Journaling:Do you do it?

Back in Dec of 2007 I started journaling  about my novel.  I typically started by talking about my day, maybe my feelings etc.  I found that this type of writing “primed the pump” as it were.  It seemed to release any creative blockage that were plaguing me.

Then as I moved from talking about my day, the thoughts about my book slowly rose to the forefront of my mind.  Questions about characters and their directions came up.  I wrote about the books I was reading the impact they were having on me.  The following is a bit from my first journal entry.

Dec 1, 2007

Journal thoughts

 Today I took the family to Ihop had a good time.  Today’s my sons birthday.  Plan on taking him to GameStop later, and possibly out shopping for a suit.

Was thinking about something I read yesterday while at the book store.  A book about writing novels talked about the review process, and mentioned that at some point put the manuscript down for 6 weeks before you review it again.  I find that there is impatience with me in doing that.  I want to work on it until it’s complete.  I guess ill have to see what happens as time goes on.

I’ve been thinking about an idea I read in the book.  It basically said read the entire novel out loud.  Print it out and mark make corrections with pen.  See the whole thing laid out. The book also mentioned that just read the dialogue of your characters, then of each character. 

It made me wonder if my dialogue for Lucifer for example is consistent.  Does he sound the same throughout the book?

I’ve also had thought and am wondering to myself am I really writing about Apollyon as opposed to Lucifer?  Lucifer seems to have taken a backstage.  He doesn’t seem to be the one moving the story along.  I don’t know yet if this is a good or bad thing.

 I have been reading D. Swains book; and trying to properly grasp the concept of MRU’s.  What he calls motivation reaction units.  I hope to keep reading and writing in hopes to perfect the technique.  It’s one thing to have a picture in your head a vision that you want to share.  It’s another to have the words or a command of the language necessary to explicate it to paper.

 His book is deep.  He has a command of the English language that I can only hope to achieve.

In answering the question of how do you write vividly?  His answer?  Use specific and concrete, and definite pictorial nouns to describe action.  Instead of saying creature say rhinoceros.  Use the girl over using the word female.  Etc.

That was it.  As  look back I found that writing about WHAT  I was writing, helped me to become a better writer.  I have a long way to go still.  But if there’s one thing I appreciate about writing it is that it is a craft that can be improved upon.  What about you?

Do you journal?