Journaling, Reflective Writing & Storytelling Books – Study Coach UK
Storytelling on Study Coach takes a look at the use of Reflection and Journaling, to help writers craft a book. It is good to reflect on life, to reflect on experiences, through reflection we can make positive changes to our lifestyle, we can progress in our professional life, and through reflective journaling, writers can hone their writing skills.
Reflective Journaling:
Reflective journaling can help writers to express their internal processes about writing a novel or help writers to reflect on an experience or a belief. Through reflection it can allow us to appraise what is going on in our minds, and how we intend to make meaning of an experience and integrate in a plot. For example we could reflect on the way life used to be, and how that real life experience could be perceived by a character to be fictitious.
Imagination:
Fiction is great, but writing from real life experience should help to make the writing process easier (if there is anything such as ‘easy writing’). Writing from life experience can also be combined with imaginative ideas; if the writer used to shimmy up trees to pick fruits as a young person, then the character of CocoBoy, could be born.
Experiential Learning:
Working in a supermarket might be the experience that will trigger a writer to create a novel about a dinner party. The years of experience working as a cashier, might at first seem to be of no value (apart from earning a living) but during reflection, the writer might well start to appreciate that they have great knowledge about people’s lifestyles. The knowledge about lifestyles could lead to a story about a dinner party.
Real Experience:
What we learn from experience can be a great resource when writing. Imagination should still however be important to the writer; relying on what one has experienced can help to provide greater authenticity, greater truthfulness to a story. This links in with John Dewey (1938) ideas about experiential learning, where the reflective process is considered to be a necessary part of engaging the mature learner at higher education with professional studies. For example, health related professions, social work, legal practice, all promote the use of reflective experiential learning. The same principle could therefore be applied to the world of writing, encouraging writers to reflect on real experience, whether the experience was acquired in the work place or socially.
Concrete Experience: Description
The concrete experience in a journal entry could start with the writer describing a particular/specific experience. Detailing the experience as best as one can remember, this shows the importance of journaling on a regular basis, so that data is not forgotten.Through journaling the writer will engage with self-discovery, hopefully learning a new perspective on life, and piecing together events. The writer will need to schedule time to reflect, through reflection the objective should be to make connections between the self and the general environment, including reflecting on the setting for the book.
Thoughts, Emotions, Feelings:
Through reflection the writer can appraise and reappraise thoughts, reflect on emotions that will impact on readers. Reflection should help the writer to consider main characters and subsidiary characters’ interests and emotions. Through reflection and journaling the writer can document an inner dialogue that connect thoughts, feelings and actions.
Personal Experience: New Perspectives
Reflective thinking can help writers to become more open-minded, reflective journaling can help writers to become more self aware about beliefs and furthermore help writers to assess their personal perspective about life.
We might have preconceptions about reality. Writers might have prejudices, constructed on both past and present situations and these can impact on shaping the characters for our book. Reflective writing practice through journaling will help to raise our self-awareness and help us with the writing process.
Storytelling: Dracula
I have previously highlighted that the story of Dracula on Study Coach UK youtube channel, is based on Journaling. From a writing point of view it is worthwhile apprising how the author of Dracula (Bram Stoker) makes use of journal entries. Please listen to the story, presented in episodes and Subscribe to Study Coach UK channel, here is a link:
https://youtube.com/@studycoachuk
Please also check the Playlist for past episodes of Dracula and other stories #dracula #storytelling #storyteller #audiobooks