Creative Journaling for Beginners: How to Start and What to Write
If you’ve ever struggled with ideas or felt uninspired to create, congratulations you’re an artist.
But there might be a way around that hurdle – Journaling
Now, I’m not talking about writing “Dear diary” or what you had for breakfast. I’m referring to writing down ideas.
Keep a notebook/journal with you – at all times
A physical one.
Don’t take notes on your phone. Why?
Distraction
Distraction
Distraction
It might be more convenient to type down ideas on your phone, but then you’ll notice you have a few unread messages or Instagram notifications that demand your attention, and by that time you’ve completely forgotten what your idea was.
The benefits of having a notebook and writing something down can give you 4 times the idea generation. You’re also 3 times more likely to avoid distraction.
As artists, what we want more of are ideas, and what we want less of are distractions.
Design your environment in such a way that encourages your ideas and creativity.
Consume less. Create more.
Take some time during your day and instead of consuming, create.
“Don’t get high on your own supply.“
As an artist you only need to consume so much to be inspired, anything beyond that is above your quota. You need time where you can grab your notebook or empty sketch pad to write down ideas or doodles. Then you’re innovating instead of only allowing yourself to be inspired.
There’s something special about putting your thoughts on paper. Because you’ll be alone with your idea and the page where it’s written, and you’ll be able to stare at each other. Now you may glance up into the sky and think about your idea, then look down to see if there’s anything else you can add to it.
Through this creative process, you’re able you reach into the unknown world of creativity.
Your mind on paper
The main reason I keep a notebook with me is to write down anything and everything that comes to mind. Whether it’s one of my own thoughts, or something someone says, or something I read or see in a video. Literally anything.
View it as your mind on paper.
It gives me the opportunity to work through thoughts or ideas. Not only article ideas, but photography as well. Sometimes I’m sketching out compositions and trying to figure out how I can improve them to tell a better story and evoke more emotion.
Remember, it’s your booklet. No one else needs to see it. It’s not supposed to be perfect with beautiful handwriting and filled with colour. It’s a place where you can store and work through thoughts and ideas.
Good idea! I have been jotting down thoughts on my phone and on my computer. I use to journal but half the time I can’t find the journal. I miss not handwriting my thoughts cause cursive writing is an art expression for me. I find when I actually write something I recall it easier. Oh well, back to paper snd pen!
Thanks!
Haha. That’s why I keep a small notebook in my back pocket at all times.
Have fun! 🙂
Great post WA.
The pen and paper works perfectly if you at a desk in your study. As the thoughts come, particularly the special ones you can quickly jot down.
The phone is so convenient if you are doing practical work and not settled in an office.
Yes, lol i love how you stress distractions, 😩 its crazy how the wind comes up and takes it away.
I long for the days of notebook and paper, these days 😪
The phone is not the most ideal way to go, but in the circumstances…handwriting is such a dream these days. Would love a booklet of my own.
Thank you for such good advice. Given with experience shining through. Have a good day.
I’m glad you received value from it 🙂 The same to you!
A pleasure.
Excellent post and wonderful suggestions. I completely agree with you that our thoughts and ideas should be written on a notebook.
Good thoughts. I also struggled that thing called unmotivated. To be honest, the whole 2021 made me feel a little less of who I am as a creative and have not done anything except for projects. This year, I decided to fill the gap and try to make it up to myself by re-establishing my blog, trying to create reasons to hold and make use of my pencil and JOURNALING!!!!
What a great affirmation!
I’m a BIG FAN of this. I agree, the best way to be CREATIVE is on paper! That’s how I get inspired too. GREAT to remind people of this.
What a great idea! I have considered getting a journal, but never got around to starting. I think I will try it out this year!
Good luck and have fun! 🙂
I found this article very helpful. Thank you so much. I will put that into practice.
I’m glad you found the article helpful 🙂 Good luck and have fun!
The handwritten word does inspire –
Great idea! And I am old enough to recall my elders doing just this—-their own notebooks. Indeed the pen is more powerful than the sword.
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Wise advice. Though I don’t keep journal but I have my digital notes.
