The Coaching Tools Company logo

  • your cart is currently empty
  • Free 549 Coaching Questions eBook
  • Coaching Toolkits
  • Coaching Tools MEGAPack
  • Social Media Graphics
  • Free Tools & Resources
  • Coaching Blog
  • About The Coaching Tools Company
  • Moneyback Guarantee
  • What are Coaching Tools?

Home » Coaching Blog » Articles for Specific Niches » 4 Practices to Bring Journaling into Your Workshops & Groups | by Lynda Monk MSW, RSW, CPCC

4 Practices to Bring Journaling into Your Workshops & Groups | by Lynda Monk MSW, RSW, CPCC

journal writing group

Writing Alone Together: The Benefits of Journal Writing in Workshops & Groups

Journaling is one of my favourite activities to bring into my workshops, training programs and group coaching. Whether done on our own or in groups with others, expressive journal writing can be healing, creative and transformational. And w hile we may write alone, journal writing is relational by nature, supporting us to deepen our relationship with ourselves, others and the world.

In particular, writing then sharing with others can help build community/teams, create engagement, foster connection, increase resiliency, fuel creativity, enhance learning and deepen compassion for self and others.

If you want to bring journaling and writing into your transformative work as a coach, educator and/or change agent, read on to learn more about integrating journaling into your workshops and group coaching.

Journaling in a Group: An 8 Year Journey

I was in a long-term journaling group with two other women. Over the course of eight years, we slowly and experientially developed what emerged as the four practices of what we called Writing Alone Together [1]. Through a process of creative inquiry, writing, connecting, learning and growing, we discovered how to powerfully bring journaling (typically regarded as a personal and private experience) into community and groups.

We eventually co-authored a book called Writing Alone Together: Journalling in a Circle of Women for Creativity, Compassion and Connection which is part memoir, part writing practice and part inspiration. It is from these experiences that I share the following practices.

First, here are 3 Tips for Using Journaling in Groups

  • Know your "Why?": Ask yourself, "What do I hope to accomplish by integrating journaling into my workshop or group coaching program?" Understanding your goals for integrating journaling into your groups, will help you customise the journaling experience, and set things up with intention and care.
  • Prepare your journaling activities in advance: It is not enough to simply tell people to write. While that is one approach, it's helpful to provide the structure, process and containment to help create an emotionally safe, and supported approach to going to the page. This way you can guide the journaling towards the topics and outcomes you are looking for.
  • Make the journaling relevant: In a workshop or group where a specific topic is usually being covered, ensure the journaling activities you choose are aligned with the learning and coaching goals within your workshop or coaching program. For example, I often integrate journaling for self-care and resiliency activities into my burnout prevention workshops with caregivers.

And Here Are The 4 Practices for Inviting People to Write - and Share

How will you invite and support people to write? The following four Writing Alone Together practices offer you both a process and a structure for guiding others to write within your coaching program, workshop or retreat.

In your workshop or group, begin by introducing journaling through offering some of its many benefits to your group. This helps inspire people to write and gives them the rationale - why you're asking them to do it.

Practice 1: Write Freely

Invite writers (your clients) to do a timed writing - 5-15 minutes is a good way to start. Ideally you want to offer structure and containment for this writing exercise through providing a journaling prompt * focused around the theme of your workshop or coaching program. This helps create the emotional safety that encourages people to write freely. Let them know that whatever they write is right .

Writing freely is to follow one's own impulses and put down whatever comes. We start with a word, phrase, memory, image, question, quote, feeling or body sensations. There are hundreds of ways to come to the page. (Cutler et al., 2014, p.39).

* Journaling prompts can be extremely simple like, "I remember..." or "What I need right now is...". They can also be open-ended coaching questions on the workshop theme to provide some direction and structure eg. "If I were to take care of myself, I would..." or "I know I'm burned out when..." or "The things I'd like to celebrate in my life are..."

Practice 2: Read Aloud

After writing, let people know that next is an opportunity to share their writing together. The guidelines for this include the following:

  • No critiquing the writing.
  • Encourage people to listen deeply (see 3 below) and bear witness (see 4 below).
  • Everyone is invited to share their writing in the group. It is important that people are in choice with what they share. They can read all of their writing (which is encouraged), a portion of their writing, even a few words. It is also valuable to reflect on the process itself, asking people to simply reflect on the writing they did - what it was like to do? What stood out for them?

IMPORTANT: Sharing is always voluntary. People can share with the whole group, or in pairs. Creating a sense of permission to share, to have a voice and to be vulnerable is part of the transformational process. Through reading our writing aloud we allow ourselves to be seen and to be vulnerable. "Safe" vulnerability is at the heart of growth and change.

When we read aloud, we connect with the feelings and emotions of our words, which may not be apparent when we are writing them down or reading them silently to ourselves. It is natural to feel vulnerable, hesitant, frightened and uncertain when reading our words aloud. We may also feel excited, enthusiastic and eager. (Cutler et al., 2014, p.44).

Practice 3: Listen Deeply

Invite participants to listen deeply while others share their writing. I encourage people to listen with curiosity, without judgement or critique of the person or their writing. In this way, both the writer (storyteller) and the listener are met with a greater sense of connection, support and belonging through the act of listening deeply. So often in life, people do not feel heard. Listening, by nature, is a gift we can give to others.

How we listen to one another is important when sharing our journal writing. Listening means being receptive to what is being shared and also hearing beyond the words… this is essential towards building trust in the circle (group). Listening also implies being non-judgmental. (Cutler et al., 2014, p.46).

Practice 4: Bear Witness

What is bearing witness? As coaches, this is part of the work that we do. Perhaps Margaret Wheatley says it best:

"When I bear witness, I turn toward another and am willing to let their experience enter my heart. I step into the picture, by being willing to be open to their experience, to not turn away my gaze… We can feel hopeless and overwhelmed by this world; we can turn and just live the best life we can. Or we can learn to bear witness."

Bearing witness asks us to be fully present and hold the space for one another. It is a way of interacting with respect for another human being that honours who they are and what they are sharing…This enables us to truly see one another in authentic, honest ways - so we may see ourselves with this level of kindness and depth. (Cutler et al., 2014, p.50).

So, I invite you to be creative and courageous as you play with writing and journaling as transformational practices. Learn how journaling can serve as a catalyst for creative self-expression, growth, learning, compassion and connection.

"When we come together and share our stories, it expands our notion of what is possible. It changes the person telling the story, it changes whoever is listening to the story, and it changes how we understand our own story." Al-Jen Pod

[1] Cutler, W., Monk, L. & Shira, A. (2014). Writing Alone Together: Journalling in a Circle of Women for Creativity, Compassion and Connection. Salt Spring Island: Butterfly Press.

If you liked this article on Journaling Practices, you may also like:

  • 4 Self-Love & Compassion Practices for You and Your Clients | by Lynda Monk
  • 5 Nature Themed Coaching Activity Ideas for You & Your Clients this Summer!
  • Reflective Journaling Exercise For Stress Release & Authentic Well-Being | By Lynda Monk

Lynda Monk Headshot

Contributing Author:

Lynda Monk, MSW, RSW, CPCC is the Director of the International Association for Journal Writing . Lynda regularly writes, speaks, and teaches about the transformational and healing power of writing. She is the co-author of Writing Alone Together : Journalling in a Circle of Women for Creativity , Compassion and Connection (2014), and co-editor of Transformational Journaling for Coaches, Therapists, and Clients : A Complete Guide to the Benefits of Personal Writing (2021) . Lynda is also co-editor of The Great Book of Journaling (2022). You can find her FREE gift for coaches here: Gratitude Journaling for Coaches & Clients Workbook .

Learn more about Lynda & see all their articles here >>

Image of People sitting in a circle sharing by Monkey Business Images via Shutterstock

' src=

Hi! Thanks for this! It's given me a lot of insights regarding journaling and how to do it in a group. Would it be okay if you expound more on the fourth practice of bearing witness? What exactly do we need to do and how do we go about it?

Looking forward to hearing from you! Thanks!

' src=

Hi Ana, thanks for reading my article and for your comment and question. Bearing witness is the practice of really being present in our minds, our bodies, our breath - being mindfully present and attuned to listen, see and observe, witness - without judgment and with compassion the sharing of another person. We do not strive to fix or council or change anything, but rather we fully receive the sharing (stories, words, writing, etc.) of another in a way they know they have been heard and honoured for their sharing. I hope this helps! It is a lot like "level 3 listening" we learn as coaches, whole body listening (witnessing is deeper than listening) - it is receiving the wholeness of who that person is being in the moment as they share and we witness. It is a felt sense. It is a bit like trying to describe love, yet, as with love their are things we can do to be loving. There are ways of being and listening - when we are witnessing. Best wishes!

Leave a Reply Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses cookies to power our shopping cart and to provide us with analytics so we can continuously improve.

By continuing to use this site you are agreeing to our use of these cookies. View Our Cookie Statement

Privacy Overview

The International Association for Journal Writing Logo

We help you  tap into the power of journaling to change your life!  Learn how to write consistently, deeply and authentically.  Join a community of people who love journaling .

journal writing group

  • Deepen your journaling
  • Be inspired to write consistently
  • Spark your creativity
  • Connect with other journal writers
  • Receive all of our exclusive member benefits

Plus , receive The Great Journaling Journey course FREE (value $67.00) when you become a member!

journal writing group

Be Inspired to Journal.

You will also receive a complimentary subscription of our IAJW Journal Juice Museletter. Your information will NEVER be shared. We respect your privacy.

journal writing group

I often think about how different my journaling world has been since becoming a member of IAJW. While journaling has been such an important part of my life since 1974, it was pretty much a solitary journey, aside from the occasional journal workshops I would facilitate. People in my life knew about my extensive collection of journals, but that’s where it ended. Now I am loving being part of a community of like-minded individuals and having the opportunity to share with them in a variety of ways. It has opened new doors for me, and I am immensely grateful.  – Merle R. Saferstein, IAJW Member

journal writing group

Do you want some creative inspiration and fresh ideas for your journaling? Get more benefits out of going to the page with our amazing life journaling courses!

journal writing group

Register now for our FREE Go To The Page Speaker Series !

How to Use Journaling to Thrive During Change & Transition 

Get access to an inspiring interview each day June 19th – 26th .

Discover inspiring ways to think about change so you can make the best of all transitions in your life!  

Link to Online Journal Writing Courses

For years, I’ve been searching for a community of fellow journalers. I am thrilled to be part of such a supportive group of writers who understand the value of journaling, are devoted to learning more about themselves and the world through the process, and happily share their insights with the rest of us. I encourage anyone with a love for the written word and the power of journaling to join IAJW to discover the amazing benefits of this practice!

– Vicky DeCoster, Life Transitions Coach and Author

The Power of Daily Practice

In this FREE Webinar you will learn:

  • The fundamental importance of daily practice
  • The relationships among daily practice, meaning & purpose
  • The eight keys to daily practice
  • Varieties of daily practice – what’s available to you?
  • Challenges to daily practice – and what to do about them!

Come join Lynda Monk and Dr. Eric Maisel for this inspiring hour!

journal writing group

Our 2nd Annual High Five Gratitude Giveaway is on now – Sept.18-21, 2023! Sign-up here to get your free gifts >>

High 5 Gratitude Giveaway

Featured Product

the art of journal coaching

Learn how to help others through The Art of Journal Coaching . Discover the art, heart and process of journaling coaching with two experienced coaches and facilitators, Lynda Monk & Eric Maisel . Join us for powerful 12 week learning journey starting April 2nd, 2024!

Learn More >>

Take advantage of our early registration special on now through February 29th, 2024. Save $300 off!

