Craft Talk: Take a Journal & Stay off Your Phone
this is helping me become a better writer
In anticipation of traveling internationally for ten days with very little WiFi access, I readied my neglected journal.
“Readied” meant unearthing it from the pile on my bedside table, choosing all the pens (in multiple colors and size options), and taping in small watercolor squares in case, you know, I wanted to watercolor on the side of the road.
How quaint. How sweet.
This last felt somewhat unrealistic, but when our car sustained two slashed tires in the middle of English mountain goat country and we had no cell service for five hours, out came the journal and watercolors. And the more I wrote, sketched, and painted, the more I wanted to write, sketch, and paint.
It’s one of my best memories of the trip.
It’s really FUN to keep a journal like this. It’s not fancy or professional, but it works. Drawing a little scene also helps me remember a place better, and writing the details and history of a place next to a small visual cements that experience in my brain even more than just writing about it does.
Rules for a travel journal?
*There are no rules
But Here Are Amy’s Hot tips:
*Choose a journal or notebook you are excited to write in (mine is a cheap one from TJ Max for less than $10).
*Pencil for quick sketches
*Black pen. My favorite HERE, HERE (ON SALE), and HERE (ON SALE)
p.s. None of these are necessary; use whatever tools you wish!
Want to paint? I have several watercolor journals, but I kindof like the notebook with my taped-in watercolor paper. At some point, I REALLY want to make a watercolor notebook like
does.We (meaning I) can get so hung up on "doing it like so and so” that it stalls any progress. Remember, the enslaved Egyptians had to put their feet in the water before the Red Sea parted!
In my backpack I now carry a little bag that contains a pencil, sharpener, black pen, tiny tin of watercolors, paper towel, and paper cup. Easy.
Be prepared to experience joy.
I could have paid $$ for daily roaming international cell coverage, but I didn’t want to. My husband paid for coverage so we could use Google Maps (the biggest reason I hesitate when thinking about breaking up with my iPhone). And because scrolling through my phone was not an option, I read a book or painted. Bliss.
I took my journal with my to Ely Iowa last week (for their One Book, One Community read of Guinevere!) and will take it with me this week as I travel to Idaho for my brother’s wedding.
What fun memories we can make painting or sketching little scenes from where we are in life.
inspires the masses with his simple daily sketching of his new baby - what a darling keepsake! I’m inspired.I’m trying to do this more often in my day to day life, not just when I travel. If I carry my backpack, it’s easy to pull out my little bag of watercolor essentials, even when in a waiting room. An unexpected benefit? It delights strangers! You will encounter far more smiles using a sketchbook than a phone.
If you’re a writer, you need to be practicing the craft of observation, correct? Why not sketch the dog on the couch? The tree outside your window? The glass of water with lemon floating?
“Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery it is. In the boredom and pain of it, no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it, because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.” -Frederick Buechner (via Caroline Rose Starr)
I’m here to remember and encourage both me - and you - to take the journal with you. Ditch the phone. Turn it off, or put on airplane mode.
Jot down feelings, impressions, overheard conversations, plot points. Sketch something just for you (no one is judging!!!)
Be prepared for your creativity to skyrocket. The brain is amazing. Once you switch gears and eliminate the possibility of checking social media or email, the brain will switch gears with you.
You will fall asleep and wake up with FRESH IDEAS or THE PROBLEM SOLVED because of those notes you took and the painting you worked on for ten minutes earlier in the day.
Those “creatures upstairs” keep working when you’re resting (they’ve told me so over and over again).
How do you keep a journal? Carry it with you? Do you ever sketch?
Amy
The Last Part:
Packing: For my brother’s Idaho wedding! From so much sadness to so much love…it’s a story I’ll have to tell you…
Eating: The tomatoes keep on coming! So yummy.
Reading: You Could Make This Place Beautiful by
LOVE LOVE LOVERemembering: Iowa last week. So beautiful. I’m from Nebraska and it felt like going home - and suffering through cross-country practices in the humid afternoons…
Thank you for the shout out, Amy! I, of course, wholeheartedly agree with the message of this post. One of the big reasons to carry a journal, whether text or visual, is to be more present in our world and not let the devices distract us from our environment. I often meet people who don't know what they would write, because they're not used to expressing themselves in words. I urge them to draw, or doodle, even if just for a minute at a time, because so much of thinking processes itself that way, completely outside of words.
Oh my goodness I love this so much. And you're so good!! I absolutely LOVE the vibes of the taped in watercolor pages. I've got a writing notebook I carry with me everywhere, but haven't yet figured out a more artsy-friendly thing that works for me--this is inspiring me to do it!