Tips & ideas for "journaling"
Here are some suggestions to you for keeping your dialogue journal. You are welcome to use all or none of these. They are intended to serve as a springboard for your own ideas. Of course, the most important thing is that your journal contain any ideas YOU want to develop or be able to refer back to. I will be responding to your writing and sketches in your journals to give you further ideas (That is why it is called a "dialogue" journal.) Don't hesitate to ASK in class or at office hours for more suggestions. Some of these ideas I adapted from sources I have read in the past and since forgotten; other sources are listed at the end. I first generated these tips while teaching a performance course on issues in women’s health, so many examples pertain to disease and health, but could easily be modified.
Janet H.Shier

These are all intended as suggestions. . .

1. Use a blank, unlined book. You won't feel confined to writing on the lines. It won't remind you of school. Some days, you may want to write big. Other days, you may want to write small. Some days, you may want to illustrate text. On others, you may just draw.

2. Many experts recommend leaving some blank pages in the front of the journal. When you have filled the book, you can go back and make an illuminated title page, add a poem, write an intro, or do some illustrations.

3. Feel free to clip articles or put pictures or photos in your journal and then write about them. Even if you don't want to write about them now, you may come back to them.

4. Keep lists in your journal. As you start filling your journal up, you can go back to them as a source at any time.

5. Jot down quotes you hear or read--anything that strikes you as noteworthy or cliche!

6. Keep your hand moving. Write! Write! Write! Even if you think it is garbage! If you write stream of consciousness, you may discover a jewel in that "garbage" of yours. You need to free up the ideas within you.

7. Some people do well to set aside a special time or a special place devoted to writing. Go to a remote coffee or juice shop, find a corner, observe others, and write.

8. Having trouble coming up with something to say? Go for a 15 minute walk, then sit down and write.

9. Call an old acquaintance and ask her/him to relate a story. Write it down. Fictionalize it.

10. Read a newspaper. Look for a cliche or an ad that bothers you. Look at individual words that strike a nerve in you.

11. Buy some new pencils (H2, H4, H6, B2, B4, B6), a new pen or colored pencils for your journal work.

12. Make a list of mundane things you see (clothesline, stack of bills, green leafy vegetables, etc.) and work these into your writing. How do random thoughts affect the ordinary?

13. Listen to lyrics, read assignments for classes, listen to friends' comments in a different way. How do they tie into this class?

14. Start a list words, expressions, phrases that sound like good titles (for scenes, improv activities, journal entries, etc.).

15. Talk to a friend or family member about something you found profound about class or a reading assignment. Record their reactions to you and yours to them!

16. Ponder the meaning of words on paper! Start writing a definition of a term. (e.g., What is "wellness plan"?)

17. Write a dialogue between characters. There should be a conflict in the dialogue at some point.

18. Carry on a dialogue with your body or a part of it. ("Why won't you...?)

19. Write about what is on your mind, and relate it to an event in the past pertaining to an illness or a fear.

20. Read an earlier entry in your journal and comment on it. How have your ideas changed?

21. Begin an entry: One thing I learned about...
or: I learned something once from ...

22. Begin an entry. I can remember...

23. Put your heart on the page. (Hearts sell!) Make a notebook entry of an early childhood event that made you cry or terrified you, or that made you weak with shame or treiumphant with revenge. Then write a story about that event. (Idea from: What if?)

24. Break a story down into 3 sentences of 3 words.
ala Boy meets girl. Man lures rats.
Boy loses girl. People won't pay.
Boy gets girl. or Man takes children. (Pied Piper)

Then, write the story. You will understand the architecture of the piece.
(Idea from: What if?)

25. If you have a story block and can't decide how to go on, write "What if..." and brainstorm 5 different directions you might take from there. Then, choose one. (Idea from: What if?)

26. Write a story. Then write the same story from a different angle or in a different genre. (e.g., from the perspective of a different character or taking key words and developing a poem).

27. "The Skeleton". The simplest stories are fairy tales and myths in which a central character is on a quest. Write a linear story, in which a strong main character is on a quest for something important and specific (e.g., a shelter for the baby, medicine for a sick mother...). The object is a given--don't explain its importance. The main character starts acting immediate.y. She meets a specific obstacle. Finally she triumphs over the obstacle by magic or supernatural element. You may introduce minor characters, but never abandon the main character. (Idea from: What if?)

28. Carry "post-its" with you. When you get an idea or hear a phrase, write it on your post-it. Stick it in the middle of your journal. When you get to that page, write about it.
You may want to combine two post-its and work it up into a story.

29. Discover some emotional trigger--something that "bugs you" and try to figure out why in your writing. Does it remind you of a childhood fear? Something you never faced?