From Our Journal Writing Blog…

How to Journal

Journaling & Rug Hooking

Journaling & Rug Hooking Article by Gwen Dixon Photos provided by featured rug hookers. Lately, the concept of journaling and rug hooking has captured my interest. With the dedication and inspiration to explore further,... Read More >>

journal writing group

How to Journal Consistently 

Do you want to create the journaling habit in 2024?  Journaling, like any other worthwhile habit, has many benefits. With the New Year soon before us, many people want to start, and hope to... Read More >>

journal writing group

From the Pages of My Journal – Dear Gratitude…

During our recent IAJW Member event, in our Writing Alone Together Circle, our theme was Growing Gratitude. I find that during these complex times we are living in, it is so important to have... Read More >>

Journaling has been my soft place to land since my first “5-year personal diary” until now, many years later. I am still learning, growing and using journaling personally and professionally. Meeting Lynda Monk and coming to the IAJW was like coming home to a family dear to me that I respect, value and know who love Journaling just as much as I do. Being part of the Journal Council, is an honor and I know I can wholeheartedly trust the expertise, the integrity of the organization and the quality of products offered here.    – Nicolle Nattrass, Counsellor, Author, Performer

How can the IAJW help you with your Journal Writing?

We know how to help you get the most out of your journal writing:

  • To help you write often, in your own voice, and move into new and deeper territory
  • To help you find the gold in your journals.
  • To help you know yourself better.
  • To help you make connections, gain insights, see life patterns, and ultimately make the life changes you want–whether it is to improve relationships, to figure out how to move forward through a transition period, to balance your emotions, to improve your health, or to become a better writer.

We do this by offering:

  • eCourses designed specifically for Journal Writers
  • Journal Writing Products including eBooks , self-paced Audio Classes and Journal Writing Tools
  • A Journal Writing Blog packed full of great tips and ideas
  • PLUS, once you are an IAJW Member , you will get access to our Library of Journal Writing Articles and Audio Recordings, Our Monthly Telechats and our Monthly Journal Writing Circles.

Our mission is to inspire your creative self-expression and life enrichment through journaling!

It’s Our March Madness Sale!

journal writing group

I love that I can always count all the warmth, shared ideas and comraderie of the IAJW community. I appreciate Lynda’s leadership, wisdom and loving-kindness which she infuses into all that she does. I also appreciate the courses, tools, and spontaneous writing prompts all of which enhance my journaling, and broaden my point of view. The monthly tele-chats are always lively, and informative and the guests share ideas and in-the-moment experiences that enhance and refresh my journaling and my life. All the way around the IAJW is a treasure that feels like home to me, and it always has. Thank you Lynda!  – Cheryl Finley Goggins, IAJW Member

Get Our Journaling Books!

journal writing group

The Writing Center • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Group Writing

What this handout is about.

Whether in the academic world or the business world, all of us are likely to participate in some form of group writing—an undergraduate group project for a class, a collaborative research paper or grant proposal, or a report produced by a business team. Writing in a group can have many benefits: multiple brains are better than one, both for generating ideas and for getting a job done. However, working in a group can sometimes be stressful because there are various opinions and writing styles to incorporate into one final product that pleases everyone. This handout will offer an overview of the collaborative process, strategies for writing successfully together, and tips for avoiding common pitfalls. It will also include links to some other handouts that may be especially helpful as your group moves through the writing process.

Disclaimer and disclosure

As this is a group writing handout, several Writing Center coaches worked together to create it. No coaches were harmed in this process; however, we did experience both the pros and the cons of the collaborative process. We have personally tested the various methods for sharing files and scheduling meetings that are described here. However, these are only our suggestions; we do not advocate any particular service or site.

The spectrum of collaboration in group writing

All writing can be considered collaborative in a sense, though we often don’t think of it that way. It would be truly surprising to find an author whose writing, even if it was completed independently, had not been influenced at some point by discussions with friends or colleagues. The range of possible collaboration varies from a group of co-authors who go through each portion of the writing process together, writing as a group with one voice, to a group with a primary author who does the majority of the work and then receives comments or edits from the co-authors.

A diagram illustrating the spectrum of collaboration in group writing with "more in-person collaboration" on the left and "less in-person collaboration" on the right.

Group projects for classes should usually fall towards the middle to left side of this diagram, with group members contributing roughly equally. However, in collaborations on research projects, the level of involvement of the various group members may vary widely. The key to success in either case is to be clear about group member responsibilities and expectations and to give credit (authorship) to members who contribute an appropriate amount. It may be useful to credit each group member for their various contributions.

Overview of steps of the collaborative process

Here we outline the steps of the collaborative process. You can use these questions to focus your thinking at each stage.

  • Share ideas and brainstorm together.
  • Formulate a draft thesis or argument .
  • Think about your assignment and the final product. What should it look like? What is its purpose? Who is the intended audience ?
  • Decide together who will write which parts of the paper/project.
  • What will the final product look like?
  • Arrange meetings: How often will the group or subsets of the group meet? When and where will the group meet? If the group doesn’t meet in person, how will information be shared?
  • Scheduling: What is the deadline for the final product? What are the deadlines for drafts?
  • How will the group find appropriate sources (books, journal articles, newspaper articles, visual media, trustworthy websites, interviews)? If the group will be creating data by conducting research, how will that process work?
  • Who will read and process the information found? This task again may be done by all members or divided up amongst members so that each person becomes the expert in one area and then teaches the rest of the group.
  • Think critically about the sources and their contributions to your topic. Which evidence should you include or exclude? Do you need more sources?
  • Analyze the data. How will you interpret your findings? What is the best way to present any relevant information to your readers-should you include pictures, graphs, tables, and charts, or just written text?
  • Note that brainstorming the main points of your paper as a group is helpful, even if separate parts of the writing are assigned to individuals. You’ll want to be sure that everyone agrees on the central ideas.
  • Where does your individual writing fit into the whole document?
  • Writing together may not be feasible for longer assignments or papers with coauthors at different universities, and it can be time-consuming. However, writing together does ensure that the finished document has one cohesive voice.
  • Talk about how the writing session should go BEFORE you get started. What goals do you have? How will you approach the writing task at hand?
  • Many people find it helpful to get all of the ideas down on paper in a rough form before discussing exact phrasing.
  • Remember that everyone has a different writing style! The most important thing is that your sentences be clear to readers.
  • If your group has drafted parts of the document separately, merge your ideas together into a single document first, then focus on meshing the styles. The first concern is to create a coherent product with a logical flow of ideas. Then the stylistic differences of the individual portions must be smoothed over.
  • Revise the ideas and structure of the paper before worrying about smaller, sentence-level errors (like problems with punctuation, grammar, or word choice). Is the argument clear? Is the evidence presented in a logical order? Do the transitions connect the ideas effectively?
  • Proofreading: Check for typos, spelling errors, punctuation problems, formatting issues, and grammatical mistakes. Reading the paper aloud is a very helpful strategy at this point.

Helpful collaborative writing strategies

Attitude counts for a lot.

Group work can be challenging at times, but a little enthusiasm can go a long way to helping the momentum of the group. Keep in mind that working in a group provides a unique opportunity to see how other people write; as you learn about their writing processes and strategies, you can reflect on your own. Working in a group inherently involves some level of negotiation, which will also facilitate your ability to skillfully work with others in the future.

Remember that respect goes along way! Group members will bring different skill sets and various amounts and types of background knowledge to the table. Show your fellow writers respect by listening carefully, talking to share your ideas, showing up on time for meetings, sending out drafts on schedule, providing positive feedback, and taking responsibility for an appropriate share of the work.

Start early and allow plenty of time for revising

Getting started early is important in individual projects; however, it is absolutely essential in group work. Because of the multiple people involved in researching and writing the paper, there are aspects of group projects that take additional time, such as deciding and agreeing upon a topic. Group projects should be approached in a structured way because there is simply less scheduling flexibility than when you are working alone. The final product should reflect a unified, cohesive voice and argument, and the only way of accomplishing this is by producing multiple drafts and revising them multiple times.

Plan a strategy for scheduling

One of the difficult aspects of collaborative writing is finding times when everyone can meet. Much of the group’s work may be completed individually, but face-to-face meetings are useful for ensuring that everyone is on the same page. Doodle.com , whenisgood.net , and needtomeet.com are free websites that can make scheduling easier. Using these sites, an organizer suggests multiple dates and times for a meeting, and then each group member can indicate whether they are able to meet at the specified times.

It is very important to set deadlines for drafts; people are busy, and not everyone will have time to read and respond at the last minute. It may help to assign a group facilitator who can send out reminders of the deadlines. If the writing is for a co-authored research paper, the lead author can take responsibility for reminding others that comments on a given draft are due by a specific date.

Submitting drafts at least one day ahead of the meeting allows other authors the opportunity to read over them before the meeting and arrive ready for a productive discussion.

Find a convenient and effective way to share files

There are many different ways to share drafts, research materials, and other files. Here we describe a few of the potential options we have explored and found to be functional. We do not advocate any one option, and we realize there are other equally useful options—this list is just a possible starting point for you:

  • Email attachments. People often share files by email; however, especially when there are many group members or there is a flurry of writing activity, this can lead to a deluge of emails in everyone’s inboxes and significant confusion about which file version is current.
  • Google documents . Files can be shared between group members and are instantaneously updated, even if two members are working at once. Changes made by one member will automatically appear on the document seen by all members. However, to use this option, every group member must have a Gmail account (which is free), and there are often formatting issues when converting Google documents back to Microsoft Word.
  • Dropbox . Dropbox.com is free to join. It allows you to share up to 2GB of files, which can then be synched and accessible from multiple computers. The downside of this approach is that everyone has to join, and someone must install the software on at least one personal computer. Dropbox can then be accessed from any computer online by logging onto the website.
  • Common server space. If all group members have access to a shared server space, this is often an ideal solution. Members of a lab group or a lab course with available server space typically have these resources. Just be sure to make a folder for your project and clearly label your files.

Note that even when you are sharing or storing files for group writing projects in a common location, it is still essential to periodically make back-up copies and store them on your own computer! It is never fun to lose your (or your group’s) hard work.

Try separating the tasks of revising and editing/proofreading

It may be helpful to assign giving feedback on specific items to particular group members. First, group members should provide general feedback and comments on content. Only after revising and solidifying the main ideas and structure of the paper should you move on to editing and proofreading. After all, there is no point in spending your time making a certain sentence as beautiful and correct as possible when that sentence may later be cut out. When completing your final revisions, it may be helpful to assign various concerns (for example, grammar, organization, flow, transitions, and format) to individual group members to focus this process. This is an excellent time to let group members play to their strengths; if you know that you are good at transitions, offer to take care of that editing task.

Your group project is an opportunity to become experts on your topic. Go to the library (in actuality or online), collect relevant books, articles, and data sources, and consult a reference librarian if you have any issues. Talk to your professor or TA early in the process to ensure that the group is on the right track. Find experts in the field to interview if it is appropriate. If you have data to analyze, meet with a statistician. If you are having issues with the writing, use the online handouts at the Writing Center or come in for a face-to-face meeting: a coach can meet with you as a group or one-on-one.

Immediately dividing the writing into pieces

While this may initially seem to be the best way to approach a group writing process, it can also generate more work later on, when the parts written separately must be put together into a unified document. The different pieces must first be edited to generate a logical flow of ideas, without repetition. Once the pieces have been stuck together, the entire paper must be edited to eliminate differences in style and any inconsistencies between the individual authors’ various chunks. Thus, while it may take more time up-front to write together, in the end a closer collaboration can save you from the difficulties of combining pieces of writing and may create a stronger, more cohesive document.

Procrastination

Although this is solid advice for any project, it is even more essential to start working on group projects in a timely manner. In group writing, there are more people to help with the work-but there are also multiple schedules to juggle and more opinions to seek.

Being a solo group member

Not everyone enjoys working in groups. You may truly desire to go solo on this project, and you may even be capable of doing a great job on your own. However, if this is a group assignment, then the prompt is asking for everyone to participate. If you are feeling the need to take over everything, try discussing expectations with your fellow group members as well as the teaching assistant or professor. However, always address your concerns with group members first. Try to approach the group project as a learning experiment: you are learning not only about the project material but also about how to motivate others and work together.

