A Look at Journals

Journaling is incredible.

I don't know how others journal, as each person does things a little differently.

I've kept a thoughts journal, for most of my life.

It's where I think through things and try to find words that portray what's in my head.

But last semester, with my creative writing class, I learned about creative writing journals.

It's one of those things that I step back and go 'why didn't I think of this before?'.

Easy.

Because I had no reason to think of using it before.

I brainstormed my stories in a notebook, and only my current stories.

I had a notebook for poetry.

But with a creative writing journal, you can experiment with your writing.

Experimenting has turned out to be so much fun!

What I've been working on lately in my journal has been my Point of Views.

You see, I've been having trouble with portraying emotion in my third person PoV, and imagery in my first person PoV.

What did I decide to do?

I've started to experimentally journal different ways of using PoV.

So. . .

Yup. 

I'm going to show some bits of my journal to show my point of what I need to work on.

~~

I start to lumber my way down the nearby forest trail.

I hear heavy breathing is up ahead, and lo and behold here he is. With. . . Friends? Four other guys, all bigger and heavier than him, seemingly pushing him about and threatening him.

I roll my eyes. Can’t thugs ever figure out how to not be so cliché? There’s more to the world than being bigger and heavier and acting tough. 

~~

Okay.

LOTS of telling.

What kind of forest? Is the trail pretty clear? What does this "he" look like? All I did was describe him as a guy. . . Throughout the entire journal entry.

Then again, I completely made up the characters on the spot while writing, but I could have given him a simple, cliche description. 

Now, an excerpt from my third person PoV.

~~

Carefully, he wraps the sleeping bundle in his own cloak, hiding the tell-tale red of royalty. 

They will not find her. Not when he’s with her.

He makes it out, but barely as the falcons circling are alerting their masters to anyone lurking on the grounds. Taking his horse, he escapes out of the city and into the wild plains. 

~~

Okay. 

I wrote this as a chase type of scene in a country I've started working on developing for one of my story worlds.

It does not feel tense, and up to this point (this is from the second-ish page of the entry) I have absolutely no feeling for the captain other than a small bit of "sorry you were picked" type of feeling. It's rather sad.

Oh, and I need to work on my telling again as well.

Some of it I like (the tell-tale red of royalty gives a lot of background to this story world I built), but what about the city? Is it sleeping? Bustling? Day? Night? I never made a reference to time of day throughout the entire journal! 

I have a lot to work on, but journaling help point it out.

If you haven't tried it yet, I suggest you do.

Keep on Writing!

God Bless,

SDG

Joy