I started journaling daily in September 2023. Honestly, it wasn’t a great time to start a
new project. I was two weeks away from launching a new book. I was still catching up from a trip abroad, and getting ready to host a fantasy ball, another new venture.
At the same time, it was the perfect time. I believe we are never too busy to pause and
take stock of our life choices, especially when it comes to creative work.
I just finished my seventh notebook which means I take a few weeks to read back through my journals. It’s a way for me to find patterns. Recall ideas or projects I said I’d do. See growth.
A bit of time travel. A bit of writing magic.
Here’s the broad strokes of what I’ve learned from journaling every morning:
- You will learn to tell the difference between ideas that surface and those that call you. The kind of idea that must not be ignored.
- You’ve got to take care of yourself. You can’t create if you’re tired.
- Say no to the things you don’t want to do—if you say yes, you will grow resentful and that is the killer of creative energy.
- You’re so eager for things to grow fast and you get frustrated when it seems things don’t work out the way you want, but, guess what, it’s all growing in ways you just can’t see yet.
- Pay attention to your instincts.
- No one else can give you the magic formula. It’s only you.
- Invest in your friends. Build relationships with other writers. Support other’s work.
- Feel like a long walk? Always take it.
- You set your own goals—they don’t have to be quite so urgent.
- The patriarchy wants you to think you can’t do this.
- There’s a golden rule to marketing: Get your message in front of other people’s audiences.
- You long for more time to paint, hike, decorate your house, and read.
- Caring for yourself generates ideas.
- Unbind the myths about “what a writer is”. They’re not about you.