Waiting for other group members to do all of the work

If this is a project for a class, you are leaving your grade in the control of others. Leaving the work to everyone else is not fair to your group mates. And in the end, if you do not contribute, then you are taking credit for work that you did not do; this is a form of academic dishonesty. To ensure that you can do your share, try to volunteer early for a portion of the work that you are interested in or feel you can manage.

Leaving all the end work to one person

It may be tempting to leave all merging, editing, and/or presentation work to one person. Be careful. There are several reasons why this may be ill-advised. 1) The editor/presenter may not completely understand every idea, sentence, or word that another author wrote, leading to ambiguity or even mistakes in the end paper or presentation. 2) Editing is tough, time-consuming work. The editor often finds himself or herself doing more work than was expected as they try to decipher and merge the original contributions under the time pressure of an approaching deadline. If you decide to follow this path and have one person combine the separate writings of many people, be sure to leave plenty of time for a final review by all of the writers. Ask the editor to send out the final draft of the completed work to each of the authors and let every contributor review and respond to the final product. Ideally, there should also be a test run of any live presentations that the group or a representative may make.

Entirely negative critiques

When giving feedback or commenting on the work of other group members, focusing only on “problems” can be overwhelming and put your colleagues on the defensive. Try to highlight the positive parts of the project in addition to pointing out things that need work. Remember that this is constructive feedback, so don’t forget to add concrete, specific suggestions on how to proceed. It can also be helpful to remind yourself that many of your comments are your own opinions or reactions, not absolute, unquestionable truths, and then phrase what you say accordingly. It is much easier and more helpful to hear “I had trouble understanding this paragraph because I couldn’t see how it tied back to our main argument” than to hear “this paragraph is unclear and irrelevant.”

Writing in a group can be challenging, but it is also a wonderful opportunity to learn about your topic, the writing process, and the best strategies for collaboration. We hope that our tips will help you and your group members have a great experience.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Cross, Geoffrey. 1994. Collaboration and Conflict: A Contextual Exploration of Group Writing and Positive Emphasis . Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.

Ede, Lisa S., and Andrea Lunsford. 1990. Singular Texts/Plural Authors: Perspectives on Collaborative Writing . Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.

Speck, Bruce W. 2002. Facilitating Students’ Collaborative Writing . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Make a Gift

  • Good Writing
  • Revising & Rewriting
  • Nonfiction Writing
  • Academic Writing
  • Travel Writing
  • Literary Agents
  • Getting Published
  • Fiction Writing
  • Self-Publishing
  • Marketing & Selling Books
  • Building a Blog
  • Making Money Blogging
  • Boosting Blog Traffic
  • Online Writing
  • eZine Writing
  • Making Money Online
  • Non-Fiction Writing
  • Magazine Writing
  • Pitching Query Letters
  • Working With Editors
  • Professional Writers
  • Newspaper Writing
  • Making Money Writing
  • Running a Writing Business

13 Tips and Prompts for Creative Journaling

  • September 4, 2023

Maybe you have to journal for a school assignment, or you want to start journaling for your emotional health. Maybe you want to write a book! Or you want to write about your experiences and memories in a travel journal. You want to journal (or you’re being forced to journal by a teacher or therapist), but you don’t know how to start journaling. These tips and questions for creative journaling will get and keep the ink flowing.

How to Journal Ideas for Journaling

How do you feel about a group journal? In Writing Alone Together: Journalling in a Circle of Women for Creativity, Compassion and Connection , Ahava Shira, Wendy Judith Cutler,  and Lynda Monk explore how they journal, what they journal about, and how their journaling helped shaped who they are personally, culturally, politically, and spiritually. They also describe how to cultivate the practice of journaling in your life, through journaling ideas and prompts, quotations from women writers, and suggestions for creating your own circle of women writing together. This is a wonderful book, especially if you’re new to journaling or are getting bored of writing in your journal. It’s “how to journal” with a group twist!

I started a writing group when I lived on Bowen Island, BC – and that’s when I wrote 7 Tips for Starting a Writers’ Group – Writing Alone, Together . A writers’ group is different than a journaling group, and Cutler et al’s book inspired me to start a whole new group for women who want to be creative together.

If you want to journal but don’t know how to start journaling, consider joining a group. You should have your own private journal – but you can also literally create a group journal . I taught my grade 8 students (who had to write in their journals every day, mandated by the school) how to write a group journal. One student starts a story in her journal and passes it to the next student. The next student has a few minutes to continue the story. Then the journal gets passed, until everyone has had the chance to write in everyone else’s journal. It’s fun for most students – especially if they don’t know how to start journaling.

The following journaling ideas and tips on how to journal are based on my experience with my students, as well as the Writing Alone Together book. several questions for creative journaling. I also included three photos of different journals at various stages of my life.

5 Tips to Help You Start Journaling

Journaling is often thought of as a solo practice – as is writing. But, Writing Alone Together – and my own experience with my writing group – has shown me that gathering with other writers creates a sense of community that inspires us to write more, and more deeply. Journaling helps you change, process changes in your life, and reflect more deeply on yourself.

1. Get a journal that inspires you to write

what is a journal

I wouldn’t recommend buying an expensive leather journal, because it may be too intimidating for you to start journaling. I’ve journaled in cheap notebooks – and I always buy hardcover ones because it’s easier to write in any position or on any surface. I’ve even journaled in artists’ sketchbooks, narrow accounting ledgers, and graph notebooks. There is no specific answer to the “what is a journal” question.

2. Ask people how and why they journal

Knowing why people spend time writing in their journals will help you learn how to journal. In Writing Alone Together, Cutler et al describe their experience with writing in their journals – which will give you ideas for your own journaling! To me, journaling has always been about personal growth, self-exploration, and learning what you really think and feel about your experiences, memories, and life.

A Piccadilly Soft Leatherlook Celtic Knot Journal  is what I’m journaling in these days. It’s also the journal I took on my recent trip to Nepal, Dubai and Hong Kong – it’s the perfect travel journal.

I think I started journaling because I was lonely. I had a very difficult childhood (foster homes, schizophrenic mother, no dad) and there were very few people I could rely on. My journals were my buddies, my companions, and my outlet for pain, grief, confusion, and crushes on boys.

3. Use creative journaling prompts (see below)

Most of my grade 8 students had a difficult time journaling, so I gave them a quotation or story prompt to write about at the beginning of every class. These journaling prompts are a great way to get the “journaling juices” flowing, especially if you’re new to journal writing. Writing Alone Together has several journaling prompts for group and individual writers to use in their journals.

4. Write about the past

How to Journal

Some writers need to process painful memories so they can heal and move forward in life. A journal is the perfect place to be honest and authentic, and express what happened to you and how you feel about it. If you’ve experienced a traumatic event that feels overwhelming, talk to a counselor or someone you trust. Share your journal with him or her. Secrets are only destructive when they’re kept secret.

“It’s not forgetting that heals. It’s remembering.” – Amy Greene. If you want to write your memoirs, read  10 Tips on How to Write Your Life Story .

5. Consider journaling in a group

In Writing Alone Together, Cutler et al share their Seven Principles for journaling as a group. “Through our journey of Writing Alone Together, recurring themes and benefits kept surfacing within our individual writing and in our shared conversations,” they write. “We refer to these as the Seven Principles.”

  • Grounding in the Moment
  • Slowing Down and Paying Attention
  • Developing Intimacy
  • Trusting Your Own Experience
  • Unleashing Creativity
  • Acknowledging Conflicts and Differences
  • Exploring the Personal as Political

The principles are fully described in Writing Alone Together: Journalling in a Circle of Women for Creativity, Compassion and Connection . The authors even share examples of each principle from their own journals. It’s a very helpful, practical book on how to start journaling in a group or even individually.

An excursion overseas, whether a solo trip or group trek, is an excellent way to learn how to start journaling. Read 10 Best Travel Journals for Solo and Group Trips to get started.

8 Prompts for Creative Journaling

The beauty of a journal is that you can write about whatever you want to write about! Just like there isn’t one right answer to the “what is a journal?”, there aren’t any clear-cut rules on how to journal.

The first five questions are more emotional and spiritual in nature, requiring deep thought and self-awareness. The next five questions are more descriptive, designed for creative writing and journaling instead of self-discovery.

1. What do you dream about at night? What do you daydream about?

Here’s what I wrote in my journal this morning: “My dream last night! I dreamed of encouraging girls to grow healthy emotionally, physically, and spiritually so they don’t allow themselves to be consumed by men.” I often journal about my dreams, both daydreams and night dreams. I dream about what my heart aches for, what I wise for, and what I’m struggling with.

2. What did you used to journal about?

Journaling Ideas How to Journal

In the past six months, my journaling has changed into talking to God. I pray in my journal now, and never seem to struggle with finding journaling ideas. I used to be bored with writing in my journal because I got tired of writing about the “same old” stuff all the time. It’s much more interesting to talk to God, and I feel so much healthier and happier after journaling with God.

If you want to use your journal to become “more” of a writer, read How to Write When You Have No Ideas. You’ll find inspiration and motivation to keep journaling even when you feel like you have nothing to say.

3. What excites or upsets you about politics, culture, society, humankind?

In the “Exploring the Personal as Political” Principle of journaling as a group, Cutler et al offer tips and ideas for tying your writing in with your culture. For example, they encourage writers to connect their life stories to the current social, cultural, and political context. They also encourage writers to celebrate the women whose voices and activism have made a difference in your life.

4. What would you write in a letter to someone you love or hate?

This creative journaling question is on my mind because my grandma’s birthday just passed. And the anniversary of her death is approaching next month; she died two weeks before my own birthday. I have so many regrets about the way I treated her, took her for granted, neglected and mistreated her. My grandma did so much for me – I even lived with her for a year when my mom was too sick to take care of me! She took me on vacations to Hawaii and Mexico, gave me a huge weekly allowance even though I did nothing to deserve it, and helped me achieve whatever goals I wanted. See how effective the right question for creative journaling can be?

5. What is on your mind, heart and soul right now?

Journal about something you’re struggling with, yearning for, or celebrating. What’s on mind? You saw from my previous question for creative journaling that my grandma is on my mind. Don’t think about what to journal about or how to write it; just put your pen to paper and write about something that is bothering you. Give yourself time and space. Get quiet, and allow your thoughts and ideas to bubble to the surface.

If you need to journal for school or an assignment, read 7 Ideas for Writers Who Have No Idea What to Write About .

6. What is your favorite thing about summer?

Summer is my least favorite season because it has no structure. It’s too distracting, beautiful, and hot to write. Lazy sunshine-y days lure me into daydreams, wandering through grassy fields, wondering what makes the summer breeze smell so delicious. If you’re a mom or even a kid in a family, your brothers and sisters may be underfoot, complaining they’re bored. Summer is the worst time to think about starting a journal or getting serious about journaling, right?

But wait a minute! Is summer the problem, or is it our preconceived notions that hold us back? For instance, as a child I survived summer by forcing my friends to play “school.” I don’t remember if I forced them to write in their journals 🙂 but I’d rather be in school than in the summertime.

7. Who or what distracts you from journaling?

As a freelance writer, distractions are everywhere . As a blogger working from home, I find myself more interested in dustballs than finding creative journaling prompts for you. So I picked up Robert Pagliarini’s book The Other 8 Hours: Maximize Your Free Time to Create New Wealth & Purpose – and it changed how I work and write and clean house (which is never, now). Last week I created my own “Goal Achievement Plan” (daily schedule) – and I can’t believe how much more productive, creative, and focused I am. In just a week! My new daily schedule frees me to be a better writer, blogger, entrepreneur, freelancer, friend, and wife. I’m not distracted by Twitter, emails, tweaking my blogs, reading other people’s blogs – those were the reasons I wasn’t writing as much as I wanted.

