photo by Barnaby
Sometimes I get an idea in my head, and it’s feisty. So feisty, in fact, that I’m not quite sure what to do with it. It feels so big and so unknown that I convince myself it needs to simmer for a while.
And so its simmers. And the more it simmers, the less it feels unknown. Slowly, I begin to accept that this idea may actually be within reach — that I’ll need to stretch, sure, but the possibility is firmly there. At this point, I normally voice the idea to someone close to me, or brainstorm the possibilities on the page.
But sometimes, when the idea is really feisty, my voice shuts down. My page remains blank. The idea remains inside, simmering and swirling, because I don’t want to admit that I believe its within my reach.
It took me a while to understand this pattern, but it’s so much easier to work with now that I see where it comes from. My solution — or at least my first steps toward one — is Extreme Journaling.
And what is Extreme Journaling, you might ask?
It’s writing so quickly and so honestly that you can’t even read the scribbles on the page. And because you can’t read them, your writing will be all the more open. You can admit things that you can’t yet admit “out loud” because they’re safely tucked inside illegible handwriting. This may initially sound like a useless exercise, because why would you write something down if no one — yourself included — could read it?
Because illegible or not, the act of writing gives the idea voice. It allows that feisty idea to stretch its legs and ease its way into your confidence.
When we’re youngsters, we understand the immense value of a locked diary. We understand that writing is therapeutic. But as we get older, we often think that deep conversations are an adequate substitute, and there’s always a good therapist when the conversations fail. Now, I’m a die-hard advocate of openness and honesty, and I cherish the deep conversations I share with others. But as much as we think we’re being an open book, there are parts of our selves that will not spill out in conversation. Those are the parts that go in a diary under lock and key — or into a therapist’s ear.
If you’re one of the many people who outgrew the locked diary, you’re left with the very expensive option of therapy. I used to be a faithful journal writer, but my daily scribbles these days tend to be more centered on story and project ideas, rather than chunks of my secret selves.
What got me started with Extreme Journaling was the idea of “morning pages” in Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. You wake up, take out a notebook, and write 3 pages of whatever spills out of your mind. Because our minds are so soft and open upon waking, I easily fell back into the honesty of diary-writing. I also found that I was writing so quickly, I couldn’t read anything I wrote. Perfect, I thought, no need for a lock and key.
Extreme Journaling is now my magic wand when I am overwhelmed with possibilities, intimidated, or upset. It’s also my magic wand every day when I wake up.
In the end, it’s just a much cheaper option than therapy.
Do you use writing as therapy? What allows you to let it all out?
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{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey Zoe, thanks for sharing. I have always been hesitant to do the extreme journaling shuffle — primarily because I have a tendency to want everything to be well thought out and completed ideas (even when brainstorming). It is crazy. Also, unrealistic.
For a time I was writing each night before bed, letting loose all the things that held me up during the day, ideas I had and it was random to the extreme. I stopped doing it because I felt to complain in some what, rather than see how to turn things around.
I should revisit the exercise and see (it has been awhile and I suspect I’ve grown some). I think I should let go of the fear of getting lost in my own words!
excellent idea, and I love The Artist’s Way too. This also puts me in mind of automatic writing, are you familiar with that phenomenon?
ejly´s last blog post..Guitar Heroine
I do this, and often. Only with a keyboard and closed eyes.
Matthew Dryden´s last blog post..Crazy, Wonderful
The more I blog, the more I am aware that this is not really the correct medium for practicing my craft. My time is so limited with family responsibilities and real writing so demanding of quiet time. The extreme journaling might offer me an opportunity to create something I can one day come back to – assuming I have any courage left. Ha!
jen´s last blog post..jubilee
I am wondering if writers ‘need’ to let out more than some? I often feel you have more thoughts in one minute than I may have in one day – Ha Ha. It’s great to read your processes, made me think about how/what I feel the need to ‘let out’. On occasion I need to release thoughts, and out comes the notepad, out flow the words… a form of therapy to be sure.
Kia ora Zoë!
Thanks for this – it’s good to learn how others aspire to their writing – what motivates and what works. Last year I had occasion to muse about why I write and later in a comment, in reply to another about a handwritten post, on methods I use and how handwriting ideas can help but also hinder me.
