is where you are free to be yourself away from your poetry, short stories, plays, or novels. This is also where you can brainstorm, jot down story ideas, and sketch up character traits. Mostly, it’s a place you can turn to for inspiration.
There are a few types of writer’s journals, and you can choose one type or blend elements of many types—whatever works best for you. You’ll want to personalize this journal, keep it with you, and write in it daily. If you can’t have your writer’s journal with you, feel free to take notes in your phone and copy them over later to your journal. Make sure you love your journal, choosing pleasing types of books that relate to you and your writing, and pages that are easy to access. Spend a little money if you have to, as it will be worth it. Here are some of the types of writer's journals you might want to try out, as well as some tips and techniques for journaling that you might find useful as you fill in your pages.
THE STORY IDEA JOURNAL
This can be one separate journal or an element of your overall writer’s journal. In this type of journal, you would brainstorm ideas for stories, including plot, theme, story structure, title, setting, and marketing plans. You might be reading a novel, for example, and think of an idea for a short story based on some portion of the narrative. Or perhaps you have a dream and think the general idea might work in one of your manuscripts. You might even be inspired to write poetry based on the color of the sky at sunset. Write all of this down, so even if you don’t use it right away, you can reference it at a later time.
THE CHARACTER JOURNAL
In a character journal, you would keep your ideas for evolving characters, including their personalities, traits, backstories, physical features, and psychological profiles. I would recommend jotting down full histories of not only main characters, but side characters as well. You might also want to clip photos and tape them into your journal for reference. For example, you might find a photo on Pinterest of a certain eye shape you find interesting, or perhaps an odd nose length or unique hair color. Print these out (or cut out from magazines) and tape them into your journal.
THE JOURNAL OF OBSERVATIONS
This is a pretty standard type of writer’s journal. Here, you would jot down your daily observations, including weather patterns, clips of dialogue, elements of books you found intriguing, and how you felt on a certain day. You can really look at this one as the most personal of all the writer’s journal types, almost like a diary. These are the little things you zoom in on that nobody else in the world has noticed but you. How are the clouds shaped today? What were your neighbors really arguing about? How exactly does the light fall on the lake you’ve seen while hiking? These are all your personal observations—seen as only you have seen them—and they will come in handy while you’re writing up scenes.
THE LIST JOURNAL
This is the type of journal I currently use for writing and for inspiration when writing up my writing blog. As you might know from following The Wizard of Writing, these lists would include different types of birds, flowers, trees, textures, bodies of water, and foods. I’ve also compiled lists of specific tastes, colors, sounds, and scents. You could also categorize themes, like constructing a list of Astronomy terms, circus words, unique words, synonyms of popular words, other ways to say “walk” or “love,” and even a list of moods and tones used in writing. Basically, there are no limits, no rules. I even have one section set aside for “funny” words, including wanweird (an unhappy face), brouhaha (an uproar), and pratfall—one of my favorites—which means to fall on one’s rear. In short, you can individualize your writer’s journal, making it truly your own.
I hope these types of writer’s journals are helpful, and that you begin your own journal as soon as you can. For inspiration, here are some links to journals you might find to your liking. Have fun with this, and please let me know how you make out, or if you have any other ideas for writing journals!
LINKS
Magic Themes:
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