[Sandra Cisneros reflects on her writing process in her memoir, A House of My Own.]
This course requires you to commit to daily writing and asks that you keep a low-key writing journal as part of that. This journal is designed to give you space to pay attention to patterns in your writing process – what works, what feels good, what might seem like a good idea, what is awful, etc. By writing a little about your writing each time you do it, you can reduce the mental load you're carrying, and figure out patterns that might otherwise be invisible or sublimated.
Make a decision about the format you'd like to create your journal in:
1) Longhand on paper;
2) Prose typed on a computer;
3) Spreadsheet on a computer;
4) Some other format.
You are welcome to include whatever you would like, but in each journal entry you need to answer these questions, half before your writing session and half after:
Before you start your writing session -
1) Writing goal for the session (time, word count, and / or specific topic);
2) What you plan to do;
3) How you will reward yourself after you finish writing (it can be small, but should be something you actually like).
Written after you finish your daily writing -
4) What you actually did (written after you finish writing);
5) What worked / felt good;
6) What didn't work / felt bad.
I expect that writing in this journal will take less than five minutes total each session, immediately before and after writing. Please note that the time it takes you to write in your journal is in addition to your daily writing time, not part of it. Writing about the writing you're not doing doesn't count as writing for our purposes here, with apologies to Charlie Kaufman.
You are welcome to add additional categories for daily reflection if you would like. For instance, I use a spreadsheet for my own writing journal and I find a category called "what I'm worried about" to be really helpful. I'm a fairly secure person but when I sit down to write I usually feel nervous about something, at least that whatever I'm working on that day is already behind where I'd like it to be. Therefore I find that if I just write a single sentence articulating my current worry, whatever might make me feel disinclined to write, it's much easier for me to just get into the writing and get on with it. This question is not designed to make me feel bad for whatever I'm worrying about – guilt turns out not to be a helpful motivator – but to acknowledge it as real and yet still move past it.
This category is something I developed in response to my own writing habits and patterns, so please feel free to develop your own.
Some people like to track the specific time they spent writing or the number of words they wrote that day, so they can see the numbers build over time. You might notice that tracking a particular category will help you, and it could be a question about your feelings, goals, or some technical part of your writing. Some possibilities I thought of:
Why am I doing this? (To remind yourself of your larger goals, but perhaps this question would just get too depressing?)
Where am I working? (So you could start to pay attention to what spaces work best for you)
When am I working? (Similar to the one above, so you can pay attention to when your writing feels better)
What am I grateful for? (Some research seems to suggest that reminding oneself of these things helps motivate people, but that always feels like capitalist brightsiding to me.)
Who do I hate? (I dunno, I'm just trying to balance out the positivity of the previous question. This is probably not a good idea, unless hate really motivates you.)
What is the funniest things I've heard in the last day? (Trying to get you to laugh a genuine laugh, or at least think of funny things, as you start)
What does this writing get me? (Another way to remind yourself that small daily work really does add up)
What should I do next? (I find it really helpful to leave myself very concrete notes at the end of the writing session, so it’s easier to remember where to pick up.)
I will read your writing journal once a week but will never refer to any content in class discussion. If you write something that feels more personal that you want to share with me, please figure out a way to block it out or redact it.