Distractions are a major reason people don’t do what they want or need to do – especially when they have the whole wide world literally at their fingertips. Can you creatively journal about what distracts you from journaling creatively?

8. What bores you about journaling?

Writers don’t write because they’re bored with the subject, characters, plot or setting. If you were enchanted, you would journal. Creativity might even come naturally. What do you know lots about? What are you fascinated by? Those are good topics to journal about. If you’re a student and journaling is part of your assignment, learn how to make a boring topic more interesting .

As you can see, creative journaling can be personal or professional, emotional or external. It can be for school or even business ideas, spiritual healing or self-discovery. My journal is very personal and spiritual right now and has been for a decade – but maybe some day I’ll journal about my political or social views on various events. Who knows? That’s the beauty of creative journaling 🙂

I mentioned that I love journaling in my Piccadilly Soft Leatherlook Celtic Knot Journal . Piccadilly also has a book of 300 Writing Prompts , which is perfect for writers who don’t know what to journal about or how to start journaling.

Comments Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Notify me of new posts by email.

5 thoughts on “13 Tips and Prompts for Creative Journaling”

I’m getting ready to start writing my first book and your tips for creative journaling really helped. I started a story awhile ago I spent so much time rereading and rewording the beginning I never finished it. I’m going to make sure that doesn’t happen with my book by writing in my journal. Thank you!

Hey Laurie,

I like the fact that you highlighted the importance of having a writing group when creating a journal. Often times, most people believe that journals are made alone. Since it’s a record of daily experiences and happenings, most writers feel embarrass to share their journal. This perception is certainly no good at all. In any given sense, it is important that journals are made with a few friends around. That way, writers will not get only or depress while recording their thoughts and feelings.

Hi Laurie! This was a terrific read. I recently started my own journal blog and this article has a ton of tremendous useful and accurate information! Thank you for this share!

Yeah, this is the best posts I’ve read on how to start journaling. Lots of informative and easy to understand how to get an idea to create my journal blog… two thumbs up for Laurie! 🙂

Wow, what an inspiring post! I think in today’s world, the days of private journaling has almost become a forgotten art. Everything seems to be broadcasted to the world, and the intimacy tends to get shoved off to the wayside.

Great post Laurie!

Journal Writing: A Step-By-Step Guide for Beginners

' src=

  • January 04, 2024

Home » Day One Blog » Journal Writing: A Step-By-Step Guide for Beginners

Journal writing has been practiced for centuries, offering countless individuals a private space for self-expression, self-discovery, and personal growth. However, embarking on this journey can be daunting for many, especially if you are new to the world of journaling. That’s where this guide comes in, designed to help you navigate the ins and outs of journal writing and set you on the path to unlocking your inner world.

In this step-by-step guide, we’ll explore different styles of journal writing, the benefits it can bring to your mental and emotional well-being, and the various tools and techniques available to make your journaling experience enjoyable and fulfilling. Whether you’re looking to improve your mental health, enhance your creativity, or simply document your life’s journey, this guide will provide you with the knowledge and inspiration needed to start and maintain a successful journal writing practice. So, grab a pen, a notebook, or your favorite digital device, and let’s begin our journey into the wonderful world of journal writing.

What is Journal Writing?

Journal writing is the practice of regularly recording thoughts, feelings, experiences, ideas, and observations in a personal, private, or semi-private format. Journal writing can serve various purposes, such as self-reflection , self-expression, self-discovery, personal growth, creativity, problem-solving, and stress relief.

People often use journal writing as a way to process emotions, explore personal goals, track habits, and document their lives. Journal writing can be done using physical notebooks, digital apps, or even voice recordings, depending on your preferences and needs. The act of journal writing encourages introspection, mindfulness, and a deeper understanding of oneself, making it a valuable tool for personal development and well-being.

“Writing in a journal gives me a place to report, interpret, argue, reflect, save, question, predict, unload, praise, compare, cry, laugh, draw, paint, and remember.” — Luci Swindoll

The Many Forms of Journal Writing

Journal writing can take many forms, each with its unique purpose and approach. The beauty of journaling lies in its flexibility, allowing you to create a journaling practice tailored to your unique needs.

A scene of journal writing with a laptop and open notebook.

Personal Journals

Journaling is a personal form or self-expression, from the traditional diary to more specialized journals like gratitude or mood journals. Whether you’re looking to document your daily experiences, explore your dreams, or improve your mental health, there is a personal journal out there that can help you on your journey.

  • Reflective journal : This form of journal writing focuses on personal reflection, introspection, and self-analysis. Reflective journaling encourages you to consider your emotions, experiences, and personal growth by asking yourself questions and exploring your thoughts in depth.
  • Gratitude journal : A gratitude journal focuses on regularly documenting things one is grateful for, promoting a positive mindset and appreciation for life’s blessings.
  • Travel journal : Travel journals document experiences, memories, and reflections from trips and adventures, often including photos, ticket stubs, or other memorabilia.
  • Dream journal : These are used to record and analyze dreams, often to explore the subconscious mind or improve dream recall and lucidity.
  • Mood journal : Mood journals focus on tracking and understanding one’s emotions and mental state over time. By recording daily moods, thoughts, and triggers, individuals can gain insight into their emotional patterns, identify potential stressors, and develop effective coping strategies. Mood journals can be especially helpful for those dealing with mental health challenges, such as anxiety or depression.

an example of an art journal sketch

Creative Journals

Journaling can help boost creativity and provide an outlet for self-expression. Creative journals, in particular, offer a unique way to explore and develop your artistic abilities, ideas, and insights. Whether you’re an artist, writer, or simply looking to tap into your creative side, here are few journaling ideas to try:

  • Art journal: These journals combine visual art with written thoughts and reflections, allowing individuals to express themselves creatively through various media like drawing, painting, collage, or photography.
  • Idea journal: Idea journals serve as a collection point for creative thoughts, brainstorming sessions, and inspiration. They provide a dedicated space for individuals to jot down ideas, quotes, sketches, or concepts as they arise, fostering innovation and helping to connect disparate thoughts. Idea journals can be useful for artists, writers, entrepreneurs, or anyone seeking to capture and nurture their creative impulses.
  • Creative writing journal: A creative writing journal can help you explore your imagination and refine your writing skills. Whether you’re an aspiring novelist, a poet, or a blogger, a creative writing journal can help you develop your voice and hone your craft. From brainstorming sessions to character sketches, a creative writing journal is an essential tool for any writer looking to cultivate their creativity and improve their writing.

A creative writing journal example

Productivity and Self-Improvement Journals

Journaling can help you stay organized, focused, and motivated. Whether you’re striving for personal growth, professional success, or a healthier lifestyle, are are a few types of journals that can help you achieve your goals:

  • Bullet journals: A bullet journal is a customizable organization system that combines planning, note-taking, and goal-setting. It often uses symbols, lists, and trackers to help individuals stay organized and focused.
  • Goal-setting journals: These journals focus on journaling goals to set, track, and reflect on personal or professional goals, helping individuals maintain motivation and achieve success.
  • Habit trackers: Habit tracking journals are dedicated to monitoring and improving daily habits, such as exercise, sleep, or nutrition, to promote a healthier lifestyle.
  • Fitness journal : Fitness journals are designed to help individuals track, plan, and reflect on their physical activities and exercise routines. By documenting workouts, progress, and personal goals, fitness journals can provide motivation, accountability, and insights into one’s strengths and areas for improvement. They often include information on exercises performed, duration, intensity, and even subjective factors like energy levels and mood, supporting a holistic approach to fitness and well-being.
  • Reading journals: These journals track books read, favorite quotes, and personal reflections on the material, serving as a personalized reading history and source of recommendations.
  • Prayer or spiritual journals: These journals are used to document prayers, religious or spiritual experiences, insights, and personal growth in one’s spiritual journey.
  • Self-care journal : A self-care journal is a tool used to prioritize and reflect on one’s self-care practices. It can include a range of activities, such as setting self-care goals, tracking self-care habits, and exploring personal values and needs. By documenting self-care practices and reflecting on their effectiveness, individuals can improve their overall well-being and develop a stronger sense of self-awareness and self-compassion. Self-care journals can also include prompts or exercises that encourage individuals to practice self-care in creative and meaningful ways.

The Psychological and Emotional Benefits of Journal Writing

Journaling benefits include numerous psychological and emotional benefits that can contribute to an individual’s overall well-being. Here are some key advantages of maintaining a regular journaling habit :

Improved mental health

  • Stress reduction: Journal writing is one method of dealing with stress and anxiety. Journaling provides an outlet for individuals to express their thoughts and feelings, helping to release built-up tension and stress. This process allows for emotional catharsis and can contribute to a sense of calm and relaxation.
  • Anxiety management: Journaling for anxiety can help individuals to identify and explore the sources of their anxiety, enabling them to gain a better understanding of their triggers and develop effective coping strategies. Writing down anxious thoughts can also help to organize and rationalize them, making them feel more manageable.
  • Coping with depression: Journaling for depression can offer a safe and non-judgmental space for individuals to explore and process their emotions, which can be particularly beneficial for those dealing with depression. It can also serve as a tool for tracking mood patterns and identifying potential areas of improvement or intervention.

Increased self-awareness and personal growth

  • Reflecting on emotions and thoughts: Journal writing encourages introspection, allowing individuals to delve deeper into their feelings and thought processes. This self-examination can lead to a better understanding of one’s emotions, beliefs, and motivations.
  • Gaining insights and understanding patterns: By regularly documenting experiences and emotions, individuals can identify recurring patterns in their behavior, relationships, and decision-making. Recognizing these patterns can provide valuable insights that guide personal growth and development.

Enhanced creativity and problem-solving skills

  • Boosting creativity through unstructured writing: Journal writing can stimulate creativity by providing a space for free, unstructured expression. By writing without restrictions, individuals can tap into their imagination and discover new ideas, perspectives, or solutions.
  • Identifying and working through personal challenges: Journal writing can serve as a powerful problem-solving tool, enabling individuals to analyze their difficulties, break them down into manageable components, and brainstorm potential solutions. This process can lead to greater self-awareness and resilience in the face of personal challenges.

Journal Writing Techniques: Mastering the Art of Self-Expression

As you embark on your journal writing journey, exploring various journaling techniques can help you unlock the full potential of self-expression. In this section, we’ll dive into a range of journal writing techniques designed to enhance your ability to communicate your thoughts, emotions, and experiences effectively. From freewriting or stream of consciousness writing to reflective journaling and creative writing exercises, these methods will empower you to express yourself authentically and confidently in your journal.

“Journal writing is a voyage to the interior.” — Christina Baldwin

There are various journal writing techniques that cater to different needs, preferences, and purposes. Here are some popular techniques to explore:

  • Daily log: This type of journaling serves as a personal account or log of one’s daily life, capturing events, emotions, and reflections in a structured and consistent manner. The daily log journal serves as both a historical record and a tool for self-reflection, allowing individuals to track their progress, habits, and emotional patterns over time.
  • Daily reflection : Through the process of daily reflection , you can encourage contemplation, providing an opportunity to explore your thoughts, emotions, and experiences on a deeper lever.
  • Freewriting: This journaling technique involves writing continuously without stopping to edit or censor your thoughts. Freewriting allows your thoughts to flow naturally onto the page, fostering self-expression and creativity.
  • Gratitude journaling: This common form of journal writing regularly documents the things you’re grateful for, focusing on positive aspects of your life. This technique can improve your overall well-being and foster a more optimistic mindset.
  • Guided prompts and questions: Using journal prompts or questions can help structure your writing and explore specific themes or topics. Prompts can range from simple (e.g., “What made me happy today?”) to more complex (e.g., “How have my past experiences shaped my current beliefs?”).
  • Creative writing exercises: Engaging in creative writing exercises, such as crafting short stories, poetry, or character sketches, can help you develop your writing skills and stimulate your imagination.
  • Lists and brainstorming: Creating lists or brainstorming ideas can help you organize your thoughts, set goals, or generate ideas for future projects or journal entries.
  • Stream of consciousness : Similar to freewriting, stream of consciousness writing involves capturing your thoughts, feelings, and mental images as they come to mind, without worrying about grammar or structure. This technique can help you tap into your subconscious and unveil deeper insights.
  • Mind mapping: This visual technique involves creating a diagram to represent ideas, tasks, or concepts. Mind mapping can help you explore connections between different thoughts and make sense of complex issues.
  • Art journaling: Combine visual art with written thoughts and reflections, using drawing, painting, collage, or photography to express yourself creatively.
  • Dialogue journaling: Write a conversation between yourself and another person, a fictional character, or even an aspect of yourself (e.g., your inner critic). This technique can help you explore different perspectives and better understand your emotions.

