Creative Writing With Journaling

1. Introduction: Hello, I'm Alexandra Badza and I'm your coach and host. Journaling is simple, but it's not easy. You might find it sometimes a little bit more difficult. You might find it uncomfortable. But it's really all about putting in the work and being consistent. Now, if by this point you are wondering, okay Alex, how can I take this to the next level, then you are in the right place. In this module, we are going to talk about turning the art of journaling into a profession. How can you use your journal to help you boost your career? And how can you make this into a profitable way to move you forward, whether you're looking for an internship, for a profession, for a career, for getting a job interview, or for becoming a freelancer or an entrepreneur. If your intention is to bring journaling in the next stage of your life, then this is going to really help you for creatives. We are going to look into different ways in which you can use creative journaling and boost your performance. Boost your ways of finding different solutions and becoming creative with different areas of your life. If you are a little bit more pragmatic, then we're going to look at structures and different approaches, such as mind mapping that are going to help you and support you in your career. For those of you who are inclined towards freelancing or personal branding, then you might find useful to talk about storytelling and how sharing your story can be very powerful in building that image for yourself, your brand, or for someone else's brand in different career options. Last but not least, if your dream is to get published and to see your name on a printed or digital magazine or any of publication. Then we are going to cover the available options and how you can be successful with different ways of bringing your journaling skills into your work. No matter what path you decide to follow, I do strongly advise you to start journaling sooner rather than later because it will help you enhance your personal and professional life and it will lead you to success. Even if you don't know exactly what you are heading towards, then journaling in itself is going to give you the answer. You might find that purpose while you are writing in your journal in the morning or perhaps when you are interpreting a dream that you're having. Or when you start with a practice of gratitude and you realize that you are so grateful for some of the actions that you have been doing and they really make you happy. These are going to be your pointers for moving forward into the next stage of your life and for becoming successful. Now let's look at how you can turn the art of journalism into a profession. 2. Creative Journaling: Creativity is a muscle. If you are inclined towards work that requires this muscle, then it's never too early to start practicing creative. Journaling is not just for writers. You don't need to become the next Jane Austen or Mark Twain in order to test and try creative journaling. You might have a passion for drawing, or painting, or sculpting, acting, singing. You might enjoy taming the elephants or taming the numbers in a spreadsheet. No matter what your hidden talent is and how much creativity you need to bring into it, you will find benefits in the creative journaling practice with your everyday intention one way or another. I like to believe that we all have a pinch of creativity in ourselves. It always comes in handy to have it with us. It's all about making decisions or finding creative solutions, or even making a pro and con argument. You want to be creative, you want to think outside of the box, and you want to leave your imagination outside and play. After all, creativity can lead you in very wild directions and it will help you to take off those lenses that only keep you in the comfort zone. Creativity also means innovation when you are trying to bring something new that makes an impact and is of service to the people and makes a change in the world. Then you want to innovate. You want to be creative, You want to always be ahead of the curve. Creativity is not reserved only to those who use their right side of the brain. Creativity also requires your left side of the brain. You can think about this as a spice or an ingredient that will add up a little bit more for anything that you do in your work. Think, for instance that you are going to code and develop an app for mobile. This is something that perhaps you think this is very strict and very pragmatic. I will challenge you on this because it requires a lot of creativity. You have to envision the functions that will happen in the app in order for you to code them. Creativity is in fact something that is required for very many industries. Therefore, I encourage you to use a creative journal. Maybe this is a practice that you will not find very comfortable to do on a daily basis. But you might try to do it when you are actually in the middle of a creative project or when you feel the need, practice more this muscle and you want to make it part of your life by using a creative journal. Just like any other tool that we have discussed, you are going to practice neuroplasticity. Your neurons will become more used to the practice of finding new words or language, or really seeing different situations in a new light. This way they will rewire and they will be ready for you to see new opportunities to see new solutions and innovations whenever that comes your way. 3. Writer's block: Let's say that you are in fact, someone who wants to write more. One of the biggest obstacles that writers find is writer's block. This means that you sit down in front of your laptop or in front of your journal and you just stare at the blank piece of paper and nothing happens. You feel blocked. You feel like your mind is frozen and there's literally no word coming out. Or you are paralyzed by the fact that you want it to be perfect. Nothing really sounds perfect enough for you. That