10 Ways Journaling Makes You a Better Writer (Repost)

[moderntimes]

Escape, first, thanks for the compliment, and also, you just posted a very eloquent message. If you think you're not a writer you're wrong -- you ARE. You just need to persuade yourself of that, whether it's essays or articles or stories or whatever. Writing reviews is a good way to exercise the ol' writing genes, too.

My notetaking was of course started in school, then more when I worked for a newspaper. Believe me, if you don't take notes as a journalist, you're sunk. This was in the day before handheld recorders so a manual spiral notebook was requisite. We were issued those by the paper and were required, for legal reasons, to only use our notebooks that were serial numbered and signed out to us.

As I worked for a paper just as a mid-level job, "stringing" for them and not on the actual salary staff, my newswriting experience was brief but terrific. My "real day job" work was in science and engineering -- I graduated w. a degree in chemistry and minors in math and biology, worked as a researcher for Gulf Oil Research division for years, then moved on to engineering consultancy for programming and analysis of structures, then on to microcircuit design, later to consultancy for "big oil" engineering specs related to offshore exploration and production. So the bulk of my day jobs was high tech.

Nevertheless I gained terrific experience in fast note taking and therefore a slight tip of the cap to journaling.

Being a techie nerd down deep, as well as a literature fan, I made the transition to computers easily and quickly. For years, everything I write, aside from a random scribbled note or two, goes straight into an MS-Word doc. Nevertheless, it's "journaling" in a way, albeit the vast perccent of my note taking is meant for later use in my more formal writing.

Good luck with the reviews. I myself write reviews for a mystery website and reading a lot of books and writing about them is an excellent exercise, fun, and broadens the outlook.

[Levi]

Firstly, don't ever go anywhere sir!! Whatever would we do in POST---moderntimes??? hahahahahahaha
Secondly, I believe you are correct. I AM a writer, I'm just not an author, yet!! If i continue hanging around here I might be though. It is inspiring. Thank you for sharing your story and your wisdom. Whever I see you i shall think, "There is the astute and impeccable moderntimes!" That is what my one of my high school teachers used to say when I would walk in the room, and then my friends would walk in and he would say, "Gentlemen......and I use that term loosely!" He was a riot. On a side note, there was always a rumor that he was an old WWF wrestler, which I never believed due to his stolid demeanor. However, one day I actually managed to make him mad somehow (I think I was trying to impress a girl, go figure) and when he sent me to his office I walked around the desk and there was a picture of him throwing some guy over the ropes!!

[moderntimes]

Thanks again, a fun dialogue.

Journaling, regardless of how it's defined, is a good way to exercise creativity, but if it only ends up in notebooks or in a "secret" file on the laptop, it serves the aspiring writer no real advantage. Journals need to be used as source guides and reflection storage that will be later employed in an essay or novel or short story. Otherwise, it's just a hidden pleasure, akin, in my opinion, to masturbation. Fun but the aspiring writer needs instead to "get out more" and learn to make that writing accessible other others.

Astute and impeccable I'm not, actually. Yeah, I've got a long history of formal education, both in sciences and literature (my studies in lit focused in my passion for James Joyce, making a lifelong study of Ulysses. that greatest of all great novels). But I've also been a varied life candidate, living in various places around the country, working during the Vietnam era for "Uncle" in a civilian capacity, you can figure out things from that as you wish.

Strangely my high tech day-job career has also augmented my fictional skills, in that it taught me discipline and goal achievement, as well as setting personal deadlines.

Liked especially the postmodertimes pun. Thanks again but let's focus on the subject matter and not be too introspective online, hey?

[Levi]

Sorry moderntimes, you are correct. I strayed from the topic of this post. I am just greatly enjoying this site and the interaction here.

[IyenaC]

That article is good. I did try journaling. Sadly, I always forget writing an update. The Number 5! I think I need to continue journaling again to ease the pain inside.

[moderntimes]

As I had said previously, journaling that doesn't get applied to the author's "outgoing" writing is maybe therapeutic but not too helpful for improving as a writer -- it's only of benefit if the prospective writer uses what's in the journal to better the quality of the writing overall.

And Escape, don't worry about thread drift -- it's common and very okay, and often the drifting stuff is better than the original thrust of the thread.

But recalling the "astute and impeccable" (ha ha)? Maybe it DID work after all. Last month I signed a contract with a publisher who will soon be publishing all three of my private detective novels in both paperback and e-book. And no, it's not a vanity publisher -- it's a "legit" house that will pay me, not the other way. Keen, eh?