These are just a few journal writing techniques to try. Feel free to experiment with different journaling ideas to create a journaling practice that you enjoy.

A scene of a desk with an open journal notebook and journey entry on a computer

Journaling Writing: Step-by-Step

Writing in a journal is a personal and flexible process, but if you’re looking for a step-by-step guide to get started, here are 8 steps to try:

Step 1: Choose a journal.

Your journaling experience should be comfortable and enjoyable, so selecting the right journaling tools and format can play an important role in building a consistent and rewarding journaling practice. Select a physical notebook or journal app for your journal writing that suits your preferences and needs. Choose writing tools, such as pens, pencils, or markers, that you enjoy using and that inspire you to write.

A person writes in a journal

Tips for choosing a journal:

  • Consider your personal writing style. A comfortable format will encourage you to write more often, so choose a journal with a layout that suits your writing style, whether you prefer lined, unlined, or dotted pages. Maybe you prefer to type instead of handwrite, or perhaps you’d rather dictate your journal entries, so consider exploring digital journaling options. Digital journaling can offer a variety of input methods, such as typing, voice-to-text, or even drawing with a stylus, allowing you to choose a method that best fits your preferences and makes journaling more enjoyable and accessible.
  • Choose a journal with high-quality materials. A well-made journal, with durable binding and paper that doesn’t bleed through, will make your journaling experience more enjoyable and ensure your writing stands the test of time.
  • Factor in size and portability. Consider how and where you’ll be using your journal. If you plan to carry it with you, opt for a smaller, lightweight journal. If you prefer to write at home or need more space, a larger journal may be more suitable.
  • Evaluate the aesthetic appeal. Choose a journal design that resonates with you personally. A visually appealing journal can inspire you to write more often and make your journaling practice feel more special.
  • Explore digital journaling options. If you prefer to write on a device, such as your laptop computer or phone, download a journaling app like Day One that offers features such as customizable templates, end-to-end encryption, daily prompts, and syncing across devices.

Step 2: Create a comfortable and inspiring writing environment.

Find a quiet, comfortable space where you can focus on your writing. Light a candle or turn on some music to set the mood and inspire creativity. Minimize distractions by turning off notifications on your phone or other electronic devices. Surround yourself with items that bring you joy or stimulate your senses, such as plants, inspiring artwork, or a cozy blanket. By crafting an inviting and personalized writing environment, you’ll be more motivated and inclined to immerse yourself in your journaling practice.

A person begins a new journal entry

Tips for creating a journal writing environment:

  • Keep your writing materials organized. Having an organized space with all your journaling tools easily accessible can help reduce distractions and maintain focus. Consider using a storage system or designated area for your journal, pens, and other materials to keep your space tidy and inviting.
  • Optimize lighting. Make sure your writing environment has sufficient lighting to avoid eye strain. Natural light is preferable, but if it’s not available, use a combination of ambient and task lighting to create a well-lit space that encourages focus and creativity.
  • Prioritize ergonomics. Ensure your writing setup supports a healthy posture. Use a comfortable chair, adjust the height of your desk or table, and position your writing materials at an appropriate angle to minimize strain on your body.
  • Engage your senses. Stimulate your creativity by incorporating elements that appeal to your senses. Use scented candles, essential oils, or incense to create a pleasant aroma, play soft background music or nature sounds to set the mood, and consider textures like a cozy blanket or a comfortable cushion to enhance your physical comfort. By engaging multiple senses, you can create a rich and immersive writing environment that sparks inspiration.
  • Embrace flexibility. Don’t feel confined to a specific space; try writing in different locations to find what works best for you. Consider writing during your commute, in a nearby park, or at your favorite coffee shop to keep your journaling practice fresh and engaging.

Step 3: Begin with a simple warm-up.

Start your journal entry by writing the date and a brief warm-up, such as a single sentence describing your current mood or a brief summary of your day. This initial warm-up helps you ease into the journaling process, clear your mind, and establish a connection with your thoughts and emotions, paving the way for a more focused and meaningful writing experience.

A person uses a laptop to do their journal writing

Tips for a simple journaling warm-up:

  • Set an intention. Begin your entry by setting an intention or goal for your journaling session. This can help clarify your thoughts and provide direction for your writing.
  • Find a quote or positive affirmation. Begin your journal entry with an inspiring quote or positive affirmation that resonates with you. You can find these in books, online, or through social media. Writing down a quote or affirmation can help shift your mindset into personal reflection and provide a starting point for further exploration of your thoughts and emotions.
  • Practice gratitude. Start your journal entry by listing a few things you’re grateful for. This helps set a positive tone for your writing session and encourages an appreciative mindset.
  • Engage in free-writing. Start your entry with a short, unfiltered burst of free-writing. Set a timer for 2-3 minutes and write down whatever comes to mind without worrying about grammar, punctuation, or structure. This exercise can help clear your mind and stimulate your creativity for the rest of your journaling session.

Step 4: Choose a topic, journal prompt, or template.

Decide on a subject or theme for your journal entry. Your journal writing topic could simply be a record of the day’s events or your memories of a recent personal experience. You may also want to explore a reflection, goal, idea, or delve into answering a journal prompt you found online or in a book. Your journal is a versatile space for self-expression and exploration, so feel free to experiment with different topics and templates to discover what resonates with you and best supports your personal growth and self-discovery journey.

An open journal

More ideas for your journal entry:

  • Reflect on your day. Start your journal entry by briefly summarizing the events of your day or describing one key moment that stood out to you. This can help you transition from the external world to your internal thoughts and emotions, and set the stage for deeper reflection and personal growth.
  • Use a journal prompt. If you’re unsure of where to start, consider using one of these 550+ journal prompts to guide your journal writing. Answering prompts can help you focus your thoughts and make it easier to write.
  • Reflect on a recent experience. Write a brief description of a recent event, interaction, or observation that had an impact on you. This can help you transition into deeper reflection and exploration of your emotions.
  • Write about how you feel in this moment. Use your journal entry to describe your current emotional state or physical sensations. Journaling about feelings is a method of self-reflection that can help you connect with your present state, creating an authentic starting point for your journaling session and encouraging deeper exploration of your emotions.

Step 5: Write freely and openly.

Allow yourself to write without judgment or self-censorship. Let your thoughts and emotions flow onto the page, using your chosen topic or prompt as a starting point. Remember that your journal is a private space for self-expression and exploration, and allowing yourself to freely and openly write often leads to surprising insights, revelations, and conclusions. By embracing the process without judgment or expectation, you can uncover hidden aspects of yourself, gain a deeper understanding of your emotions and experiences, and ultimately foster a stronger connection with your inner world.

A person reflects on their journal entry

Tips for writing freely and openly:

  • Embrace imperfection. Accept that your writing doesn’t need to be perfect, grammatically correct, or polished. Focus on expressing your thoughts and emotions rather than creating a flawless piece of prose. Letting go of perfectionism is a key to journaling—this is your opportunity to let go of what other people might think.
  • Create a judgment-free zone. Remind yourself that your journal is a private, safe space for self-expression. Give yourself permission to express any thoughts or emotions without fear of judgment or criticism.
  • Use stream-of-consciousness writing. Allow your thoughts to flow naturally, writing whatever comes to mind without stopping to edit or analyze. This technique can help you uncover underlying emotions and ideas.
  • Set a timer. To encourage free and open writing, set a timer for a specific amount of time, such as 10 or 20 minutes. Commit to writing continuously until the timer goes off, focusing on getting your thoughts on the page rather than editing or perfecting your words.
  • Experiment with different writing styles. If you find yourself struggling to write freely, try using different writing styles or techniques, such as poetry, bullet points, or even doodling. By mixing things up, you can stimulate your creativity and bypass any mental blocks that may be inhibiting your self-expression.

Step 6: Reflect and review what you’ve written.

After completing your journal entry, take a moment to reflect on what you’ve written. Consider any insights, patterns, or emotions that have emerged during your writing session. This process of self-reflection can help you better understand your thoughts and feelings, as well as identify areas for personal growth or potential solutions to challenges you may be facing. By actively engaging with your writing and taking the time to reflect, you’ll enhance the overall impact of your journaling practice, making it a more valuable and transformative experience.

A person tracks habits in their journal

  • Ask questions. As you review your journal entry, ask yourself questions that encourage deeper self-reflection. For example, “What is the root of this emotion?” or “What can I learn from this experience?” Asking thought-provoking questions can help you gain new perspectives on your experiences and emotions.
  • Identify themes and patterns. Look for common themes or recurring topics that appear in your writing. These can be related to relationships, work, personal growth, or any other areas that you frequently write about. Identifying these themes can help you better understand what you value.
  • Summarize your insights. After reviewing your journal entry, write a brief summary of your key insights or takeaways. This can help you distill your thoughts and feelings into clear, actionable items that you can use to inform your personal growth and development.

Step 7: Close your journaling session.

Finish your journaling session by briefly summarizing your main takeaways or thoughts. This could be a sentence or two, or even just a word or phrase. You can also make a simple bulleted list of words, phrases, or key themes that emerged during your writing. This closing practice not only helps reinforce the insights and discoveries you made while journal writing, but also serves as a useful reference point for future journal entries, enabling you to track your personal growth and development over time.

Journaling on a laptop instead of a notebook

Tips to close your journaling session:

  • Review what you’ve written. Take a few moments to reflect on your writing session and summarize your main thoughts or takeaways. This can help reinforce your insights and solidify them in your mind.
  • Create a bulleted list. Write down a list of key themes, emotions, or thoughts that emerged during your writing session. This can help you quickly reference and revisit important topics or insights in future journal entries.
  • Express gratitude. End your journal entry with a few words of gratitude or appreciation for the opportunity to reflect and explore your thoughts and emotions.
  • Close with a ritual. Develop a closing ritual or habit that signals the end of your journaling session. This could be as simple as closing your journal, taking a deep breath, or saying a mantra or positive affirmation. Establishing a ritual can help you transition out of your writing mindset and into your daily life.

Step 8: Make an appointment with yourself for your next journaling session.

Finally, make a commitment to continue your journaling practice by scheduling your next writing session. Choose a time and place where you can regularly dedicate a few minutes to journaling, whether it’s in the morning, evening, or during your lunch break. By setting aside time for yourself, you’ll be more likely to maintain consistency and reap the benefits of a regular journaling practice. Treat your journaling sessions as a sacred time for self-reflection and self-care, and you’ll find that the benefits extend far beyond the page.

A planner and schedule for journaling

Tips for building a regular journaling habit:

  • Start with a small time block. Begin with a manageable commitment, such as five minutes per day or a weekly writing session. Gradually increase the frequency or duration of your sessions as you establish a consistent practice.
  • Schedule your journaling time into your calendar. Treat your journaling time as a non-negotiable appointment with yourself by scheduling it into your calendar or planner. This can help you prioritize your practice and ensure that you make time for it each day or week, even on busy days. Set reminders or notifications to keep yourself accountable and motivated to stick to your commitment.
  • Find accountability. Share your journaling goals with a friend or family member who can hold you accountable and provide encouragement and support.
  • Celebrate your progress. Take time to acknowledge and celebrate your progress as you establish a regular journaling habit. Celebrating milestones or achievements can help you stay motivated and committed to your practice.