is what blocks you. This is when you want to practice creative journaling, and this is when you want to have different tools and techniques that will get you out of this block. In his book, The World of Art, Stephen Presfield talks about his practice that helps him beat this writer's block. For him, creativity is something that happens when you are ready, it has to find you ready. What he does is that for years he has been treating writing as a job. He just practices it with religiousness. No matter what the day is, he just goes and practices the same routine. In the morning at 09:00 A.M. he sits down at his desk and he starts writing. Some days the words and sentences are good, some other days it's terrible. But he keeps writing, he keeps practicing this muscle because he knows that creativity will hit him while he is in the process of writing. It's not something that he just waits to be hit in the head with. He is literally just doing the work, doing all the heavy lifting every single day when he will have that creativity and inspiration, those words will pour onto paper. It's something like the stream of consciousness. But it will have to find you writing, create the space for creativity to find you. Otherwise you might miss it. Maybe you are just somewhere else doing something completely different. Creativity is trying to find you, but you are not open to it. You are right there in front of the piece of paper writing for you. If you are not a writer and perhaps you are j trying to be more creative, some way to adjust this is to keep a journal in your pocket. Maybe a mini journal, a mini notebook that will help you. Whenever you have some creative ideas, just write them down. Never wait until you will get to the desk or until you get to your laptop. Because ideas come and go, brilliant ideas usually find us in the most unexpected moments, just write it down right then and there. Make sure that you don't waste any creativity because it's such a precious resource in my work. Whenever I encounter writer's block, this is my three steps process that I use. It involves mind, body, and soul. This is how it works for me. First of all, step number one is I just walk away from the laptop or from my desk and I start moving my body. Whether it's through walking through dancing, or just literally shaking my body a little bit, it really makes a difference to engage my physical energy. Step number two is I try to engage my soul and take care of my soul through a short meditation or maybe a short visualization or some breathing exercises. This helps me relax and bring my energy back into my body. Number three is engaging my mind. This means I sit down again and I start writing about something totally random. It's definitely not about what I was looking to write for, but it's something that, again, gives me that practice of writing. Then I will be inspired to write about the first task. This is what usually helps me, and I wanted to share it with you because I found it useful. Just to recap, it means that you are involving your body, mind and soul. And you are starting with moving away from your desk and moving your body using meditation or breathing. And going back and starting to write. Putting your mind to work but in a very different task, and starting to write about something totally different. Then inspiration and creativity will come. 4. Creative Exercises: Okay, are you ready to practice your creative muscle? Let's do one exercise. I invite you to take a piece of paper and write down one name of a country, one name of a person, one color, one action, and one number. Now, use these five random words into a paragraph And keep writing for 5 minutes straight without taking your pen off the paper. Set the timer, go. Feel free to share with us the paragraphs that you have been writing. Otherwise, just go back and repeat the exercise. Whenever you feel that your mind is blocked, you can of course, change the words that you're using. You can be more and more creative every day. This is how you can practice this muscle. It's important that you set aside time for creativity, especially if it's something that is part of your work or you are looking to get into this kind of work. Write the story that starts with then there was silence. Describe a room where there are only windows instead of walls. Let your imagination go wild. These exercises are really just going to make you feel light. Don't take them too seriously, just feel amused and let your creativity blossom. There are no limits. And I invite you to be just as courageous as you want. And don't limit yourself. 5. Brainstorming: Another important part of creativity is brainstorming. When it comes to the practice of brainstorming, the main rule is that there are no bad ideas. You just let everything come in and you put it down and then you start analyzing it. The process of brainstorming is literally just a matter of bringing forth anything that really pops into your head. It's really a great way to be creative and to just find the most outrageous, wild crazy ideas that will really make whatever you're working on different. You'll see this happening usually in a meeting room with a whiteboard. And a few people just gathered around just discussing a topic and saying out loud different ideas or words. And someone who is writing them down on the whiteboard, there is no judgment. They are not stopping to say, well, this doesn't really sound good or yes, I really love it. They just keep on going. They sometimes build upon each other's ideas and they roll with it. It's a matter of really just making your brain, creating a storm in your mind, and giving those ideas a big boost of creativity. Now, when you are practicing brainstorming with yourself, then you might find this useful with two different methods you can use, brain dump and just anything that comes to your mind, literally just writing down all the ideas. Maybe it's a list, maybe it's a bullet pointed page. Any type of writing, just