I’ve often thought about ‘podding’ – rambling into a microphone, rather than scribbling down thoughts very quickly. But it’s almost impossible to record simultaneous thoughts, and so what is recorded are thoughts in consecutive order rather than thoughts as they occur simultaneously.
Whichever way is used, the linearity of the means to express the first written thought modifies it as it is flowing, holding in line the other thoughts not yet written, so that they become modified even before they are expressed. I find this frustrating, but I identify with your method of extreme journalling.
I wonder how many (other) writers have thought about the simultaneity of thought processes when writing.
Catchya later
from Middle-earth
Ken Allan´s last blog post..What Is Learnt From Community?
I absolutely love doing this type of writing/typing with a phone and bluetooth keyboard – quite geeky – but to get all of those thoughts out there is just plain great.
Doing that while the birds are chirping and the sun is still rising is even better.
If/When I read it a few weeks/months later, I think, “I wrote that! Wow.”
Dave Thurston´s last blog post..JstATht – Twitter, Facebook, the Internet, the Telephone, and the Telegraph
@ DYKC – I hear that, it can be really intimidating to let yourself get lost in your words. But I think sometimes it’s almost necessary. Doing the extreme journaling at night makes sense, because usually when I can’t sleep it’s cause there’s so much swirling through my mind…
@ ejly – Ooh, yes! I did my thesis on surrealist poetry, so I read up quite a bit on automatic writing. That takes this kind of writing to an even deeper level… Ultra-Extreme Journaling, perhaps?
@ Matthew – Yes, awesome. Now that you mention it, I can probably type faster than I can write by hand. But I can usually read what I type, of course
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@ Jen – I do really think it can unlock stuff that’s built up in your mind…sometimes it leads to really exciting ideas. Sometimes it’s just a lot of junk, but it’s good to get that out too…
@ Trina – Hah, yes I think I do overwhelm myself at times
. I like the image of “releasing” thoughts — giving them air and room to expand…
@ Ken – That time lapse is pretty inevitable, for sure. Actually, what Ejly and I referred to in the comments, automatic writing, goes on that track. The surrealists did automatic writing and drawing exercises in which they claimed their hands were operating without conscious thought, thereby revealing the subconscious… they had a bunch of wild ideas, but part of the premise was that juxtaposing things that seemed completely irrelevant would spark connections in the subconscious. It led to a bunch of crazy poetry, I’ll tell you that!
@ Dave – Geeky but awesome! I was so excited to read your comment because I use that exact combination! When my boyfriend first showed me the bluetooth keyboard, I wasn’t so sure, but now I love how well it works for simply writing . I actually just found part of a story I wrote that was sitting in the Notes section of my phone, and I had that same reaction — “I wrote that? Cool.”
I first tried this technique after reading “Writing Down the Bones”, and it has remained a part of my process for over a decade now. Right above my laptop is a shelf with over twenty journals stuffed from this practice…What I enjoy doing is sifting through all the dross to find the gems that can be placed in a new setting.
Richard Reeve´s last blog post..Complexes
I love this idea. I’ve never heard about it before. It reminds me of the timed “free writing” sessions one of my English teachers in high school used to start every class period with. For five minutes we had to write without pausing. Our pencils had to keep moving the entire time, even if we were writing “I don’t know what I feel like writing about today” over and over. It was amazingly freeing and eye-opening for me, particularly at that stage in my life, when I was so overly self-conscious about everything I did.
I’m definitely going to try extreme journaling.
Kristin T. (@kt_writes)´s last blog post..When you don’t even know what to wish for
I LOVE this post!
It’s sort of packing up your internal editor and sending it on a long vacation far away from you!:~)
I’ve been an “extreme” (learned from you!) journalist for a very long time and I have treasures of notebooks filled with scribbles, all stacked in the corner of my studio, leaning like the Tower of Pisa!
I first learned about this excercise from Natalie Goldberg’s “Writing Down the Bones!” It is my favorite!
She further suggests that one should use the cheapest spiral notebook available so we let go of “writing nice and perfect” when we buy expensive leather journals for instance!