Overcoming Common Journal Writing Obstacles

Journal writing can be a rewarding and transformative practice, but it’s not without its challenges. In this section, we’ll discuss some common obstacles that journal writers face and offer practical strategies to overcome them.

1. Writer’s block

Writer’s block can strike at any time, leaving you staring at a blank page, unsure of what to write in your journal. Here are some tips to tackle writer’s block:

  • Use prompts. Journal prompts can provide a starting point for your journal entry and help get your creative juices flowing.
  • Set a timer. Try writing for a set period, such as 10 or 15 minutes, without worrying about the content. This can help you break through the initial barrier and get into the writing flow.
  • Change your environment. Sometimes, a change of scenery can help spark inspiration. Try journaling in a different location, like a park or a coffee shop.
  • Establish a routine. Regularly scheduled journaling sessions can help train your brain to be more receptive to writing during those times.

2. Perfectionism and self-criticism

Many journal writers struggle with the desire to create perfect entries and the tendency to critique their own work. Here’s how to overcome this obstacle:

  • Embrace imperfection. Remind yourself that your journal is a personal, private space for exploration and growth, not a polished piece of writing for public consumption.
  • Write freely. Allow yourself to write without censoring or editing your thoughts, focusing on self-expression rather than correctness.
  • Practice self-compassion. Be kind to yourself and remember that everyone makes mistakes. Acknowledge your imperfections and view them as opportunities for growth and learning.

Privacy concerns can be a significant obstacle for some journal writers, especially when sharing living spaces with others. Here are some strategies to safeguard your privacy:

  • Choose a secure location. Store your journal in a safe, hidden spot, such as a locked drawer or a personal safe.
  • Use a digital app or online journal. If you’re worried about someone finding your physical journal, consider using a password-protected digital app for your journaling. An app like Day One also offers biometric logins and end-to-end encryption so your journals are always safe.

4. Consistency

Maintaining a consistent journaling practice can be challenging, especially when life gets busy or motivation wanes. Here are some tips to help you stay consistent with your journal writing:

  • Set a schedule. Dedicate a specific time each day or week for journaling, and make it a non-negotiable part of your routine. This can help establish a habit and create a sense of accountability.
  • Start small. If daily journaling feels overwhelming, begin with shorter, more manageable sessions or write less frequently. Over time, you can gradually increase the duration or frequency of your journaling practice.
  • Join a community or find a journaling buddy. Engage with other journal writers, either online or in-person, to share experiences, tips, and motivation. Having a support network can help you stay accountable and inspired.
  • Be flexible. Give yourself permission to adapt your journaling practice to your changing needs and circumstances. If you miss a session, don’t stress about it—simply pick up where you left off and keep going!

A person journals at a desk

Journal Writing: More Inspiration, Ideas, and Prompts

Sometimes, all you need to jumpstart your journaling practice is a little inspiration. Here are a variety of ideas, prompts, and resources to spark your creativity and keep your journal writing fresh and engaging.

Journaling themes and topics to explore

  • Personal growth and self-improvement
  • Relationships and connections with others
  • Gratitude and appreciation
  • Fears, insecurities, and challenges
  • Dreams and aspirations
  • Travel experiences and cultural encounters
  • Work, career, or academic goals
  • Hobbies, interests, and passions

Creative journaling exercises

  • Write a poem or short story inspired by a recent experience or emotion.
  • Describe a fictional character you would like to meet or befriend.
  • Create a vision board in your journal, using images, drawings, or collages to represent your goals and dreams.
  • Craft a six-paragraph memoir that captures the essence of your life story.

Inspirational journal prompts

  • What is one thing I’ve always wanted to learn or try? What’s holding me back?
  • Describe a time when I felt truly proud of myself.
  • If I could have a conversation with my younger self, what advice would I give?
  • What are three things I’m grateful for today, and why?
  • How have my values and beliefs changed over time?
  • Write a letter to someone who has made a significant impact on my life.
  • Reflect on a challenging experience and the lessons I’ve learned from it.

Journal writing resources

  • “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron
  • “Leaving a Trace: On Keeping a Journal” by Alexandra Johnson
  • “The Power of Writing It Down” by Allison Fallon.
  • Websites and blogs dedicated to journaling (like the Day One blog !), offering inspiration, tips, and prompts.
  • Social media communities, such as the Day One Facebook group or Day One Instagram account, where journal writers share their experiences and ideas.
  • Online courses and workshops focused on journaling and self-expression such as the International Association for Journal Writing and National Journal Writing Month .

Wrapping Up: Journaling Writing and Your Voyage Into the Interior

Keeping a journal can be one of the most meaningful and rewarding undertakings in your journey of personal growth and self-discovery. By committing to this practice, you create a safe space for introspection, reflection, and creative expression that will help you navigate the complexities of your inner world and foster a deeper understanding of yourself.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with different techniques and approaches—remember, your journal is a personal and evolving space for self-expression and exploration. Embrace the process, and allow yourself the freedom to learn, grow, and transform through the power of the written word. As you embark on this voyage into your own interior landscape, may your journal serve as a trusty companion, guiding you towards greater self-awareness, resilience, and personal fulfillment.

Download the Free Day One Journal App

The Day One journaling app makes it easy to keep a journal and build a journaling habit. With daily reminders , daily writing prompts , and journaling streaks , you can stay motivated to form a journaling habit that lasts.

About the Author

Kristen Webb Wright is the author of three books on journaling. With a passion for writing and self-reflection, Kristen uses her experience with journaling to help others discover the benefits of documenting their thoughts, feelings, and experiences. In her role at Day One, she helps to promote the power of journaling so people from all walks of life can experience the transformative power of journaling.

Photo of author and journaling expert, Kristen Webb Wright

Share this:

Journal from here, there, everywhere..

Download the Day One journal app for free on iPhone, Android, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch.

Journal from here there and everywhere mobile devices image.

Electric Literature Logo

19 Writing Conferences For Emerging and Established Writers

journal writing group

Reading Lists

Build connections, generate new work, and learn from the leading writers of today.

journal writing group

Writing conferences serve many purposes. They’re places to meet other writers and build community. They’re places to help polish up existing writing or generate new work. They’re places to reset and get inspired. They’re places to meet agent, editors, and other members of the publishing literati. They’re even places to party. Still, they can feel difficult to get into, mind-boggling to research, and like an insular club that only established writers seem to know about. Grown out of this short Twitter thread , here is a list of 19 writing conferences to consider applying to.

Two caveats: 

1) Things are in flux because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which means many of these conferences could switch to an online format or choose to temporarily pause applications to because of a backlog of accepted attendees from 2020/21. Keep an eye on the application deadlines and updates.

2) Because many of these conferences, especially the older ones, come from a long tradition of upholding the supremacy of white, and often male writers, many writers from marginalized backgrounds, including myself, have faced discrimination and microaggressions at them over the years. However, like most institutions confronted with the ways they have failed people on the margins, these conferences are working to make changes.

The Historic

These conferences have been nurturing writers for many years, and typically attract a significant number of applicants.

Sewanee Writers Conference

Held on the campus of the University of the South, 90 minutes from Nashville, the Sewanee Writers Conference is a twelve-day conference that provides workshops across fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and playwriting. The conference fee for “contributors” is $1,800, which covers food and lodging for twelve days. Financial aid is available for “Scholars” ($700 tuition, applicants should have a number of genre-specific publications) and “Fellows” (full scholarship, applicants should have a book published by an academic or commercial publisher). Past notable agents and editors who have attended and taken meetings with writers at Sewanee include Michelle Brower, Renee Zuckerbrot, Margaret Riley King, Sally Kim.

Bread Loaf Writers Conference

Held on the campus of Middlebury College in Vermont, Bread Loaf is an eleven-day conference with workshops for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. The conference fee for “contributors” is $3,810 and includes tuition, room, and board. Substantial scholarships are available at three different levels—the contributor (earlier stage writers), scholar (has publications in journals, prizes, or other wards), and fellow (must have published their first or second book within the last four years) level. Bread Loaf in 2019 eliminated a controversial program called the “Wait Scholar” program where recipients of financial aid were expected to provide service at the conference as waiters to other attendees. Writer Alexander Chee is a known friend of Bread Loaf, as are the literary agents PJ Mark and Miriam Altshuler, among others.

Tin House Workshops

Held twice a year, the Tin House workshops include both summer and winter sessions, for short fiction, novel, nonfiction, and poetry. The larger summer conference is normally held over a week on the Reed College campus, while the smaller winter conference is held over four days at the Sylvia Beach Hotel on the Oregon coast. Anecdotally, the Tin House conferences are known for prioritizing diversity—both among attendees and among faculty and guests. Attendees meet one agent and one editor during the conference and are usually required to write a query letter and/or synopsis ahead of these meetings, which can be a helpful way to codify one’s writing project. The cost for the summer conference is about $1,600 which includes tuition, accommodation, and all meals; the cost for the winter conference is approximately $1,300 for tuition, accommodation, and some meals. Full scholarships are available, though an additional essay of up to 1,500 words is required in order to apply.

Kenyon Review Writers Workshop

Held on the campus of Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, about 90 minutes from Columbus, the Kenyon conference distinguishes itself by being focused entirely on generating new work. For seven days, writers are expected to produce new work (fiction, nonfiction, poetry) daily to be shared in workshop. The environment is warm and welcoming, which makes the prospect of sharing new, raw work much less daunting. Scholarships are only available up to 50%, total fees are $2,295 for tuition, lodging, and food. 

Juniper Institute

Held for a week at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Juniper offers fiction, poetry, and nonfiction workshops designed for sharing works-in-progress for feedback and for generating new work. Tuition is $2,000 and includes some meals. Accommodation on the campus is a separate cost. Five full scholarships are available and include tuition and accommodation.

The Genre-Inflected

Writers of speculative fiction, sci-fi, and fantasy should consider applying to workshops built to support genre fiction.

Clarion Writers’ Workshop

Held on the University of San Diego California’s campus, Clarion is a six-week intensive focused on fundamentals particular to the writing of science fiction and fantasy short stories. Tuition is typically $5,150 for the six weeks, including accommodation and meals. Partial scholarships are available and range between $150 and $4,000. Typically, 18 writers are accepted.

Odyssey Writing Workshop

Held on the campus of Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, Odyssey is a six-week intensive curriculum designed for both workshopping existing work and generating new work in the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Tuition is $2,450 and includes a textbook and dinner; housing on campus apartments is an additional cost, as is additional meals. A handful of scholarships are available.

The Community-Driven

Founded in response to the challenges of white supremacy and cisheteropatriarchy in literature and publishing, these prestigious writers’ conferences help marginalized writers build community.

Lambda Literary Writers Retreat

For LGBTQ writers across genres (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, young adult fiction, playwriting, screenwriting, and speculative fiction), the week-long conference is typically held at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, though the 2022 session will be held virtually. Tuition for the 2022 session is $950 and both full and partial scholarships are available.

For Asian American poets and fiction writers, the highly selective retreat is held at Fordham University’s campus in the Bronx, NYC. The conference fee, which is $375, covers tuition, room, and board for five days. Additional scholarships are sometimes provided to applicants after acceptance. 

For Black poets, the week-long Cave Canem retreat is held at the University of Pittsburgh’s Greenburg, Pennsylvania campus. 

For Black fiction writers, the week-long retreat is held at Southern Methodist University in Taos, New Mexico. Tuition is covered by Kimbilio, but room and board fees vary depending on the accommodation chosen. 

For Latinx poets, the retreat accepts 25-30 poets a year and is currently held at University of Arizona Poetry Center in Tucson, Arizona (venue changes based on ongoing partnerships). Workshops are designed to be generative. 