free form, and putting down anything that comes to your mind will be a brain dump. And it will also be a way of brainstorming your ideas. If you are a little bit more structured and you prefer to see some very specific ways in which your ideas are starting to come to life, then I recommend you the method of mind mapping. This is a tool that can come in handy for many methods of writing down ideas. Mind mapping looks more like an organizational chart if you want. It's usually the main topic in the center. And then it starts to build with different branches and ideas that come out of that. It can be as big or as small as you want. Mind mapping is literally focused on the topic that you're talking to, that top of mind. Then from there, you start creating different levels of ideas starting from the main topic. It's really interesting to see how this builds out when you are doing a brainstorming session. Because at first, you might feel that your ideas that are popping up in your mind are not really first level related to your topic. But just stick with it and see how you can build from there. After all, anything in this process of brainstorming is not to be judged, is more a matter of just releasing all the creativity onto paper, and then you can come back and structure it and reorganize it accordingly. 6. Mindmapping: The truth is we've already agreed that our minds are chaotic. We talked about how our thoughts can look like different cars buzzing around in rush hour and making a lot of noise in our head. That's why sometimes we need to structure and organize our mind. Of course, as we are all unique and different, we have different tools that we prefer when it comes to getting all analytical about our thoughts and ideas. For instance, if you do prefer mind mapping, then this is going to really help you when you start a new project, when you write down the topic. Then from there you start creating a beautiful ramification of ideas. You can also use mind mapping for therapeutic journaling or for your well being. You can put in the center of the mind map the main feeling, your top of mind feeling. What is the most powerful emotion that you are feeling right now? You write it down in the center. And then from there you start looking at the next layers of emotions. For instance, you are feeling confused, let's say. That is the top of mind. The next layers are going to be frustration, anger, excitement. This means that, for instance, if you are feeling confused about making a decision, then this thought might also make you feel frustrated. It might make you feel angry because you don't know what is the right decision to make. But also it might give you a feeling of excitement if it's perhaps some good news that you have been waiting for. But somehow it turned into this difficult decision that you need to make. Mind mapping structures, the ideas in layers from central to periphery. You can ask yourself questions such as why, how, what, or who in order to discover the next layers and just go from there. Make it work in your own way. If you are finding it difficult to uncover the main feeling, the top of mind feeling, then just explore and see what comes up. Maybe there will be multiple feelings that show up for you and you can put them on the same level. Then from there you can start building that mind map and explore the next levels. Create a circular mode, or maybe you don't want to do that and you just want to keep it as layers one after the other or in the format of a table. It's totally up to you. You are the master of your journal and you know what works for you best. Let's see, when does mind mapping come in very handy? For instance, you are part of a team who wants to develop a new product. You want to come up with some business ideas and product development and all of these things that will help you launch this new product. This is when you're going to be using the mind mapping process. You are going to start with the top of mind and everyone will start contributing with different ideas around the stages that need to happen in order for the launch of this product to come to reality. You will also find this very common in advertising, because when it comes to creating different ads or creating strategies for clients in advertising, there needs to be a certain structure. There has to be a central idea of the campaign. And then from there to see and explore different ways and channels where this idea can be converted and expanded. It's important that you understand how this will apply in practice because you might find yourself in the face of using this and at least you'll know what the mind map is. You can of course, use it for yourself in your journal when you start practicing for setting up your goals and creating the plan of action for your goals. You can also use mind mapping for any type of content creation. Let's say, for instance, that you want to start a podcast or you want to write an article on a blog. You can start with the main topic or the title in the middle, then start with the main ideas that you want to convey to your audience, then move from there to the next level. And each idea will have to respond to at least three questions. Take it from there one step at a time and develop that mind map. It will be so helpful for you and you will start to understand the process and it will get you to be more creative every time. After all, we are trying to bring the practices of journalism into a more pragmatic way so that they are useful for you in the next stage of your profession. Stick with it and discover how it works for you best. 7. Storytelling: Now let's move on to sharing our story and expressing ourselves in a more public way. I personally love sharing stories. This is something that I've discovered when I was a little child and I started writing stories and poems and put them in a notebook. Now I never got them published, but it's never too late. However, I did want to publish my book and I did put a