Surviving Journal Drought
It can happen to anyone. Even the most dedicated journal keeper can experience periods of dryness while keeping a journal. A member of one of the journal writing groups I’m involved in online called it journal drought. Others might refer to it as the journal blahs, but it doesn’t matter what you call it. A sense of boredom with your journal writing show through and soon enough you’ll find less and less reasons to continue with writing each day.
So, how do you get around these journal blues, where the mood just doesn’t strike you or there’s nothing much to fill your page that day? Please share in the comments section your solutions to this common problem. You just might encourage someone who’s feeling exactly that way, too.
Here are some suggestions I hope will help you. Journal writing prompts are one way of lifting you out of journal boredom. They can challenge you to think in new ways or to think on things you just wouldn’t unless someone else suggested them to you. Take a look at the prompts I’ve already suggested, also in the resources category, or here’s another resource you might find useful.
Try a different style of writing. Instead of writing the way you always do, write about your day in the third person point-of-view. This simply means instead of using I feel… use s/he felt…. This technique may give you the distance you need to write what’s been on your mind that you haven’t been able to face lately.
It might be time to try something completely different. Try the visual goal journal exercise suggested on Tera’s wish website, or simply spend time reading through her journal workshop. You just might find yourself inspired and wanting to life your pen and express yourself again.
Writing in your journal at roughly the same time each day can help, too. But to access different thoughts perhaps you need to change the time of day you write. I love writing in my journal first thing in the morning, but have noticed the vast difference between the things I write about then compared to later in the day. In the evening I have other concerns to write about.
Or you can just give yourself a break. There is no hard and fast rule telling you that you must write in your journal every day. Leave off writing for just one day, or a couple. If life is particularly stressful you might need to do this anyway. Give yourself some time on the weekend or every couple of evenings to spend writing in your journal.
Please share in the comments if this blog has helped you survive journal drought.
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