Founded in 1995 by Sandra Cisneros, the weeklong Macondo workshops, held in San Antonio, Texas, are open to Latinx writers across poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Participants pick between reading/response workshops and generative workshops held for three hours daily. Partial scholarships are available. 

The Locales

At higher price points with limited financial aid, these conferences are more expensive than the others, but make up for it by providing beautiful surroundings or new cities to accompany your week of writing.

Disquiet International

Held in Lisbon, Portugal over two weeks, the conference brings writers from North America into conversation with Portuguese writers and features workshops in fiction, memoir, nonfiction, poetry, and writing the Luso experience. Tuition is $1,950 and does not include accommodation, food, or airfare. Disquiet holds an annual writing contest which provides conference scholarships to the winners of the contest.

Held at the luxury Le Sireneuse Hotel in Positano, Italy, the conference is six days, typically in April. Fees are $5,000 and cover accommodation and food. Workshops are mixed genre across fiction and memoir, and are taught by authors Jennifer Finney Boylan, Hannah Tinti, Dani Shapiro, and Jim Shepard.

Community of Writers

Held at Olympic Valley at the foot of the ski slopes at Lake Tahoe, California over six days, the conference is open to fiction, nonfiction, and poetry writers. Several scholarships are available across the genres.

Mendocino Coast Writers’ Conference

Located in California’s Mendocino Coast, the conference is three days long and features workshops across fiction (novel and short fiction), nonfiction, poetry, and more, as well as agent pitching events. Financial aid is available to emerging writers in various categories.

Aspen Summer Words

Held in Aspen, Colorado, workshops are available for fiction, memoir, narrative nonfiction, middle grade, and book editing. Partial scholarships are offered on need and merit basis. The conference also provides a cohort of “Emerging Writer Fellows” with full scholarships to attend the conference. Fellows are nominated by writers, agents, editors, and other members of the Aspen Words community.

Napa Valley Writers Conference

Held at Napa Valley College over six days in the heart of California’s wine country, this conference holds fiction, poetry, and translation workshops. Tuition is approximately $1,000 and does not include accommodations, food, or travel. A small number of full and partial scholarships are available.

Take a break from the news

We publish your favorite authors—even the ones you haven't read yet. Get new fiction, essays, and poetry delivered to your inbox.

YOUR INBOX IS LIT

Enjoy strange, diverting work from The Commuter on Mondays, absorbing fiction from Recommended Reading on Wednesdays, and a roundup of our best work of the week on Fridays. Personalize your subscription preferences here.

ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER ADVERTISEMENT

journal writing group

Lily King Weaves Glimmers of Hope into Her Short Story Collection

The author of "Five Tuesdays in Winter" on craft, balancing writing and motherhood, and dealing with unsolicited male advice

Dec 21 - Amy Reardon Read

More like this.

journal writing group

Alison Kinney Encourages You to Write at the Grocery Store

The author of "Hood" answers our questions about teaching writing—which, she says, it's okay to do however you can

May 16 - Electric Literature

Can Writing Be Taught logo featuring Lauren Wilkinson, photo by Niqui Carter

Remember to Be Interesting to People Who Aren’t You

And other advice from Lauren Wilkinson, author of "American Spy," for our Can Writing Be Taught? series

Apr 3 - Electric Literature

journal writing group

If You Don’t Have a Novel In You, Maybe You Have a Memoir

Ten questions about teaching writing with Ryan Britt, author of “Luke Skywalker Can’t Read”

Mar 7 - Electric Literature

journal writing group

DON’T MISS OUT

Sign up for our newsletter to get submission announcements and stay on top of our best work.

journal writing group

Writing Therapy: How to Write and Journal Therapeutically

Writing Therapy: Using A Pen and Paper to Enhance Personal Growth

Of course, the answer to that question will be “yes” for everyone!

We all fall on hard times, and we all struggle to get back to our equilibrium.

For some, getting back to equilibrium can involve seeing a therapist. For others, it could be starting a new job or moving to a new place. For some of the more literary-minded or creative folks, getting better can begin with art.

There are many ways to incorporate art into spiritual healing and emotional growth, including drawing, painting, listening to music, or dancing. These methods can be great for artistic people, but there are also creative and expressive ways to dig yourself out of a rut that don’t require any special artistic talents.

One such method is writing therapy. You don’t need to be a prolific writer, or even a writer at all, to benefit from writing therapy. All you need is a piece of paper, a pen, and the motivation to write.

Before you read on, we thought you might like to download our three Positive Psychology Exercises for free . These science-based exercises will explore fundamental aspects of positive psychology including strengths, values and self-compassion and give you the tools to enhance the wellbeing of your clients, students or employees.

This Article Contains:

  • What Is Writing Therapy?

Benefits of Writing Therapy

How to: journaling for therapy, writing ideas & journal prompts, exercises and ideas to help you get started, a take-home message, what is writing therapy.

Writing therapy, also known as journal therapy, is exactly what it sounds like: writing (often in a journal)  for therapeutic benefits.

Writing therapy is a low-cost, easily accessible, and versatile form of therapy . It can be done individually, with just a person and a pen, or guided by a mental health professional. It can also be practiced in a group, with group discussions focusing on writing. It can even be added as a supplement to another form of therapy.

Whatever the format, writing therapy can help the individual propel their personal growth , practice creative expression, and feel a sense of empowerment and control over their life (Adams, n.d.).

It’s easy to see the potential of therapeutic writing. After all, poets and storytellers throughout the ages have captured and described the cathartic experience of putting pen to paper. Great literature from such poets and storytellers makes it tempting to believe that powerful healing and personal growth are but a few moments of scribbling away.

However, while writing therapy seems as simple as writing in a journal , there’s a little more to it.

Writing therapy differs from simply keeping a journal or diary in three major ways (Farooqui, 2016):

  • Writing in a diary or journal is usually free-form, where the writer jots down whatever pops into their head. Therapeutic writing is typically more directed and often based on specific prompts or exercises guided by a professional.
  • Writing in a diary or journal may focus on recording events as they occur, while writing therapy is often focused on more meta-analytical processes: thinking about, interacting with, and analyzing the events, thoughts, and feelings that the writer writes down.
  • Keeping a diary or journal is an inherently personal and individual experience, while journal therapy is generally led by a licensed mental health professional.

While the process of writing therapy differs from simple journaling in these three main ways, there is also another big difference between the two practices in terms of outcomes.

man writing - what is writing therapy journal therapy

These are certainly not trivial benefits, but the potential benefits of writing therapy reach further and deeper than simply writing in a diary.

For individuals who have experienced a traumatic or extremely stressful event, expressive writing guided purposefully toward specific topics can have a significant healing effect. In fact, participants in a study who wrote about their most traumatic experiences for 15 minutes, four days in a row, experienced better health outcomes up to four months than those who were instructed to write about neutral topics (Baikie & Wilhelm, 2005).

Another study tested the same writing exercise on over 100 asthma and rheumatoid arthritis patients, with similar results. The participants who wrote about the most stressful event of their lives experienced better health evaluations related to their illness than the control group, who wrote about emotionally neutral topics (Smyth et al., 1999).

Expressive writing may even improve immune system functioning, although the writing practice may need to be sustained for the health benefits to continue (Murray, 2002).

In addition to these more concrete benefits, regular therapeutic writing can help the writer find meaning in their experiences, view things from a new perspective, and see the silver linings in their most stressful or negative experiences (Murray, 2002). It can also lead to important insights about yourself and your environment that may be difficult to determine without focused writing (Tartakovsky, 2015).

Overall, writing therapy has proven effective for different conditions and mental illnesses, including (Farooqui, 2016):

  • Post-traumatic stress
  • Obsessive-compulsive disorder
  • Grief and loss
  • Chronic illness issues
  • Substance abuse
  • Eating disorders
  • Interpersonal relationship issues
  • Communication skill issues
  • Low self-esteem

journal writing group

Download 3 Free Positive CBT Exercises (PDF)

These detailed, science-based exercises will equip you or your clients with tools to find new pathways to reduce suffering and more effectively cope with life stressors.

Download 3 Free Positive CBT Tools Pack (PDF)

By filling out your name and email address below.

There are many ways to begin writing for therapeutic purposes.

If you are working with a mental health professional, they may provide you with directions to begin journaling for therapy.

While true writing therapy would be conducted with the help of a licensed mental health professional, you may be interested in trying the practice on your own to explore some of the potential benefits to your wellbeing. If so, here there are some good tips to get you started.

First, think about how to set yourself up for success:

  • Use whichever format works best for you, whether it’s a classic journal, a cheap notebook, an online journaling program, or a blog.
  • If it makes you more interested in writing, decorate or personalize your journal/notebook/blog.
  • Set a goal to write for a certain amount of time each day.
  • Decide ahead of time when and/or where you will write each day.
  • Consider what makes you want to write in the first place. This could be your first entry in your journal.

Next, follow the five steps to WRITE (Adams, n.d.):

  • W – What do you want to write about? Name it.
  • R – Review or reflect on your topic. Close your eyes, take deep breaths, and focus.
  • I – Investigate your thoughts and feelings. Just start writing and keep writing.
  • T – Time yourself. Write for five to 15 minutes straight.
  • E – Exit “smart” by re-reading what you’ve written and reflecting on it with one or two sentences

Finally, keep the following in mind while you are journaling (Howes, 2011):

  • It’s okay to write only a few words, and it’s okay to write several pages. Write at your own pace.
  • Don’t worry about what to write about. Just focus on taking the time to write and giving it your full attention.
  • Don’t worry about how well you write. The important thing is to write down what makes sense and comes naturally to you.
  • Remember that no-one else needs to read what you’ve written. This will help you write authentically and avoid “putting on a show.”

It might be difficult to get started, but the first step is always the hardest! Once you’ve started journaling, try one of the following ideas or prompts to keep yourself engaged.

Journaling with Photographs writing therapy

Here are five writing exercises designed for dealing with pain (Abundance No Limits, n.d.):

  • Write a letter to yourself
  • Write letters to others
  • Write a poem
  • Free write (just write everything and anything that comes to mind)
  • Mind map (draw mind maps with your main problem in the middle and branches representing different aspects of your problem)

If those ideas don’t get your juices flowing, try these prompts (Farooqui, 2016):

  • Journal with photographs – Choose a personal photo and use your journal to answer questions like “What do you feel when you look at these photos?” and “What do you want to say to the people, places, or things in these photos?”
  • Timed journal entries – Decide on a topic and set a timer for 10 or 15 minutes to write continuously.
  • Sentence stems – These prompts are the beginnings of sentences that encourage meaningful writing, such as “The thing I am most worried about is…” “I have trouble sleeping when…” and “My happiest memory is…”
  • List of 100 – These ideas encourage the writer to create lists of 100 based on prompts like “100 things that make me sad” “100 reasons to wake up in the morning,” and “100 things I love.”

Tartakovsky (2014) provides a handy list of 30 prompts, including:

  • My favorite way to spend the day is…
  • If I could talk to my teenage self, the one thing I would say is…
  • Make a list of 30 things that make you smile.
  • The words I’d like to live by are…
  • I really wish others knew this about me…
  • What always brings tears to your eyes?
  • Using 10 words, describe yourself.
  • Write a list of questions to which you urgently need answers.

If you’re still on the lookout for more prompts, try the lists outlined here .

6 Ways to process your feelings in writing – Therapy in a Nutshell

As great as the benefits of therapeutic journaling sound, it can be difficult to get started. After all, it can be a challenge to start even the most basic of good habits!

If you’re wondering how to begin, read on for some tips and exercises to help you start your regular writing habit (Hills, n.d.).