30. What happened to someone who used to be in your life?

31. Think of an experience you have had. Then think of 5 different people, to whom you would relate it. How would you relate it to your parents? to your best friend? to a stranger? to someone in a support group? to a therapist? to a priest?, etc.

32. If you read a great line from some prose or poetry, write it down as the first line of a story. You can put it in quotes and include it in the story, or write the story and get rid of it. Make it work for you by taking it out of the context, in which you found it.

33. Think of how you would act out the following words if you couldn't explain their meaning. How could these work their way into stories?
hope fear wonder yearn
dread suspect project grieve
plan judge plot envy
lie repress pray relive
regret dream fantasize compose
associate brood doubt feel guilt
speculate worry wish analyze
feel shame anticipate create suspect

Add your own possibilities!

34. Write 3 short paragraphs, the first "fear", the second "anger", the third "pleasure" without using these words. Don't be imprecise. (Idea from: What if?)

35. Use the word "seemed" or "probably..." instead of "was", . Marion's lips seemed... (Idea from: What if?) You may want to write a scene with 2 characters, in which one character assumes something from the other character's behavior.

36. Concrete is more persuasive than abstract. Render the following abstractions in concrete specific details or images. Relate your ideas to the course. (Idea from: What if?)
racism poverty growing old growing up

37. Embellish a dream you remember. Try to give it meaning. Include it in a story, in which one character tells another about a lesson.

38. If you are planning to visit someone who is ill, write about what you anticipate. Then write about what happened at the visit.

39. Project 50 years into the future. How do you feel? What things do you care about?

40. "Write against patterns. Go against the devils. Write what you never write. Lie. Validate what you don't validate. Indulge what you don't like. Wallow in it. Write the opposite of what you always write, think, speak. Do everything against the grain!" (Idea from Writing for Your Life)

41. People often talk about "quality of life". If you were to have little time left in life, how do you think you would spend it? What would matter most to you? Be as specific or metaphoric as you like!

42. Tell your life as a myth or fairy tale. Begin with: "And it came to pass that..." or "It is told..." (Idea from Writing for Your Life)

43. Reacting to news. How would you react to bad news about your health? Would you want to know more? Would you wish to forget it? How would you feel about your daily interactions? What would your inner dialogue be?

44. What would you write to a close friend, who lived far away, who had just been diagnosed with a serious illness? OR Write a dialogue between you and a friend close-by who has just been diagnosed.

45. What if you were going through a serious illness. Who would you tell? How would you tell it? What pieces of information would you include? What would you leave out? Is there anyone you would be afraid to talk to?

46. Talk to several people about their thoughts of "women and illness". What themes pop up repeatedly in your conversations with them? Does their age or gender seem to make a difference?

47. Talk to a home-town doctor about an issue related to women's health. What observations can you make about his/her comments to you?

48. What do your friends say about the fact that you are taking this course? What do you expect or hope to get from this course? What do you think attracted you to it?

49. Look at some old medical writings--perhaps from the 19th century, with titles like: female diseases. How do you react to the language in them? What do you think has changed?

50. What ideas do you have for a final project? Record ideas you have for a performance piece, a photography project, a fictionalized autobiography, the true last self-help book, whatever you think of. . .

Some Resources:

Behn, R. and Twichell, C. (1992) The Practice of Poetry. New York: Harper Collins.

Bernays, Anne, and Pamela Painter. What If? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers.
New York: Harper. 1990.

Bouton, Eldonna (2000) Journaling from the Heart. A Writing Workshop in Three Parts. San Luis Obispo: Whole Heart Publications.

Cameron, Julia. (1992) The Artist's Way. New York: Putnam.

Cassou, M. and Cubley, S. (1995) Life, Paint and Passion. Reclaiming the Magic of Spontaneous Expression. New York: Putnam.

Drake, Barbara. Writing Poetry. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 1983.

Ganim, B., and Fox, S. (1999) Visual Journaling. Going Deeper than Words. Wheaton, Il.: Quest Books.

Goldberg, Natalie. Writing Down the Bones. Freeing the Writer Within. Boston: Shambhala Publications. 1986.


Heffron, Jack (2000) The Writer's Idea Book. Cincinnati: Writer's Digest Books

Lamott, Anne (1995) Bird by Bird. New York: Random House.

McClanahan, R. (1999) Word Painting. A Guide to Writing More Descriptively. Cincinnati: Writer's Digest Books

Messer, Mary. (2001) Pencil Dancing. New Ways to Free Your Creative Spirit. Cincinnati: Walking Stick Press.

Metzger, Deena. Writing for your Life. San Francisco: Harper. 1992.

Peacock, Molly. (1999) How to Read a Poem and Start a Poetry Circle. New York: Riverside Books.

Piercy, M. and Wood, I. (2001) So You Want to Write. Wellfleet Mass: Leapfrog Press.