Sunday, August 3, 2008
The Use of Journaling
I originally started writing fiction five years ago when I took a class on "The Artist's Way". Before that I was writing poetry including long narrative poems. Through that group I got the courage to start writing fiction. As you probably know, morning pages are mandatory. Of course, I was rebellious (as always) and did them at night though that was discouraged. Still, it worked in that group setting. I'd tried it before by myself and it didn't work. I have been writing fiction ever since and not encountering writer's block. So, do I still need to journal? I actually find it kind of distasteful. Something self-indulgent and whiny about it. But since I don't have writer's block, is it necessary? What do you all think? I do journal once in awhile now- down from 3 to 4 times a week earlier. And I analyze my dreams in a journal about once a week. I'm wondering if journaling- not blogging but the completely private kind would somehow add something to my writing. I'm afraid Julia Cameron got in my head somehow and is making me wonder.
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2 comments:
I would like to hear what you decide and how it effects yer writing. I'm curious about this. I've sometimes wanted to keep a journal, but I somehow never seem to for more than a few days at a time. I don't think I do my best thinking in structured ways, and once you start writing things down things assume a sort of structure pretty much by themselves.
Marie, I think it's a whatever works for you thing. I write morning pages just about every day. And I've taken to 'making up' pages when I miss.
There have been a lot of times that I really needed to do the pages to get the gunk out of my head before I started writing. But there have been days that I didn't do pages and used that as an excuse to not write. Probably not what Cameron had in mind. So I just decided to write them. Every day. And sort of punish myself if I didn't by having to write them the next day. It doesn't take many of those to get in the habit pretty quickly.
I've had many, many days that I've written morning pages and nothing else. I don't think I've had a day since starting them (jeez, is it six years ago?) that I did "real" writing without doing the pages first.
I have written things in my pages that I've gone back to for stories or used in something I was writing at the time. Turns of phrase or ideas that I'm not sure would have happened elsewhere. Remember that magic can happen when you're writing without intent. And that can make the fifteen-twenty minutes it takes to knock them out well worthwhile.
But if you're writing and liking what you do without them, maybe you don't need them.
Can you tell I'm kinda passionate about these? ;-)
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