lot of personal stories into my book. That was my way of sharing my stories and sharing something that I wanted people to find themselves in. Sharing your story is all about inspiring other people. It takes a lot of courage. In many cases, sharing your story is about taking ownership of what has happened. And being really brave to step into the light and share it with the world. Stories are meant to be told. Of course, when we talk about let's say keeping a travel journal, then you want to share that. Maybe you want to create a blog and share those stories. Or just by the simple act of posting on social media, you are sharing that story of you being on holiday, traveling, and building memories for business purposes. If you decide to become an entrepreneur, a freelancer, or an influencer, then you are going to use storytelling on a regular basis. You are going to share your story first to build your personal brand. It's important that you share about why of your business. Why did you start doing what you started to do? What is the mission and the purpose of your work? This is what's going to build that relationship with people. Inspiring stories always bring people together. It builds communities. It builds relationships. And bonds with the emotions that are hiding behind those stories. Also, a very important benefit of storytelling is to create that bond with your audience. People buy from people and they will always resonate with an inspiring story or a touching story, rather than just talking about the specifics of a product. Just think about Apple for instance. They understood how storytelling is important and they use their tag line, think differently to make you feel unique, different, and tell that story to everyone who is a customer. Yes, there is also an art to storytelling, and of course, it will make a difference if you start diving deeper into how to create stories and be better at storytelling. But first and foremost, the main ingredient in storytelling is your heart, your emotions. This is why I encourage you to keep a journal with your memories, with different stories, different moments that make an impact so that you can later use them in your storytelling. You might even want to have a separate notebook for your journal where you write stories from your business. Something that can later on be used. A project, in a case study on a website, or in a social media. Post storytelling is a huge component of any type of communication nowadays, especially in the digital world. We are no longer excited to see the specifics of a product or some boring descriptions. We want stories, we want emotions. We want our hearts to be touched. And this way we will respond to those products. If you're going to work in any department of an advertising agency or in PR marketing communication, anything that has to do with creating content and telling stories, then you will see how important this is. You will also be using this, for instance, if you are going to work in human resources. Because telling stories will also attract talented candidates and they will make successful in finding the best people for the right jobs. Sharing your story is about getting you out of your comfort zone, because, yes, you are going to be vulnerable when you share something personal. But it's completely up to you how personal you want to get. Your storytelling is your story. So you can decide which parts you're going to open and share with the world. At the same time, remember that you will be inspiring other people. Maybe you are breaking some barriers and you are talking about some topics that haven't been discussed in public for a very long time. For instance, there are very many Ted Talks that cover subjects that are culturally and socially sensitive, such as religion, sexual abuse, spirituality, or sexual orientation. You don't need to be controversial in your story to catch the audience's attention. You do, however, want to be authentic. This is the main thing that will make people read your story and empathize with you. If you are authentic, people will feel that you will put all your emotions into writing this way. When you share your story with the world and express yourself, they will feel connected to you. This is when that sense of community is going to build around you and around the idea or the product or the service that you're offering. Also, if you are going to do this for a company and you're going to work by creating content for a company, then you are going to use storytelling. And you can also get inspired from your own personal stories. At the same time, you might get more receptive at the stories and different circumstances happening to people around you. You will practice the art of awareness with everything that's around you so that you can start picking up stories from different moments and share them as part of your content. This is something that will come to you naturally or with practice. It doesn't really matter. As long as you find that story and you start sharing it with the world, you start seeing how people get inspired, maybe to take action or to feel connected. Building the sense of community means that people feel they're not alone. They're not struggling by themselves when they're going through something very sensitive. This is why very many victims of different abuse types decide to come out and share their stories. This will expose them and make them feel vulnerable because maybe even close family members didn't know what happened to them. But at the same time, it will inspire others to open up and speak about it as well. And it will help them in the healing process. If you're sharing your story in a public way, make sure that you are mindful of the people who are involved in the initial stories, Keep their privacy and also be mindful of the people who are in your audience. Storytelling is an art, but at the same time, once you learn how to tell your story, you will create magic and you will see how you connect