I've kept diaries and journals on and off since I was a child. As the years have gone by, the journals grew in scope, being less a litany of day to day doings and more and more my feelings. These days, the journal is done daily on my computer and each year's entries go on a CD for storage.
I added other journals. There's the small "idea book" that I carry with me to jot down ideas for stories and songs. It fits in a pocket in my jacket.
The day to day events go onto a calendar Tisha makes up for me each year with Evan's photos. At the end of the year, I put it in the yearly scrapbook, which is another form of journaling because all of the year's events are recorded in photos, each labeled.
This blog is the final form of journaling and it pays benefits. Last Saturday, at my fiction class, we did an inspiration exercise. We looked at pictures the instructor provided and wrote down words they brought to mind, both nouns and verbs. Then we wrote three sentences and decided which one was the best. The assignment: to write a story using that sentence. Mine was: "The orange paint shattered in the heat and peeled off, landing in the lake."
Now I have never in my life suffered from writer's block but all week I tried to think of a story that would use that sentence. Today, I began to think about the main thrust of the sentence, the extreme heat. I began to look through my journals that had entries for hot days. I found one almost immediately and it was in this blog, in the entry for July 4, 2011. That day, I met a wonderful old guy sitting at a bar in Empire, Colorado. The temperature was over 100 degrees, and we cooled off with iced soft drinks. He told me his story, and it will come out as fiction by tomorrow.
Whenever I need inspiration, it's waiting for me in my journals.
*****'
Another story that came from my journals is "Island Fever" which starting today and for the next two Fridays will appear in three parts at http://blackcoffeefiction.blogspot.com
I added other journals. There's the small "idea book" that I carry with me to jot down ideas for stories and songs. It fits in a pocket in my jacket.
The day to day events go onto a calendar Tisha makes up for me each year with Evan's photos. At the end of the year, I put it in the yearly scrapbook, which is another form of journaling because all of the year's events are recorded in photos, each labeled.
This blog is the final form of journaling and it pays benefits. Last Saturday, at my fiction class, we did an inspiration exercise. We looked at pictures the instructor provided and wrote down words they brought to mind, both nouns and verbs. Then we wrote three sentences and decided which one was the best. The assignment: to write a story using that sentence. Mine was: "The orange paint shattered in the heat and peeled off, landing in the lake."
Now I have never in my life suffered from writer's block but all week I tried to think of a story that would use that sentence. Today, I began to think about the main thrust of the sentence, the extreme heat. I began to look through my journals that had entries for hot days. I found one almost immediately and it was in this blog, in the entry for July 4, 2011. That day, I met a wonderful old guy sitting at a bar in Empire, Colorado. The temperature was over 100 degrees, and we cooled off with iced soft drinks. He told me his story, and it will come out as fiction by tomorrow.
Whenever I need inspiration, it's waiting for me in my journals.
*****'
Another story that came from my journals is "Island Fever" which starting today and for the next two Fridays will appear in three parts at http://blackcoffeefiction.blogspot.com
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