Journaling for the Writer

Can you write without editing yourself?

As writers, we try to convey, with the written word, imagery, color, texture. We try to evoke from our readers a conceptual sensory experience. We try to evoke emotion.

We choose our words carefully, and labor over their placement in the hopes of creating just the right voice for our readers to hear inside their minds as they read.

We want them to feel our anger at miscarriages of justice, our joy at discovering the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. We want them to act on our call to save the planet, to try the product we recommend, to read the book we review.

If we write fiction, we want our readers to think of our characters as being alive, as someone they may encounter. We want them to live inside the world we created.

But this drive to arrange our words just so, to use them to move our readers to action, becomes so ingrained, it becomes increasingly difficult to write with abandon.

To keep a journal is to write with just this kind of abandonment of planning, plotting, and selective choice of words. Journaling requires us to write as if we were chronicling a stream of consciousness. But it is our own stream of consciousness we put forth, and for writers, this can be a difficult task.

One approach is to write using something other than a journal. Its book-like appearance makes you want to write neatly, and well. Try instead to journal using a tape recorder.

By speaking, instead of writing, you don’t see the product of your efforts. This enables you to quiet the inner editor and just express yourself.

Another approach could be through imagery. Cut out photos and pictures from magazines. Paste them into a scrapbook and write in the margins. This allows you to write in short sentences or fragments, or record one-word impressions.

The appearance of the scrapbook is a visual aid to expressive thought, without triggering the inner editor as a diary or journal would.

If you want to write in a journal, but the inner editor gets in your way, try setting a page goal and a timer. For example, you have five minutes to fill seven pages. You absolutely would need to write without censure to meet such a goal. This method requires discipline, but most likely is the best exercise for getting the creative juices flowing.

Journaling for writers is challenging, but if you can find a method that keeps the inner editor quiet, then journaling may make you a better writer.