Anyway…nice to meet you and I look forward to returning here often!:~)
I came here via Jeb but I think I now recall seeing an RT on this by Calvin @mayhemstudios. Either way, I am delighted!:~)
Henie´s last blog post..Sunrise of the Sunset
That’s SO AWESOME, Zoe. I “extreme journal” all the time. I’m a million miles over the moon that I finally have a name for it though.
Writer Dad´s last blog post..I’m a Writer
Kia ora Zoë.
I wasn’t thinking about subconscious when I commented on simultaneity of thought processes, though I’ve no doubt these will be involved too, but I’m not so sure that they are the same things. Possible that subconscious thought can become conscious thought, and vice versa the subconscious can influence the conscious.
I’m referring to the process of translating a thought, from a series of related simultaneous thoughts so that it is recorded in some way. I guess this is what you are referring with ‘automatic writing’.
Catchya
Ken Allan´s last blog post..What Is Learnt From Community?
@ Richard – What an amazing collection that must be. Looks like I’ll need to search out a copy of “Writing Down the Bones” since you and Henie both recommended it!
@ Kristin – Freewriting in English class was my first introduction to this too! The first time you do it, it really is a strange and wonderful experience.
@ Henie – I love that you already have stacks of such journals! You and Richard both recommended the book, so I’m going to check the used bookstores here in Chiang Mai to see if they might have a copy. I really agree with the idea of using a cheap spiral notebook, because otherwise I’m apt to get writer’s block and think I have to write something marvelous!
@ Writer Dad – It’s so cool to see that a lot of you are extreme journaling! It’s such a simple but amazing practice.
@ Ken – True, important distinctions there. I guess that leaves us still stuck on the simultaneous translation/documentation!
I’m so not the journalling type. I much prefer to let the thoughts roll around my head half-formed until I sit down to write and then bang out whatever idea I’m working on. Of course that means sometimes I don’t write as much as I want to and things like my novel don’t move forward as quickly perhaps, but when the words do go on paper it’s like I’ve already done the really super rough first draft in my head.
Alex Fayle | Someday Syndrome´s last blog post..7 Ways to Make Regret-Free Decisions and Overcome Insecurity
@ Alex – If journaling feels likes a chore, then I guess it won’t have the same effects I’m describing here! The work process you’re describing reminds me of my own when I’m working on an article or some sort of nonfiction piece. I research and research, just reading and absorbing, and then finally when the knowledge feels like it’s natural — feels like it’s mine, in a sense — the ideas come out partially formed.
I don’t know where I’d be without the Artist’s Way or my morning pages, it’s an incredible practice that keeps me sane and reminds me of the important things in life! I am getting ready to leave Chiang Mai
and my version of extreme journaling is helping me sort out all my feelings and not freak out about the transition.
@ Dave, I love that feeling when (if) you have time to look back at your writing and think “wow, I wrote that?!”
Ali´s last blog post..The Updated Plan
@ Ali – I have yet to read the full Artist’s Way — I’m looking forward to it, since the morning pages have been an amazing exercise for me! It’s shocking how many things can become clear in the dopey early morning moments. And wow, that’s a big transition coming up…
Ahhh. It is about 62 deg F this AM. Minor Breeze. And I’ve just completed something that I knew that I’d be able to do on this Saturday morning. I just spent an uninterrupted hour writing in my geeky-bluetooth-keyboard-connected-telephone.
What a gift!
As I was writing during this time, I was amazed at the thoughts that were recorded — at the path that (I guess) my subconscious led me down to new insights, new feelings, and (well) to a self-induced peace.
Over the years, I’ve know about the runners’ high (when runners get past the tiredness and the endorphins kick in). This writing – this extreme journaling – is the same thing. I get a writer’s high that not only improves my thinking, but quite actually cascades love, empathy, understanding (and tolerance) toward my four kids.
As I think and write right now, I am reminded of what a self-imposed sentence to not be able to “put out there” those most personal thoughts that – if put out there – would create such a snowball effect of possible work-thru-it-ness.
I’m sure runners think the same thing, but I’ll say it from a writer’s perspective, “Really, you ought to do this for yourself. It is such a gift to yourself. You’ll never know, until you get it out on paper.”
Dave Thurston´s last blog post..Big Day G
Dave, thanks so much for giving us an awesome view into your process. I can really relate, and it’s wonderful to see such an evocative description of it. I hope people who haven’t tried this before will think again after reading your comment…
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