Step #516: Journaling & Writing

"You can never geta cup of tea large enough
or a book long enough to suit me."
~ C.S. Lewis

A thoughtful mood, focus, a strong writing hand. Accomplished at a bookstore or cafe, waiting for the kids, on the metro, at your grandmother's house, on your ipod touch, with a PITT pen, in india ink, in waiting rooms and always hoping for a little peace & quiet. I write thoughts on a small percent of my pages, and I use a LOT of quotes. But the backgrounds are there, whenever I feel like writing.

So, writing in your art journal, or any journal. Capture a moment. When my girls were tiny and the days were looooooooong and my husband was traveling, I read about writing down what happened - literally - using the clock - all day long. Something like, "5:42am, wake up to crying, change diaper. 5:48am, go down to the kitchen and get a bottle ready while she plays with the plastic gadgets in her cabinet. 5:54am, she giggles at the dog sliding across the floor." I think I made it 4 hours. But it was a fun twist on the day and made it more fun to be exhausted! When I the scribbled sleep-deprived notes, I can remember one silly morning, the white tile floor in our old house, those plastic cups and her little blue & white striped Gap pjs. That, my friends, is cool.

• Are you participating in NaNoWriMo this year? I would so love to do it, but energy-wise, not feeling up to it so I will consider for next year. Thoughts... find out How to Write a Novel in 30 Days from Write to Done and get ideas at Inventing Bedtime Stories. If you are participating I wish you a massively creative month of words. Know that I admire your tenacity and hard work toward the goal!
• This year, I'm participating in Art Every Day Month chaperoned by Leah of Creative Every Day. It's a gentle challenge to do something creative (broadly defined) each day in November. That's the challenge. Hop over to CED and sign up so that Leah has you on the list of participants. The challenge is free, and Leah has developed an add-on Survival Guide that you can purchase.
• My writings about journaling include Slow Journaling Revisited, How to Use Lists in Art Journals, Altered Catalog Rev 22/30: Do Something & Journal Lettering.
• In the morning, steep a pot of Earl Grey, procure a blueberry scone and peruse the writing blogs in the 2009-10 Top 10 Blogs for Writers Contest from Writing White Papers: 10 Winners from 27 Finalists selected from 300 entries.
• Hanna of Create & Live Happy has a well-done 3-part series on How to Add Journaling to Your Art Journal.
• Check out the step-by-step series about the art journaling process. This is a growing series of posts looking at art journaling from a variety of perspectives. I welcome your thoughts and suggestions for the series.

How do you add worded thoughts to your journal? Have a great Halloween and a fun weekend!

Comments

[leah]

thanks so much for the mention, tammy! love your pics!

[Trish]

I will participate in "Art Every Day Month." :)
I actually presented myself with this challenge last night after a llloooong afternoon at Barnes N Nobles, where I bought a new pack of oil pastels.
This week, I'm starting by coloring a different page every night in a Ruth Heller coloring book.
I'll be posting each day on my blog. Stop by and check it out!