with people in a much better way. 8. Getting published: The ultimate goal when it comes to becoming a writer and having your work shared with the world is getting published nowadays. It's not so difficult anymore because you can also use self publishing as a way to get your work known. You also have the digital space that is unlimited for content creators. The truth is that you can simply start with a blog. I started my first blog back in 2014 and it was for me a way to express my emotions, express and share the stories that were happening. I really wanted to have a safe space for me to heal and write about what was going on, but also for other people to come and read and feel inspired, or at least learn some lessons from the mistakes that I was making. It was a way to release emotions and also to build the community. After that, I realized that I wanted a little bit more. I wanted to get published in a very different way. That is when I decided to write the book. Now, having graduated from journalism and having worked since my second year in university, had already given me the way to see how my name looks like attached to the pieces of writing that I was sharing. I was already doing web editing and writing my own articles on different publications. It was time for me to get to the next level. I remember the first time when I saw my name printed on a magazine. It was a magazine about recipes and it was part of the publishing house where I was working. But I never felt so proud in my life at that point because my name was there, printed in letters on a magazine page. It was such a beautiful feeling. And I can totally understand if this is something that you are looking to experience for yourself in the digital world. Of course, if you want to start a blog, it's very easy. You can of course, start by sharing different stories and sharing content on your social media accounts, which is, again, something simple and free. Also by starting a blog where you bring readers who are interested in following your journey and reading your story. In this case, your journal is going to be your source of inspiration. You are going to keep writing in your journal and putting down those emotions. Because it's going to be your practice of expressing yourself. Yes, your blog can become your public journal, but it will not be as important as your personal journal where you can pour out your heart. I write for a living, and still I have a journal because it's very different when you get to share your emotions with a piece of paper and to be very vulnerable and honest, and know that you will not be judged. 9. Becoming an Author: Coming back to the part where you are getting published, I want you to know that there are various options for you. Let's say that you are inclined to becoming a writer, a poet, or novelist. You like writing short stories, novels. Maybe you want to write a book or you want to contribute in a bigger publishing project. Here again, you have two different choices. You can publish a fiction book, for instance, if you like to create characters, create stories and write either drama or thrillers, or comedy, or even plays, Then you can go through that path. If you decide to write nonfiction, then you can start sharing about specific industry or different ways that you feel you have some knowledge. In either way, nowadays you have options to get published. You can either go down the traditional path and find the publishing house so that you get your name out there. And this way you will get distributed to numerous places and bookstores. Also, you have the Self publishing path, where you need to make a little bit of an investment to get your book printed and edited. But then you have full control over what's happening, where you market it and who you sell it to. Plus you get to keep all the profits from that book. Now I teach courses to different participants about how to write a nonfiction book and get self published. That was the way that I used for my book. That is why I'm teaching it in that sense. But I want you to know that once again, there are no right or wrong ways. It's really just about what you want and be able to make a decision that suits you in that specific moment. Of course, you don't have to think about publishing a book right now. You can perhaps start to contact different magazines and ask them if you can contribute for them. You can try to start your own blog and get your stories out there. Of course, you can simply go on your social media account and write your content in there. It's absolutely no right or wrong path. It's completely up to you where you feel most comfortable in creating that content and sharing it with the world. 10. Freelancing as a Creative Writer: You can also get published, but not in the sense of putting your word next to your work by becoming a copywriter. If you work in advertising or PR, or marketing, any of these places where you need to promote different services or products, then you are going to be very successful when it comes to juggling with words and creating exactly what needs to be done for that specific product or service. With copyrighting of, there are numerous ways and tools, and methods, and techniques. There is something that you need to learn by doing and by also attending some additional specialized courses. But it's important that you have the inclination and that you feel attracted to that field before you dive into it. Again, this will be when perhaps a creative journal will come in handy. Because you will be able to keep your creativity flowing. You will be able to have a place for your ideas to be written down. And to make sure that whenever there is a need for writing a story, promoting a product, or just helping out the client, then you can do that because you are inspired. You have all of your ideas in a notebook. If you follow the path of journalism, then you are also going to be a master of words. You will need to understand that this is both an art