The American University in Cairo
Maadi, Cairo, Egypt
contact@savvy-women-magazine.com
It’s hard to believe that it’s taken me this long to get around to blogging about journaling, especially given the fact that I’M A TEACHER OF WRITING AND HAVE MY STUDENTS WRITE IN JOURNALS IN ALL MY CLASSES.
I’ve included a cute video to go along with this little piece. It shows Ella Morton, of Rocketboom and this blog, extolling the benefits of scribbling in a notebook on a daily (or near-daily) basis. I just about freaked out, though, when she opened one of her honest-to-goodness journals and showed her handwriting which she describes as “fastidiously neat,” an understatement if ever there was one. To be entirely honest with you, what I saw there, on those pages, is nearly indistinguishable from Times New Roman typeface (size 12). Have a look for yourself if you think I’m exaggerating.
I like the idea of “morning pages” and what she says about journaling and traveling, how the two go hand in hand. But when she claims that traveling makes a person “write better,” I scratched my head and then looked up at the ceiling. I need to think about that one for a bit.
I’d like to suggest that those who take up journaling try something we teachers of writing call “free writing.” Basically, that’s writing at top speed—stream-of-consciousness style—without worrying about structure or spelling or correctness of any sort. The point is to move quickly before that little voice inside a person’s head—that self-critical one—has an opportunity to insert itself into the writer’s awareness, shutting down the creative flow in the process. Free writing is a way of opening the writer up to recording thoughts and experiences in real time. Surprising discoveries can be made during such speedy composing.
Like I said before, I have my students write in journals in my classes, and what I discover at the end of every term is quite interesting: Many students—even those who are not that into writing or keeping a journal at the start of the term—report that they have had a change of heart. They tell me that they found journaling to be enjoyable (and liberating and educational and edifying and so on) and plan to continue scribbling away even after the semester has ended.
Hearing that always warms my heart and makes me smile from ear to ear.
