A resource taken for granted.

Yesterday was my nephew's birthday, Mitchell (now 3 years old) and I had a lovely skype chat where I sung Happy Birthday to him and got to see him undo his present- a cash register and a microphone...two presents I would have loved to have as a child and also ones that I'm sure, due to their noise, will annoy the hell out of my sister and brother and law by the end of the week. The best part of seeing him relishing in the moment was how much joy and excitement he had. It was the same joy I feel when I know what I have written something and done it well.

But how do you get there? There's a variety of ways and one I have already shared with you, about describing settings and engaging the senses. It is very important because as simplisticly obvious as it is (and perhaps sounds despite trying to write it) when you write for the senses you engage every body elses. But today I want to talk about a different type of writing...journalling.

It's no surprise that I have mentioned it before & that it appears again. In modern day films its brought up by the typical scene of main actor meets counsellor who then fills them in on the fabulous notion of writing down how they feel. In real life, as many of you have probably read it allows you to have sanity in your week and is just as important as calm breathing excercises or that weekly session of yoga where drooling during meditation is definitely acceptable. Though there is another gem about journalling.

Journalling allows you to document progress, where you have come from and where you have been. That's important if you feel like nothing is changing (yet we all know it is, perhaps rather oblivious to us). It also enables us to look closely at individual situations that we have encountered and use our journal as a kind of resource for our writing. One less interview for your next book perhaps. But there's still more! (There's intertextuality from an advertisement if you've ever heard it!) Journalling is raw, pure emotion, so it's a great place to search for words that can then become dialogue.

So I encourage you...journal. I have all of mine from when I was 12 years old. It's so amusing to look back on how much I have changed..but even those journals over shorter periods of time make you really reflect on yourself in a better light. I think we owe that to ourselves.

Until next time..I hope you enjoy journalling, please do check out AWR's Facebook page which has just been launched. Little progress..bit its still something worth journalling about! Hope your Wednesday feels 'humpless'.

Ciao, Jules :)