Writing equipment

With Christmas almost here it means the new year and the traditional time for making resolutions is not far away. I’m not a fan of new year resolutions because I believe it adds too much pressure and you are more likely to achieve the outcome if you set well developed goals at a time appropriate to you and not necessarily defined by a calendar.

However, having said that, this year I have a desire to set some resolutions. As I’ve been doing my Christmas shopping I’ve been reminded of things I’d like to do and have developed a list of things I’d like to achieve by the end of 2012.

Complete weekend novelist – I was progressing well through this book until I wrote a post about it and I haven’t used it since! Therefore I would like to complete the remaining chapters.

Write journal at least once a week – although I have written a journal for many years I tend to go through phases of not writing, sometimes it is days, but sometimes it can be months. I would like to have some continuity in my records and think once a week will provide this without being too difficult to keep.

Write things I’m grateful for every day – I think it is good to finish the day thinking about the good things that have happened or things I’m grateful for, and I sometimes list them in my journal. However this is fairly erratic and I would like to do it more regularly. I’ve dropped some hints and hope I will be given a five year journal for Christmas and this will provide a small space to write each day, but will also enable me to review them easily each year.  ... Read more 543 words

Kate reading

Do reading and writing always go together? Many times I’ve read the advice that if you want to be a good writer you need to read a lot. But does it work the other way; can you get more pleasure from reading by writing lots?

I love reading; in fact my love of reading is greater than my love of writing. I like to read a variety of topics and formats. For instance I’m currently subscribed to 188 RSS feeds covering topics including blogging, writing, finance and uncluttering. Bookwise I’m currently reading a thriller Angel Flight, a book on career development, one on project management and one on using Premiere Elements, but my wishlist is much longer (approaching 500 books) and covers topics such as property development, crocheting and urban fantasy. I also enjoy reading about books and writing; in fact I have developed a large collection of books about writing, most still on my to be read list. If I worked through the exercises on this blog I probably wouldn’t run out of posts for several years! I also read in a variety of formats such as traditional hard copy, on the computer as well as my new  smart phone. Plus I’m hoping I may get a Kindle (or other ebook reader) for my birthday.

A lot of my desire to write fiction originates from reading. For instance outside of school, my first attempt at writing originated from books. When I wasn’t happy with the ending of book I would rewrite them (usually in some long convoluted adventure). I specifically remember doing this for the Magician’s nephew. More recently, after finishing a really good book I often can’t settle to a new book, so I turn my mind to developing my own stories (or I admit it a bit of fan fiction).  ... Read more 400 words, 1 image

As the start of the new year approaches, people often think about starting a journal. There is no reason why you need to start a journal on the 1st January, but it is a popular time to start, perhaps because of preprinted diaries. If you are thinking of keeping a journal here are some ideas for the type of journal you could keep.

Time capsule

This is a record of events that are important to you, for instance news or sports stories. You could simply keep newspaper cuttings or you could add your thoughts and comments on the headlines. I kept one of these at school which covers the first Iraq war and my sister kept one of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. It does not need to be national events, it could be more local events, for instance connected to your local town, school or sports club.

Specific topic

You many want to follow your progress on a specific topic, such as your exercise habits or children. You may find it useful to start these entries using a template so you can easily track progress over the year, such as exercise undertaken, weight. These journals do not need to be limited to one topic, for instance Ira Progoff encourages writing on different topics and filing each topic within different sections in a folder rather than chronologically.

Dreams

A dream journal should be written every morning as soon as you wake up to capture as many details of the dream as possible, the longer you leave it after waking the fewer details you can remember. You could just capture the dreams or you may want to analyse them using a dream dictionary , or just looking at the imagery yourself and suggesting meanings; it is often easier to do this a few days after having the dream. It is good to give each dream a title and keep an index of them so you can review them later, perhaps monthly, and notice any patterns.  ... Read more 1564 words