and a science. With journalism, you have to be objective. It's less about expressing your emotions and more about telling the facts. Of course, there is also feature writing in journalism. You can also bring your own take of things. It depends what kind of journalism you're going to go for, Always be authentic no matter what. Of course, if you're going to go down the very traditional way and you are going to work in sharing the news, yes, you will have to be objective. If you prefer to be more expressive and maybe write features or interview people, or perhaps you want to write for magazines and share your opinion, then you can definitely find ways to do so in the media, blogs, podcasts, digital magazines are all ways of creating content in the digital space. I'm sure that if you are attracted to this field, you might already know that there are so many options out there. Once again, your journal will be your source of inspiration. You can always go back and revisit an old journal and perhaps get inspired from a story that you have written there, a memory that maybe you have completely forgotten. But it brings something up that you want to use in a story, in an episode, in an article. You want your journal to be a source of inspiration. And of course, that will happen when you keep them and you go through them with detachment. If you're still healing from something, don't use that story to promote it or to share it with the world. Ideally, you want to share stories that are already healed and that you feel detached from, so that it doesn't trigger some emotion or make you feel more subjective. Your audience always feels the emotion behind that story. And if it's still something heavy and you're still telling it with anger and resentment, then people will feel it. They will see that you're not healed yet and it will make it a little bit difficult to swallow. Now, I know that I did this in the past after a break up. I remember I wrote down an article just to get revenge on my X. And I sent it to one of the biggest publishing websites. That was at that time. I was so excited just to put it out there and send it to him to make him feel sorry. But of course, that wasn't the case. A few years later, reading back that article, I realized and I sensed how much anger and frustration there was. And I'm pretty sure everyone else felt it. Even if writing stays as a side passion and you will not turn it into a profession, you can still use your journal for different ways of creating content. For instance, you can become a freelancer and perhaps even have a side job by being a copywriter. You can sign up for one of the freelancing websites and advertise and promote your services there as a copywriter. And get some extra bucks on the side. Otherwise, you can start by building your blog. You can start by creating a lot of content and getting your audience attracted to what you have to say. This way you will have a community that is going to be engaged with you later on. Perhaps you can even turn it into a business, find a way that is really personal and that speaks to you. Whatever resonates with you is going to be the right path, even if it's not. Just give it a try, if it's an idea in your mind, even if maybe now it's not the right time, revisit it later. Sometimes it's better to just give it some time and see if it's still important for us later on. But at the same time, I want to encourage you to not leave with what if, if it's something that is really there in your heart and you know for sure that you want to follow that passion, go for it, find a way to integrate it in your life. Even if it's just as a passion or as a hobby for now, then just do it. Maybe you want to practice your creativity for later on while also going for a job or studying. But at the same time, you're not going to be sorry for all the lessons that you are going to learn in the process. It's really going to make a difference. Make sure that you are maybe even tracking your progress, your performance, and see what you learn along the way. I know I already covered the part where you are deciding to write your first book, but I want to make sure that I bring it up again because this is a way of expressing yourself. Of course, you want to do this maybe later on in your career or in your business, because a book is something that can also serve you as a marketing tool. Once you gain more knowledge and expertise in a certain field, you can write a book about your expertise in that specific industry in order to show that you are an expert and that you are building authority in that field. I love working with groups of clients where I teach them how to write nonfiction books about their area of expertise and to use them as promotional tools or marketing tools for what they know best, How to do. This attracts a lot more people, people who get interested, people who then want to buy what they're offering, their products or services. Keep in mind for later on that you might want to have a book published, whether in a traditional way or self published, that will reflect your expertise or knowledge in a specific industry. This will help you to build authority and show up as someone who knows what they're talking about and wants to help other people. 11. Conclusion and project: All you really need to do is to keep practicing. Journaling is an art, but it's also a science and you can find different methods that will serve you in turning journaling into a profession. You are learning how to use your personal stories and your emotions in order to create something that you want to share with the world. This is going to be a great way for you to practice how to express yourself better, how to heal your past, how to be in your presence and in your well being, and how to create that vision and set those goals. It's been an honor to share with you the tools and tips on how to use the art of journalism for a successful life. And I can't wait to read your essays for the final project.