What I am writing: a writing journal
Over the last few days I have been focusing on expanding a journal I am writing for one of the units in my Master of Arts in Creative Writing Course.
This journal is for the Creative Writing: Prose unit. In this unit we have a set text book called Writing Fiction by Australian writer Garry Disher. Most weeks we have a chapter to read which links to the topic of the lecture. We also have a unit reader consisting of short stories gathered together by our lecturer Rosanne Hawke. We are expected to read one or two of the stories each week. We then discuss the techniques used by the writers of the stories. In our journals we are expected to respond to the text book and the stories, commenting on how useful we found each one.
Each week we also have writing activities in the workshop part of the lecture time. This is a very valuable exercise because we have to write on a set topic or theme or a set activity and it is under the pressure of time, usually no more than ten minutes. We are then expected to share these short pieces in a workshop situation. The feedback from the lecturer and fellow students is often very valuable. We are expected to include some of these writings in our journal, commenting upon the activity and including any second drafts if done.
While this journal may not appear to be actually writing fiction as the unit title suggests, it is still a very valuable assignment. It has forced me to consider each element of the lecture and the writing activities, and analyse how useful each one has been. One of the interesting things about some of the writing exercises is that I now have a resource of more than a dozen (I haven’t bothered to count them) short stories which can be developed from 100 – 150 words into longer stories of 2000 words or more. They are great short story starters. All I need now is the time to do that! With seven essays and assignments due in the next 25 days it will be heads down getting everything finished and submitted.
Good writing.
A lifetime of journal writing
I am beginning to discover that there are a few other strange people out there a bit like me.
Quite a few in fact.
Strange, because they, too, are compulsive journal writers.
It seems that once bitten most people are journal writers for life. I have written in my journal off and on for 16 years. I just checked – seems longer. Originally I wrote in lovely hard cover books. In more recent years I have used my laptop exclusively. One day I might even print it all out.
Some people, it seems, write daily. They must be very disciplined, and have lots of time. I’m still working on both discipline and the use of time. I recently came across an essay written by someone who examines the philosophy behind journal writing.
The essay is called Meditations on 25 Years of Journal Writing written by Kimble James Greenwood. This particular journal writer has the bug quite seriously, writing in a multitude of forms.
As I grew older and the process continued, the journals themselves split off and diversified, specialized—so that my main journal, the “personal journal”, was now accompanied by adjuncts: poetry journals, dream journals, fiction journals, quote journals, journals to list memories in, to list books read, movies seen, vocabulary lists, curious gleanings from newspapers and magazines, etc.
I must admit that my journal was a ‘one size fits all’ type. It was at first a record of events. Soon it developed into reflections on life, experiences, comments on events, poetry, snippets of life, cuttings, quotes from books, poems, sermons, scripture and friends. It was like life itself: unplanned, random and meandering.
The Power of Journal Writing – a Story of Hope
8 Comments »11th July, 2006; Category: Journal Writing
I’d like you to meet Jennifer.
That’s not her real name. I don’t want anyone to be able to identify her.
Jennifer at age seven came into my class as a scared, wide-eyed little girl with a few problems. She was selectively mute. She also had a speech impediment, which could explain why she didn’t speak very much. She chose not to communicate in any vocal way. She had a word that sounded vaguely like “toilet” (bathroom for my American readers) when she needed to leave the room. She had another word “dink” which I translated as her desire to go to her bag to get a drink. That was about it.
She hadn’t learned more than a few letters of the alphabet in two years of schooling. She could barely write her name and as for being able to read… well, she recognised her own name, her sister’s name and few other words. I knew it was going to be a challenge, seeing I had seven other children with great learning needs as well. At least most of them knew how to communicate orally, but their writing and reading skills were so lacking. The other 20 students were your average garden variety children with only one or two of above average achievement.
I began an intensive programme of reading, writing, listening, stories, poems, speaking activities, drama – whatever my 30+ years of teaching experience could draw upon to help Jennifer and the other students. I won’t even go into details about the Mathematics programme! These students had GREAT needs.
Step by step, one lesson at a time, one little piece of progress and many setbacks along the way. There were many discouragements, but they were offset by little victories, small advances, concepts learned and applied. One of the vital cogs in all of this was journal writing. Daily exercises in writing were adhered to, even when the going was really tough.
Gradually I gained Jennifer’s confidence and she began trying to say more words. It took every ounce of patience I had. Her speech never became perfect but it was enough to give her a start. Over the next 20 months (I had most of the struggling students for a second year) Jennifer made amazing progress. At first she could only speak a word or two that she wanted to write in her journal. I would actually have to write the words for her in her book and she would trace over them. Then it became phrases and finally whole sentences. Her reading began to improve, her spelling improved, her speaking improved and her confidence soared.
Jennifer and her family moved to another town towards the end of the second year in my class. Just before she left Jennifer wrote a journal entry about an event in her family. She wrote, without any help, a whole page. That was her Everest – and she scaled it. But wait – there’s more! Not only did she write that unassisted, it was in beautiful handwriting, with only three or four small spellings errors. It was correctly punctuated with sentence structures that would put to shame some blog entries I have read.
Is that all? No – she then asked to read her writing aloud using a microphone at a school assembly! And she did it!
Do think I was proud of her? You’d better believe it!
It still brings a tear to my eyes when I think about it.
A Creative Journal
A Creative Journal is a blog about writing, especially journal writing. It include ideas for writing, hints, tips, inspiration and writing prompts.
Several recent articles have some interesting writing helps. In one such article called Doodle Journal the author suggests that writers could benefit greatly from “doodle writing” – similar in content to doodle drawing. The suggestion is to write in a stream-of-consciousness style as a writing exercise or a warm-up to one’s major writing project at the time. Sounds like fun and is never meant for publication, only ever for an audience of one.
Another article of intrest to me is called Journal Writing as a Learning Tool.
Teachers are constantly looking for ways to make learning easier for their students. One technique gaining more attention recently is journal writing.
I have to disagree with the author. Journal writing has been a part of good classroom practice here in Australia at least, for well over a decade. It is not a recent idea. I used the techniques to great effect in my own classroom just about every day for the last 15 years.
To access the site click here.
Related Articles:
Journal Writing and Books
As I said in my last post I have written in a journal for many years. Firstly handwritten in well-bound books, then on a computer file and more recently on my blogs (of which I have three – this one on writing, another on birding and a third on my travels).
I recently read an article about someone who doesn’t keep a journal in the traditional sense. She writes her journal entries in the books she reads!
One reason I stopped lending my books out was because when people borrowed them, they did not return them. I never saw them again. However, since I have become an avid reader, journal writer, and freelance writer, the most important reason of all why I do not lend my books out to others is because in the midst of reading them, they have become my personal journals.
She writes in her books – in the margins, on the top and bottom of the page, between paragraphs – wherever there is space to write. I’ve done a little of this over the years, and I often underline significant passages I want to find again. In longer passages I will run a pencil line down the side of the passage. I will also use asterisks liberally.
To read the whole article click here.