I really like that line “instead of consuming, create”
Good post
Amen and thank you. I use my phone to record my random thoughts. I have pages and pages of thoughts. Most will not get used. I only mine for gold.
I recall a quote from Hemingway. He said there is no such thing as writers’ block. Writing is work. Only laziness keeps us from contributing thoughts.
I did not intend to contradict. Using my phone works for me. It’s my avenue for free thoughts. It may not work for all.
I understand. Everyone has a method that works for them 🙂
Private or as a business journal it helps. Pen palling as well, as letters are perfect journals. You send and receive ideas the point is you get a response.
My problem with writing down everything that comes to mind was summarized in a poem years ago:
A Simple Thought. © c.a.post, 1984
aka, A Thought During A Lecture on Cerebral Neurology
“I thought I’d think a simple thought,
A thought whose thinking of I ought
To think of thoroughly, through and through,
A thought whose thinking I should do.
But when I sought a thought to think
My searching could not find a thing.
So I thought I’d wait and see
What thoughtful thought might come to me.
Well, now I’ve thought for quite some time
I must be hard for thoughts to find.”
What a beautiful poem. Thank you for sharing it 🙂
Love this. I have one journal where I retrospectively record what happened during the day, and another just for ideas, quotes, and the likes, which is my commonplace book. That book has ideas what I often forget about. Can’t live without notebooks! Anyway, thanks for this post!
Then it’s great that you write those ideas down. Maybe in a few months or years, you can find them again and take action on a few of them 🙂
I used to frequently write down my ideas until I learned I could use people as sounding boards for my verbal diarrhea. When I’m alone, I usually just monologue until I reach my idea’s logical conclusion. Then, I’ll begin writing. Usually by the time it’s written I’ll have noticed any problems with it.
Like my post today: Dharma and the Two Paths. I realized an hour or so after posting that I introduced a few philosophical problems with my perspective. Now I’m going to have to address them in a subsequent post LOL!
Anyway, I find your posts very helpful and I like the tone of them. You seem like a really upbeat and cool person. Thanks for sharing them with the community!
Every person has their own system, and it sounds like you have found yours.
Haha! Well, that “mistake” leads to more content for others to enjoy.
I’m so glad you find value from my articles. Haha, thank you. I’m naturally optimistic 🙂
Thanks for this great, inspirational post. 🌸
<3
Love it! I am working on a story and find it freeing to jot down my ideas in point form before I write each chapter. Seeing them written down helps me to determine if it’s an idea that I want to keep – if it will work – or…NOT. I also like your thought about consuming less and innovating more. Yes, that’s a reminder we need amid all the distractions of media.
a good reminder.. thank you.
I love my notebook, I write the most random things that anyone else would wonder what on earth it all means but I know. I find the act of physically writing helps me to remember better, what I was doing at the time, where I was even what I was wearing.
Great advice 👍🏻
Great post! Amazing tip! 👏
Glad you found it useful!
Hard agree. This is why I daily in my blog. It’s not just for readers, but to help spark creativity for me. Practice, practice, practice.
i love this! Thank you soo much
I’m glad you resonated with it! 🙂
I love this so much! I have a pages of ideas that sit there for years and haven’t been enhanced because it’s not their time but when it is their time it dances around and says “Pick me.” I love what is created out of a word or a few paragraphs where I lost inspiration, I was too emotional to clearly communicate my thoughts, or it was saved for later.
I fully agree with not using your phone because of distractions. Notifications steal my attention every single time. On the other hand, I will use my phone if I don’t have pen and paper at that moment. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you for sharing a brief insight into your experience when writing. You’re right. It’s incredible when it’s finally time for an idea to take off. Then you’re just filled with inspiration 🙂
I love this. I keep a journal and have since I was 10. My journal is so many things sometimes it is a recounting of the day, the good things, the bad, reflections, ideas, thoughts, philosophical views, basically anything including art. I know people sometimes have a hard time starting because they have an expectation of what it needs to be. However whatever it is when you look back at it, it still provides a amazing window into your life at that moment.
