One journaling exercise changed how I approached writing
It really opened my eyes to a more vulnerable side of me.
I was in this creative writing class in high school. Our teacher loves writing. We learned how to write scripts, short stories, monologues, poems, and lots more.
Our teacher introduced this journaling activity where we had to write without lifting our pens.
And the first thought I had was, my cursive is terrible! Close to nonexistent.
I was going to embarrass myself with my 3rd-grade cursive handwriting. I was terrified.
But then she clarified and explained how this exercise is supposed to go. And thankfully, no cursive was involved. (Phew!)
Here is what you have to do:
- Start writing and don’t stop.
- Always keep your pen (or pencil!) moving on the paper.
- If you have absolutely nothing to say, write something along the lines of:
- I dunno what to write
- My mind is blank right now
- Lost that train of thought
Whatever you are thinking at that moment, write it down.
Then we are supposed to get into groups and exchange out loud what we wrote.
The first journaling session where the whole class had to just write for I don’t know how many minutes, I was nervous about what was in my head.
I remember I kept saying “I don’t know, I don’t know.” It was brutal.
When the second session came, I went with the flow of my brain. Got relaxed, and just wrote whatever.
That was school, so I didn’t share my truest and deepest feelings. But whenever I do it by myself, I realized there were so many things and emotions that I repressed. It was just very nice to be able to write those feelings down on paper. It felt freeing.
A piece of advice would be to think of a topic beforehand and start with that subject.
Your brain is always thinking. And the inner workings of our bodies are pretty amazing.
So I follow where my mind leads me too. Sometimes to unexpected places, and you just got to enjoy the ride.
This journaling exercise may or may not work for you. Try it out, and if it doesn’t, it’s ok. In my next Medium article, I will give you 6 prompts for beginners to fuel your creative writing side. If this exercise doesn’t work, come back next time to hear some prompts for you to try out.
You can read my previous article about some more tips on journaling in 2023!
Thank you for reading. Have a wonderful day! See you!
