“Journal writing is the voyage to the interior.” 

After a long day, nothing sounds more enticing than curling up in your beds and drifting off to sleep. But before you do that, we’re encouraging you to spend some time writing in a journal.

At first glance, keeping a journal might bring up memories of your childhood when you’d write about your latest love interest or a friend you felt had double-crossed you. While it may seem comical now, looking back, you were doing the right thing, at least where your writing career is concerned.

Writing in a journal allows you to reflect on the day that was and look forward to the day ahead. You can write down your emotions, goals, and your game plan to reach those goals.

As an author, keeping a journal is a solid habit to create because it holds you accountable and allows us to strengthen our writing muscle so that we can grow strong in our craft.

The benefits of keeping a journal are plenty, but in this blog, we’re highlighting five particular reasons.

A journal encourages us to put our goals in writing.  

Sure we can think about our goals and tell other people about them, but there’s something about writing down your goals that makes them feel real and permanent. When you write something down, it serves as a means of encouragement to achieve that goal and to stay true and honest to yourself during the process.

A journal serves as a time stamp.

To build off of our last idea, writing your goals down in a journal serves as a time stamp. Throughout your publishing journey, you’ll be able to look back on that day when your goal was set and the work began. This will serve as a source of constant motivation to crush that goal and make that dream a reality.

A journal is where you can nurture ideas.

There’s nothing more terrifying than putting your ideas out into the open and sharing them with someone else. It’s a scary proposition to put yourself out there and to be vulnerable. But the only way to grow as a person and as a writer is to put your fear aside and step into the unknown. If you want to take it slow, write down and nurture your ideas on the pages of your journal. This is your space to explore and grow your ideas. No idea is too small or too large or too crazy. The idea is yours. Own it!

A journal is a no-judgment zone.

Do you know what’s nice about a journal? It’s for your eyes and your eyes only. You don’t have to worry about what your family and close friends think – or the even the public for that matter. All that matters is that this journal is for you. So write what you want, no holds barred. Be you and write what makes you happy because after all, your journal is a no-judgment zone.

A journal is a place to quiet your mind.

Life is busy. You’re constantly on the move going from one place to another, and your mind is often on overdrive. The space that you’ve carved out of your day and reserved for journal writing is the time when you can quiet your mind and focus your thoughts on one thing and one thing only—putting words on paper. Keeping a journal is a therapeutic experience because it allows you to calm our minds and write about anything and everything. Be one with your thoughts and you’ll be surprised at how the words just pour from your pen to your paper. Enjoy this time and take advantage of the well of creativity that’s in your imagination.

Copyright Dorrance Publishing, 2017