What kind of writer are you? Does you writing consist mainly of shopping lists scribbled onto the back of envelopes or reminders tapped into your phone? Or are you are someone who pours their heart out daily into a journal? Maybe you regularly squirrel away stories or poetry, exerting your creativity at every stroke of a pen. Do you have the need to put pen to paper in some form every day?
I imagine you have realised, I am someone who loves to write. Writing is something I have almost always done in some form and continue to do most days. I have previously written about my love of journal writing. I’ve written about my appreciation of postcards and thank you letters and I’ve shared with you my approach to travel journaling and my foray into keeping a gratitude journal.
Writing in its many forms is something I regularly do. It is not just a form of creativity, it is a form of therapy. Although I would suggest that the two are often inextricably linked. I keep a journal, which is my way of expressing my thoughts and sometimes frustrations and it is a way or keeping a record of my day to day life. And of course I fill these pages with my ramblings on a regular basis!
There are so many benefits from writing in any form but I would suggest a regular journal keeping habit is a very good one to have
Reflection
Writing a journal is a lovely way of reflecting, not just on what you have done or where you have been or what you might have felt about something. Reflecting in this way can help you make sense of something that has been troubling you or you don’t understand. It can also be helpful to look back on after an event.
Therapy
This is a part of the reflective process carried out when writing a journal. However it is also a way of dealing with a situation immediately and in the moment. The night my dad died, was unsurprisingly a terrible time. He was gravely ill in hospital in Norfolk and I was in London, in the worst snow we had seen for years. I was desperately worried, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to get to him. I hardly had the words to pray, but I could write. During those desperately worrying hours when we were unsure what was going to happen I wrote ferociously, pouring out my deepest fears onto paper. Writing was a continued form of therapy in the aftermath and has continued to fulfil that role for me years afterwards
Improved Hand Writing Skills
Many people rarely write with a pen these days, mostly writing will be carried out on a key board or smart phone. I of course do lots of this too. However, I often enjoy the process of handwriting more. Writing by hands involves a different though process to writing on a computer. It is often slower so has to be more measured and considered. There is less room for error. Many of my blog posts start of as scribbled thoughts in note books. Often an outline will be formed and added to before I sit at my laptop to finalise it. Another potential benefit of this of course is improved handwriting.
Creativity
Any creative writing teacher will tell you, the writing muscle is like any other muscle, the more you use it, the more developed it will become. I have done little creative writing for a couple of years, but I know when I am writing creatively I consider situations differently. I look at strangers as potential characters in a story, thinking about how I would describe them, what they are wearing, how they are looking.
Writing is an outlet, a form of therapy and a creative process. The stream of consciousness and blurted out first formed thoughts and reactions written in my journal is the unedited and perhaps truest part of me. So I would encourage you to pick up a pen and note book, scribble away, express yourself in which ever way comes naturally and see where it takes you.