That’s absolutely incredible. Yes, you’re right. It’s incredible to be able to read about our own past and what we have learned. Sometimes we can relearn certain things we have forgotten.
I love this idea! Got one and use it a lot. Started to write with a pencil and doodles the idea easily with a pencil in hand!
I’m glad it also works for you! 🙂
😊
Lovely
I always have my trusty notebook with me
I hope it serves you well! 🙂
Good post. I used to carry notebooks and then I stopped doing it. I recently resumed the habit of carrying a notebook. Paper is still my preferred space for doodling and scribbling thoughts, Thanks
I hope it goes well 🙂
I need to start carrying a notebook and pen with me at all times. You are so right about taking notes on our phones! Too many distractions. I’ve always felt the most creative with a pen and paper. Thank you for sharing!
I’m glad the article meant something to you, Amy! 🙂
Completely agree with you… smartphones r truly the biggest source of distraction..a very helping post…
I’m glad you found it helpful 🙂
This made me want to go buy a journal and a bunch of different colored pens 💭
I’m so glad to hear that, Gracie! For someone with a million ideas and a brain that doesn’t sleep, a journal sounds like a perfect idea 🙂
I try to take a small notebook with me everywhere I go. While waiting for the car at the mechanic’s, or waiting at the doctor’s office, I’ve come up with ideas for posts for my blog. I feel as though I got something out of the time I spent waiting. I even wrote a blog post at a grocery store while waiting for my mother to finish her shopping! 🙂
That’s absolutely wonderful to hear, and exactly why I wanted to share this article. Thank you for sharing your experience as well 🙂
When I write, I tell myself to just get it down. It doesn’t have to be perfect. In fact, it could be trash but get it down. Then later I have time to mold it. Thanks for the article. Distraction is a big hurdle in my life.
So glad I could help, Pierce! It sounds like you have a good system in place already!
I’m just an old engineer spending too much time in my workshop but the idea of writing down my thoughts rather than watching tv sounds great!
“View it as your mind on paper.”—This is an excellent way to put it.
“Consume less, create more.” This hit home. Distraction by consumption is a real problem. I recently had a conversation with my fourteen-year-old son about this. He watches you tube incessantly, plays video games, etc. Consuming all day, and at the end of it, what has he really done? If this trend continues, what will be his legacy. I know it may be a little too deep for him at this stage in our lives, but I’m trying to plant those seeds. Consuming the creative endeavors of others is not a bad thing, unless it restricts one’s ability to give back by creating as well. Great blog!
You’re absolutely right. You’re doing the right thing. Maybe try and encourage him to do or create something. Whatever his heart desires. The purpose will be for him to realize that it can be fun and fulfilling to create something and put it out into the world, in contrast to constantly consuming.
I don’t carry a notebook with me everywhere, but I have a few at home with random ideas, notes, and thoughts…as well as my daily journal. I also have one in my vehicle but I don’t spend much time waiting in it anymore so the notebook sits in the console.
And yes, the phones are a huge distraction. It doesn’t take much to get sidetracked when intending to make a note in them.
Yep, tried the phone sometimes and it just doesn’t work! I have notebooks all over the place and often come across one in an odd place. The idea planted there may be several years old, but still fresh!
Love your idea and I am locating a notebook as of now, with pen.
Good luck and have fun!
Love this post as I’m a big fan of notebooks. I just find it clearer to write my ideas down initially in the form of a mind map. It really helps me organise the thoughts.
I’m so glad it works for you as well 🙂
A fine idea from the Wanderer! I sometimes find it tough to take a moment in the moment to crystallize an idea.
I hope you’re able to now 🙂
I have journaled for years, especially the “morning pages” kind of journaling. The ideas to sketch or record mostly seem to happen at 2 or 3am! So i always have paper and pen or pencil then. However I do need to take time during the day too. And your blog is a great reminder of that. Thanks!
I really enjoyed reading this! I have started keeping my journal at all times. Usually my most creative ideas come at the most random times and having my journal is a game changer.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it. That’s absolutely true! Hence why it’s so helpful to keep a journal in the back pocket.
It’s very helpful to us thanks a lot
It’s my pleasure Anusha 🙂