Writing and Creativity

November 22,2022

Diary or Journal?

Unlike a diary, where events are chronicled, a journal can foster creativity, experimentation, and freedom of ideas.

Anais Nin and Virginia Wolfe, artists and writers, both kept journals. Their creative process shines as they detailed vignettes of daily life and half-formed dialogues and conversations. Such writings show the imagination at play and the importance of this playfulness to the creative process.

Anais Nin shared that in writing she discovered “improvisation, free association, obedience to mood, impulse, brought forth countless images, portraits, descriptions, impressionistic sketches, symphonic experiments, from which I could dip at any time for material.”

Virginia Wolfe spoke about the creative benefits of keeping a journal, as the key to the practice of writing. “It loosens the ligaments. Never mind the misses and the stumbles ….” And as fundamental to creativity.

Ideas can initially appear as fleeting. It is only over time that they take tangible form. Journal writing captures that process and aids it.

Creativity and Journaling

Creativity can also take flight through the world of color, texture, and shape. Self-expression may come through a collage, moodboard, or a random assemblage of found objects, such as a train ticket, a photo torn from a magazine, or a sample of cloth.

Journals can take on many forms. Use one to note down daily observations and ideas that interest you. A ‘life book’ could be filled with collages and annotated with reflections and aspirations. You could keep treasured letters and postcards between the pages of a journal. There isn’t any logic behind what you choose to add, it just needs to be stories for yourself.

Taking Your First Steps in Keeping a Journal

Fill your pages daily. Julia Cameron in her book The Artist’s Way, likens creativity to a muscle that needs to be worked.
Express gratitude. It keeps happy memories vivid.
Explore the power of the visual. Collect photos, pictures from magazines, postcards, dried flowers, ribbons, and leaves to create a working collection of images.

Do you see a journal being a help in your journey with creativity? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Have an exciting day!