Journals and Papers

I’ve heard of a lot of authors who derive some of their best works from journal entries and ideas. I am a writer and I have a complete journal dedicated to ideas, comments, quotes, newspaper clippings, and articles that aid me when I am looking for material to write about.

Both my children’s books, Little Blue Penguin, and my recent release of McKenzie’s Frosty Surprise, started with ideas written into a simple notebook journal that I keep in my purse. With the story, Little Blue Penguin, we were out walking at a local park when my daughter, who was a toddler at the time, lost her new stuffed toy, a little blue penguin. I got to thinking that it could be a cute story, and didn’t want to loose the idea, so I wrote down a few ideas in the journal I had with me.

McKenzie’s Frosty Surprise came about when out for a daily walk. We live in the country and I was walking by one of our local wetland marshes. There was a nest of ducks and their ducklings. It was so cute to watch them playing and in and out of the marsh. I had my journal with me, so I found a rock to sit on some distance away and just started writing, keeping an eye on the feathered family as I did so. The ideas flowed from me as I felt I was in the groove. I am not sure if that I hadn’t been carrying a journal, whether the ideas might have disappeared before I was able to jot them down.

Handy journals come in so many sizes now; it’s easy to find one to store in a pocket, purse or back pack. You never know when a story idea or even the story itself might nudge you to do some writing.

Patricia L. Atchison is the author of 2 children’s books, Little Blue Penguin and McKenzie’s Frosty Surprise, available through Wood Lily Publishers and Wood Lily Books.

Ben Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the United States is known as a copious note taker.  He wrote journals throughout his life accumulating many volumes throughout the time when he was alive.  He said that a lot of his best ideas were writing in his journals and actually retrieved later when that concept would be connected with other concepts that learned later.
 
 At his death he had over a hundred journals that he filled.  Benjamin Franklin is arguably the most important figure of the American Revolutionary War because of his role in convincing France to take our side and provide more troops for our forces to use in the war.

The ancient art of journal writing has come back into vogue this last decade.  People are reconnecting with this pastime in a big way.  And with good reason too.  In our fast paced world, it is hard to keep things straight.

 Journal Writing has affect of a meditation.  It keeps us focused and organized.  It gives us that time to reflect and think about our lives in a direct way.  Personal journal writing is an affective way to concentrate on what is going on with our lives.