You may have been happily journaling for years. Perhaps you used your journal to write your way through a transformative life experience.
One day, you feel the impulse to poke around in your pages to see what’s there and how you can share it with the world.
You may find stories, poems, or even just a few great sentences that you may be able to use elsewhere. You never know what gold is waiting in your journals until you get in there and explore.
Here are fourteen steps to mine the gems from your journal.
Don’t worry yet about where you’ll publish anything.
Read through and flag the entries that move you. Use sticky notes or dog-ear the page.
Schedule time to start typing things up.
Honor those writing time commitments.
Begin to type the entries. Feel free to simply enter them as they are or edit as you go – adding, embellishing, deleting. Just commit to typing up the whole entry.
Do this without judging or worrying about whether anyone else will find it interesting. This is critical – you will doubt if anyone else cares. If you like it, keep going.
While doing this, your challenge will be to be completely honest. When you find your finger heading toward the delete key, know that you have something good and keep it. (We often want to censor our best work.) Let this draft be for your eyes only so you have the courage to leave the good stuff in.
You will at some point start worrying and wondering how all this is coming together. Trust the process. Trust the content. Be curious and keep exploring.
Print your typed entries.
Take yourself to a pleasant place – a café, the park, wherever – and read your pieces. See what moves you, see what inspires you. Make notes for things you’d like to expand or change.
Choose one piece and choose a place where you’d like to submit it.
Find out the submission criteria for that publication. Follow these guidelines when you submit. Or, decide when you’ll publish the piece on your blog or any other way you plan to share it.
Do any final polishing, then send or post your essay.
Celebrate your efforts of bringing a piece from your journal to the world!
What helps you choose the best nuggets from your journals? How do you know when you’ve penned something you want to share?
Dawn Herring says
Cynthia,
I loved the whole vital process you spell out with using your journal entries to find gems that can be transformed into writing pieces to publish. You keep it simple and yet profound, pointing out the issues that may arise, doubts and worries about the quality or content. And writing and noting what moves you. An emotional entry can often be great writing fodder, getting to the heart of what matters.
I have chosen your post, Mine Your Journals for Writing Gems, for the #JournalChat Pick of the Day on 12/12/11 for all things journaling on Twitter.
I will post a link on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, my blog and website Refresh with Dawn Herring, and in Refresh Journal, my weekly e-journal: http://www.refreshwithdawnherring.blogspot.com/.
You’re welcome to join us for #JournalChat Live on Thursdays at 5 EST/2 PST for all things journaling on Twitter; this week’s topic is Journaling to Heal Body and Soul.
Thanks again for such a fabulous and encouraging post on mining our journals for gems.
Be refreshed,
Dawn Herring
JournalWriter Freelance
Host of #JournalChat Live and Links Edition on Twitter
Cynthia Morris says
Thanks, Dawn, for your kind comments about my article. I did try to point out some of the pitfalls that we face when looking at our own writing.
I appreciate you including me in your resources about journaling. I will look forward to the journal chat.
Thanks again and keep writing!
Liz says
Excellent article. If you don’t mind, I’m going to include this in my Carnival of Creativity next weekend.