As a creative writer, you need tools in order to write and create. Otherwise you’re just a creative thinker!
Probably THE single most useful and powerful tool you can use to enhance your creative writing is a creative writing journal.
A creative writing journal is simply a notebook or sketchbook that’s portable enough for you to carry around with you wherever you go. It can be small enough to fit in your hand, or the size of a typical magazine.
You can have a journal with lined paper, squared paper, coloured paper or plain paper. It can be as simple as a cheap paper exercise book, or as sophisticated as an sumptuous Italian leather bound multi-sectioned journal.
What’s important is not what it looks like, but how easy it is for you to use.
So how do you use your creative writing journal?
Essentially your creative writing journal is your ideas book. It’s where you capture and collect all of your ideas for creative writing. As soon as you have a new idea, jot it down in your journal.
The most fatal mistake many writers make, which leads to complaints like “I never have enough ideas” is not in fact that you’re not able to have enough ideas. It’s simply that you’re not capturing enough ideas.
As soon as they appear, you think to yourself something like “this is a great idea, I’ll remember it and work on it this evening when I get in”.
Guess what happens? Yep, a couple of days later you suddenly remember how you had a great idea for your writing. But can you remember what it was? Of course not!
Using a creative writing journal is the best way to avoid this frustrating and disappointing experience.
Taking this to another level, often even if you have a fragment of an idea and jot down a few words on a scrap of paper or something, when you return to it, the original excitement you had, and the essence of the idea, is diluted, somehow lost.
By using a creative writing journal, you can capture your ideas in enough detail that the essence of the idea is preserved. With practice, you can note down just a few phrases that get to the very heart and core of what your idea is based around.
When you return to your journal, the essence of the idea hits you once more like the fragrance on a lover's shirt you find the morning after a wonderful night together.
If you don’t use a creative writing journal - or only use one occasionally – you’re missing out on becoming the creative writer you could be.
Invest in a journal today and start carrying it with you wherever you go. You’ll notice the difference to the quantity and richness of your ideas in hardly any time at all.
Take the next step in getting your creative writing kick started right now with the FREE 5 part creative writing ecourse at www.YouAreACreativeWriter.Com
Creativity Coach and keen creative writer Dan Goodwin helps people who are struggling to be as creative as they know they can be. See more at his website: http://www.CoachCreative.com
Source: www.articlesphere.com
