Years ago I stumbled on the concept of the project journal and found it to be invaluable. Mystery writer Sue Grafton's website details her use of journals when writing her bestselling novel series. Over the years I have developed my own version of the project journal and the one for my current novel is a constant wellspring of information and inspiration. Each writing day I open two files. One is for the work to be done that day and the other is the project journal. What follows is a synergistic interplay between the actual writing and the additional inspired thoughts. This type of dedicated journaling is as important to me as my actual writing and helps me in more ways than I can say. What about you? Do you maintain a project journal?
Monday, January 25, 2010
Janowrimo 2010: Day 25 Project notebook remains invaluable
Even before I considered myself a real writer I wrote in journals. The value of journal writing on the body and the mind has been known for a number of years but for writers they are as much a part of the writer's toolbox as pens, paper, keyboards and computers. The most common form of journaling is that of the daily chronicle. These journalers capture daily events, moments in time, or their emotional landscapes. With writers, their entries often include their relationships with their muse, their efforts, battles, and scars from facing the blank page.
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I think my blog functions as a writing journal, where I hash out my insecurities and challenges. I have a "notes" file in which I put any little tidbits that I think of that aren't ready for the manuscript yet, bits of dialogue, a description, a poem. Anything like that. I also use it as a place to hold things that I cut out but might want to use later.
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