Writing in a Series of Journals
It has been a long time since I have written on this blog I have been trying to do other forms of writing. I may do some serious writing on journaling before long. It might even be worth publishing an article there are several types of journaling I am now using. A spreadsheet to track the various forms of writing I do. It is keeping me writing in one form or another every day, usually I end up writing in more than one form as I am today. The variety keeps things fresh.
The categories start with the computer journal. I have a journaling program which has several types of journaling covered within it. For instance it has separate functions for entering a normal daily entry or a dream. I wish I could use the dream function but I am one of those rare people who almost never dreams. I guess that is because I don’t get long stretches of uninterrupted sleep. It also has a section of prompts and quotes to prompt writing. I have been collecting prompts, from various sources, for years. I will discuss that more later.
The next category is "freewriting". This term comes from several books on writing and basically talks about writing about whatever is on your mind. Books on Bible study suggest this before studying the word. Books on writing talk of it as a time to generate your own writing ideas from whatever is on your mind. Counseling books suggest this kind of writing to reach the sub- conscious and purge yourself of anger, or grief, etc. Personally I use this term for a regular journal entry that could always have been anything.
Another category is prompts. As a writer I use these as story starters, they can come from books, magazines, internet groups such as http://www.faithwriters.com/ or http://www.oncewritten.com/ http://www.writersdigest.com/ on writing, ChristianJournaling http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/ChristianJournaling/.com is doing a series of prompts for personal growth. One prompt rich link is http://www.edhelper.com/writing.htm which has links geared to students of various ages. You can get prompts anywhere from a word taken from the dictionary at random, things you have seen even to interesting things you hear on the news. I got one of my best poems because the mechanic was late for an appointment I saw a bird trying to find breakfast while waiting for him to come. The bird was a prompt that day.
Other things to write about are your daily Bible study or your prayers. Your bible studies can be a predetermined list of readings such as found http://www.bibleplan.org/ or http://www.backtothebible.org/devotions/bible_guides.htm I will admit neither of links is the one I was looking for. As for prayers I no longer track prayers but a number of people do. To do that you simply record the prayers with a date and the answers with date when they come. I do occasionally write what I am praying out which is also a form of journaling prayers.
The next form of journaling I call conversational. I started journaling this way because of a book called Lord I’ve Been a Worm So Long It’s Hard to Think Like A Butterfly by Joan Wilson. I tried for a long time to replace this from bookstores with no success. My husband has located it on Amazon.com. The conversations start with you asking God a question and waiting for an answer. If you do this you will be amazed at the results.
Another use for journaling time is an art journal. If you draw like a talented artist or a child’s drawing. I did sketch books for years and never thought of them as journals. Since becoming a member of the ChristianJournaling group on Yahoo I have begun doing quite a lot of this mainly illustrating quotes. The local library has an interesting book called Calligraphy A Course in Hand Lettering by Maryanne Grebenstein. and I am putting various quotes and scriptures. I use a blank book for this purpose.
This is the last type of writing is the blog. In short what you are reading now. I will also post this link on ChristianJournaling and I will post it as a finished article on FaithWriters. I have two blogs this one can be anything pretty much like a standard journal entry http://annettes-world.blogspot.com/ the other is strictly a study on the names and titles of God it can be found http://hisnames.blogspot.com/ This study has been of special interest to me for years I have been collecting various books on the topic and always intended to write one. A blog gives you a time and place to work out your writing with an audience.
The categories start with the computer journal. I have a journaling program which has several types of journaling covered within it. For instance it has separate functions for entering a normal daily entry or a dream. I wish I could use the dream function but I am one of those rare people who almost never dreams. I guess that is because I don’t get long stretches of uninterrupted sleep. It also has a section of prompts and quotes to prompt writing. I have been collecting prompts, from various sources, for years. I will discuss that more later.
The next category is "freewriting". This term comes from several books on writing and basically talks about writing about whatever is on your mind. Books on Bible study suggest this before studying the word. Books on writing talk of it as a time to generate your own writing ideas from whatever is on your mind. Counseling books suggest this kind of writing to reach the sub- conscious and purge yourself of anger, or grief, etc. Personally I use this term for a regular journal entry that could always have been anything.
Another category is prompts. As a writer I use these as story starters, they can come from books, magazines, internet groups such as http://www.faithwriters.com/ or http://www.oncewritten.com/ http://www.writersdigest.com/ on writing, ChristianJournaling http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/ChristianJournaling/.com is doing a series of prompts for personal growth. One prompt rich link is http://www.edhelper.com/writing.htm which has links geared to students of various ages. You can get prompts anywhere from a word taken from the dictionary at random, things you have seen even to interesting things you hear on the news. I got one of my best poems because the mechanic was late for an appointment I saw a bird trying to find breakfast while waiting for him to come. The bird was a prompt that day.
Other things to write about are your daily Bible study or your prayers. Your bible studies can be a predetermined list of readings such as found http://www.bibleplan.org/ or http://www.backtothebible.org/devotions/bible_guides.htm I will admit neither of links is the one I was looking for. As for prayers I no longer track prayers but a number of people do. To do that you simply record the prayers with a date and the answers with date when they come. I do occasionally write what I am praying out which is also a form of journaling prayers.
The next form of journaling I call conversational. I started journaling this way because of a book called Lord I’ve Been a Worm So Long It’s Hard to Think Like A Butterfly by Joan Wilson. I tried for a long time to replace this from bookstores with no success. My husband has located it on Amazon.com. The conversations start with you asking God a question and waiting for an answer. If you do this you will be amazed at the results.
Another use for journaling time is an art journal. If you draw like a talented artist or a child’s drawing. I did sketch books for years and never thought of them as journals. Since becoming a member of the ChristianJournaling group on Yahoo I have begun doing quite a lot of this mainly illustrating quotes. The local library has an interesting book called Calligraphy A Course in Hand Lettering by Maryanne Grebenstein. and I am putting various quotes and scriptures. I use a blank book for this purpose.
This is the last type of writing is the blog. In short what you are reading now. I will also post this link on ChristianJournaling and I will post it as a finished article on FaithWriters. I have two blogs this one can be anything pretty much like a standard journal entry http://annettes-world.blogspot.com/ the other is strictly a study on the names and titles of God it can be found http://hisnames.blogspot.com/ This study has been of special interest to me for years I have been collecting various books on the topic and always intended to write one. A blog gives you a time and place to work out your writing with an audience.
posted by Annette | 4:16 PM
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