Today’s journal writing idea is probably one that you’ve heard before. I know I have, and plenty of times. Hence I don’t even know who to attribute it to, but suffice it to say that Oscar Wilde and F. Scott Fitzgerald were already doing. And it involves getting out of the house, which is also great, especially now that Spring is finally here!

For this exercise you will need a journal, a pen, an interesting place to go and some free time. Though the “interesting place to go” is kind of optional, since all places can, potentially, be interesting to a writer. There are three main ways to do this creative writing exercise.

So gather up all these things and once you get to the “interesting place” of your choice sit down on a bench or chair in the case of a cafe or simply lean against the wall. Observe the people and the scenery around you, and when you see something or someone interesting write it down. It can be a person that gets your attention and you might consider describing him or her in detail, perhaps even making things about about their background and the reasons why they are here, in this place, at this time.

Or you might see an interesting exchange between two or more people: a husband and wife, a mother and daughter, two lovers or friends. Describe what you see. how they move their hands when they speak, what their body language says and how it says it. Are they madly in love of are they all a little fed up with each other? Make up a story for all of them or simply make note of what you observed to use later, in another story.

The third type of journalling you can do when doing this exercise is describe the scenery. Not the people, but simply the place that you are observing. This is especially useful if describing the place in your stories, books, poems, etc. does not come very naturally to you. Every story happens somewhere, but the art of describing that somewhere is not innate to every writer. So to remedy this, simply try to describe the “interesting” places of your choice and do so IN DETAIL. Describe the way the paint looks on the benches, the way the sun catches the leaves or the exact way the waiter moves as he brings you your Latte. At first you might want to go for literal descriptions then as you get better and better you can fictionalize it, you can incorporate the scenery descriptions into the stories of the people you observe. Either way you are left with a journal full of descriptions to use as you need them, in other writings.

And as always, Stay Creative!

P.S. And here are some other journal prompts that you might find interesting and/or helpful:

Journal Prompts: Write in the Morning
Journal Prompts: Describe, Describe, Describe Those Feelings

P.P.S. If you enjoyed these journal prompts (or any of the other posts on this blog) please consider sharing the good word with other by socially bookmarking them and subscribing to the RSS feed. Thanks.

This journal prompt involves describing an event that has evoked some sort of an emotion in you.  All writing, especially writing done by beginner writers, should be as emotionally engaging as possible.  It should make the readers shiver, or evoke some similarly strong response, since you are new, and not yet established and you need to convince the readers to give you the benefit of the doubt.  You must make them “feel” the story.

A great way to practice describing feelings and emotions is to keep a journal in which you recount an event from the previous day which has triggered some sort of an emotion in your, whether it was anger, joy, sadness or something less conventional like pity, self-consciousness, jealousy or whatever. However, when doing this exercise DO NOT name the emotion that you are describing or analyze it in depth.  Simply record or describe it through the five basic senses of sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing.  In other words try and convey the emotion entirely through just describing a scene, an event or an occurrence.  It will be difficult at first, you will want to simply state your emotions and feelings, but with time you should learn how to very effectively describe emotions in that way that readers love.  You will be able to make them “feel” the story.

You can do this in the evening on the same day or in the morning the next day, whichever you prefer, and can easily be combined with the first journal prompt featured on this blog, namely Journal Prompts: Write in the Morning.

Adapted from:

From Where You Dream: The Process of Writing Fiction by Robert Olen Butler

Keep a notebook and a pen by your bed and each morning start writing as soon as you wake up. Write about anything you want, it doesn’t have to be fiction, it can just be what happened to you yesterday or what you are most worried about at the moment. Just write. Write 3 pages like this. Every morning. Alternatively you can write these three pages on your computer though some studies suggest that writing in longhand allows you to be more creative. A personal preference, though.

If you have trouble doing anything before you have that cup of coffee in the morning then you might consider keeping a thermos by your bed or just getting that cup of coffee before starting to write. Just make sure you don’t read anything before writing the 3 pages.

The main benefit of this exercise is that it gets you into the habit of writing everyday which is essential for any aspiring or established, for that matter, creative writer and pretty soon you won’t be able to stop writing. Ideas for stories will just flow to the surface and writing will become second nature, guaranteed! It will take you roughly 30 minutes each morning to complete this exercise so set your alarm clock accordingly. And don’t give up, even if you think you have nothing to write about. Literally, just write about anything!

Adapted from:

Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande

The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron