I think it’s pretty safe to say that at the core of my creativity is journaling. In different ways, I’ve been documenting my life since I learned how to write. My current way of doing it includes binding my own books and using them as sketchbooks/idea collectors and visual journals. I’ve been doing this for 7 years now. The amount of creative effort differs depending on what else is going on in my life. Lately I’ve been trying to get back into a more expressive, involved journaling habit. It feels so good when I make that extra effort.
Here are a few notes to self, things to remind of what makes journaling such a fulfilling activity in my life.
- Use the journal to try things out, make it a creative thinking tool; a purpose on its own, rather than a container for things that happened elsewhere.
- Pre-make spreads. Really. Use what’s laying around on your desk. Smear. Use glue. You used to do this all the time. In large parts, it’s the inventing of work-arounds – that color that I just used to paint an entire page with is actually awful, or: how am I going to write in this small space? – that make the pages come alive. The need for workarounds is not inconvenient, but rather the point.
- Read more poetry. (For other reasons too.)
- Draw.
- Bring the journal with you when you’re out and about.