  • Start writing about where you are in your life at this moment.
  • For five to 10 minutes just start writing in a “stream of consciousness.”
  • Start a dialogue with your inner child by writing in your nondominant hand.
  • Cultivate an attitude of gratitude by maintaining a daily list of things you appreciate, including uplifting quotes .
  • Start a journal of self-portraits.
  • Keep a nature diary to connect with the natural world.
  • Maintain a log of successes.
  • Keep a log or playlist of your favorite songs.
  • If there’s something you are struggling with or an event that’s disturbing you, write about it in the third person.

If you’re still having a tough time getting started, consider trying a “mind dump.” This is a quick exercise that can help you get a jump start on therapeutic writing.

Researcher and writer Gillie Bolton suggests simply writing for six minutes (Pollard, 2002). Don’t pay attention to grammar, spelling, style, syntax, or fixing typos – just write. Once you have “dumped,” you can focus on a theme. The theme should be something concrete, like something from your childhood with personal value.

This exercise can help you ensure that your therapeutic journal entries go deeper than superficial diary or journal entries.

More prompts, exercises, and ideas to help you get started can be found by following this link .

In this piece, we went over what writing therapy is, how to do it, and how it can benefit you and/or your clients. I hope you learned something new from this piece, and I hope you will keep writing therapy in mind as a potential exercise.

Have you ever tried writing therapy? Would you try writing therapy? How do you think it would benefit you? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

Thanks for reading, and happy writing!

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Positive Psychology Exercises for free .

  • Abundance No limits. (n.d.). 5 Writing therapy exercises that can ease your pain . Author. Retrieved from https://www.abundancenolimits.com/writing-therapy-exercises/.
  • Adams, K. (n.d.). It’s easy to W.R.I.T.E . Center for Journal Therapy . Retrieved from https://journaltherapy.com/journal-cafe-3/journal-course/
  • Baikie, K. A., & Wilhelm, K. (2005). Emotional and physical health benefits of expressive writing. Advances in Psychiatric Treatment 11(5) , 338-346.
  • Farooqui, A. Z. (2016). Journal therapy . Good Therapy . Retrieved from https://www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/types/journal-therapy
  • Hills, L. (n.d.). 10 journaling tips to help you heal, grow, and thrive . Tiny Buddha . Retrieved from https://tinybuddha.com/blog/10-journaling-tips-to-help-you-heal-grow-and-thrive/
  • Howes, R. (2011, January 26). Journaling in therapy . Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/in-therapy/201101/journaling-in-therapy.
  • Murray, B. (2002). Writing to heal. Monitor, 33(6), 54. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/monitor/jun02/writing.aspx
  • Pollard, J. (2002). As easy as ABC . The Guardian . Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2002/jul/28/shopping
  • Smyth, J. M., Stone, A. A., Hurewitz, A., & Kaell, A. (1999). Effects of writing about stressful experiences on symptom reduction in patients with asthma or rheumatoid arthritis: A randomized trial. Journal of the American Medical Association 281 , 1304-1309.
  • Tartakovsky, M. (2014). 30 journaling prompts for self-reflection and self-discovery . Psych Central . Retrieved from https://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2014/09/27/30-journaling-prompts-for-self-reflection-and-self-discovery/
  • Tartakovsky, M. (2015). The power of writing: 3 types of therapeutic writing . Psych Central . Retrieved from https://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2015/01/19/the-power-of-writing-3-types-of-therapeutic-writing/

' src=

Share this article:

Article feedback

What our readers think.

Michael

Hello, Such an interesting article, thank you very much. I was wondering if there was a particular strategy in which writing down questions produced answers. I started doing just that: writing down doubts and questions, and I found that answers just came. It was like talking through the issues with someone else. Is there any research on that? Is this a known strategy?

Nicole Celestine, Ph.D.

Hi Michael,

That’s amazing that you’re finding answers are ‘arising’ for you in your writing. In meditative and mindfulness practices, this is often referred to as intuition, which points to a form of intelligence that goes beyond rationality and cognition. This is a fairly new area of research, but has been well-recognized by Eastern traditions for centuries. See here for a book chapter review: https://doi.org/10.4337/9780857936370.00029

As you’ve discovered, journaling can be incredibly valuable to put you in touch with this intuitive form of knowing in which solutions just come to you.

This also reminds me of something known as the rubber ducking technique, which programmers use to solve problems and debug code: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging

Anyway, hope that offers some food for thought!

– Nicole | Community Manager

Alison

I have never tried writing therapy, but I intend to. Its so much better than seeing the psychiatrist for my behavior issues, which nobody has even identified yet.

Jacqui

Hi great article, just wondering when it was originally posted as I wish to cite some of the text in my essay Many thanks

Glad you enjoyed the post. It was published on the 26th of October, 2017 🙂

Hope this helps!

Ben P

Hi Courtney

I know you posted this blog a while ago but I’ve just found it and loved it. It articulated so clearly the benefits of writing therapy. One question – is there any research on whether it’s better to use pen and paper or Ian using a PC/typing just as good. I can write much faster and more fluently when I use a keyboard but wonder whether there is a benefit from the physical act of writing writing with a pen. Thanks.

Great question. The evidence isn’t entirely clear on this, but there’s a little work suggesting that writing by hand forces the mind to slow down and reflect more deeply on what’s being written (see this article ). Further, the process of writing uses parts of the brain involved in emotion, which may make writing by hand more effective for exploring your emotional experiences.

However, when it comes to writing therapy, the factor of personal preference seems critical! The issue of speed can be frustrating if your thoughts tend to come quickly. If you feel writing by hand introduces more frustration than benefits, that may be a sign to keep a digital journal instead.

Hope that helps!

Let us know your thoughts Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Related articles

Holistic Therapy

Holistic Therapy: Healing Mind, Body, and Spirit

The term “holistic” in health care can be dated back to Hippocrates over 2,500 years ago (Relman, 1979). Hippocrates highlighted the importance of viewing individuals [...]

Trauma informed therapy

Trauma-Informed Therapy Explained (& 9 Techniques)

Trauma varies significantly in its effect on individuals. While some people may quickly recover from an adverse event, others might find their coping abilities profoundly [...]

Recreational therapy

Recreational Therapy Explained: 6 Degrees & Programs

Let’s face it, on a scale of hot or not, attending therapy doesn’t make any client jump with excitement. But what if that can be [...]

Read other articles by their category

  • Body & Brain (46)
  • Coaching & Application (56)
  • Compassion (26)
  • Counseling (51)
  • Emotional Intelligence (24)
  • Gratitude (18)
  • Grief & Bereavement (21)
  • Happiness & SWB (40)
  • Meaning & Values (26)
  • Meditation (20)
  • Mindfulness (45)
  • Motivation & Goals (45)
  • Optimism & Mindset (33)
  • Positive CBT (26)
  • Positive Communication (20)
  • Positive Education (46)
  • Positive Emotions (31)
  • Positive Leadership (15)
  • Positive Psychology (33)
  • Positive Workplace (34)
  • Productivity (16)
  • Relationships (45)
  • Resilience & Coping (34)
  • Self Awareness (20)
  • Self Esteem (37)
  • Strengths & Virtues (30)
  • Stress & Burnout Prevention (34)
  • Theory & Books (46)
  • Therapy Exercises (37)
  • Types of Therapy (64)

journal writing group

3 Positive CBT Exercises (PDF)

Live Bold and Bloom

61 Of The Best Journaling Ideas To De-Stress And Feel Happy

Sometimes, just allowing yourself to write whatever wants to come out is enough to get the words flowing, and daily journaling provides the perfect outlet for this.

But there are times when your brain goes as blank as the page in front of you. It happens.

This is why it helps to have a list of creative journal ideas handy.

The next time you find yourself looking for some journal entry ideas, I hope you’ll give this article another look (after enjoying it today).

With a list of journaling ideas at your disposal , you’re sure to find something to shake down whatever is blocking your writing flow.

Sometimes, it’s as easy as reminding yourself why you’re looking for things to journal about in the first place.

Benefits of Journaling

How to start a journal, 1. make a journal list., 2. a meaningful quote journal idea., 3. affirmation journaling ideas., 4. journal about something you’re grateful for., 5. create an “i forgive…” journal entry., 6. write in your journal something someone said or did that made you smile., 7. compliment yourself in your journal., 8. journal a description of your morning routine., 9. write down the answer to the question, “what would i love”, 10. answer this journal question, “what am i thinking”, 11. journal about a milestone you’ve reached or one you’re working toward., 12. write in your journal about the perfect day., 13. create an entry with someone who is on your mind (and why)., 14. journal about your vision for the future., 15. write out your personal vision for this day (your intentions)., 16. journal about the food you’ve eaten and what you will eat today., 17. write about an important event., 18. describe a challenge you’re facing — or one you’ve overcome., 19. write about your solution to a particular problem or challenge., 20. journal about something you’ve read., 21. write about a fear you have and how you choose to respond to it., 22. begin a journal entry with a prayer., 23. write about a “note to self.”, 24. write a letter to someone., 25. write a letter to someone who has passed., 26. start with a memory (recent or distant)., 27. use an image that sparks an idea for journal writing., 28. journal about a dream you remember., 29. use a timer for a journal writing sprint., 30. small daily journal sentence., 31. a creative character sketch., 32. write about something absurd., 33. write an encouraging personal note to yourself., 34. start with your favorite meal., 35. describe how your day is going., 36. write nice things about someone you’re angry with., 37. write about what you’d do with 10% of your income if you just pulled it out of your bank as cash and went to town., 38. write a description of the kind of person you want to be., 39. write about the power of forgiveness in your life., 40. write about questions you have regarding religion or universal beliefs., 41. write about something that scares you that you have to do anyway., 42. prepare compliments for special people in your life. , 43. write an internal dialogue by dictation. , 44. write about how you’ve grown this year or what has changed for you., 45. write about compliments you received that changed your life. , 46. write about something you can’t imagine living without. , 47. write about what you’re feeling right now. , 48. if you live with anxiety, write about how you’re coping with it today. , 49. journal about something that kept you up last night. , 50. write about the top three priorities in your life right now. , 51. write about something you learned from someone who hurt you., 52. write about what you would do with three wishes. , 53. journal about three bad habits you’d like to change. , 54. write about a moment you had in the spotlight as a child or teenager., 55. write about a simple healthy habit you can start building this week. , 56. write about the apps that are helping you function as an adult. , 57. write about a friend you haven’t talked to in years., 58. write about new financial habits you want to build. , 59. write about the bare minimum exercise you want to start doing every day., 60. write about three influential non-relatives in your life. , 61. write about a birthday memory that still makes you smile. , what to write in a journal, final thoughts.

No doubt, you already know some of the benefits of journaling, and one reason may stand out from the others.

Here’s a list of known benefits, in case you haven’t learned them all.

  • Better health by decreasing stress and anxiety
  • An improved ability to articulate and clarify your thoughts
  • Better self-knowledge
  • A chance to improve your writing skills on a daily basis
  • A better frame of mind for reconciling with others (improved relationships)
  • Better problem-solving
  • An enhanced capacity for learning new things

A fresh new journal represents a fresh start — with new ideas and discoveries.

It’s also literally full of blank pages , which have a mixed effect on writers. You want to fill those pages with content worthy of your intentions for this journal. 

woman sitting on bed smiling and writing journaling ideas

Before you can start filling them, though, you need to let go of the idea that your content should be extra-special or next-level insightful. Some days you’ll drop nuggets of wisdom. Other days, you’ll write content that will embarrass your future self. 

No one actually dies of embarrassment, though. Think of it as part of the process. 

If you’re still looking at your gorgeous new journal and wondering how to get started (because “It’s too pretty!” We know how it is), here are some ideas: 

  • Commit to jotting down at least one sentence at a specific time every morning. 
  • Date your journal pages, starting with the first entry (after the first few pages). 
  • Start with your intentions for the journal (a shortlist on one of the first few pages).
  • Start with a note to yourself relinquishing the idea of perfection or originality. 

61 Journaling Ideas to De-Stress and Feel Happy

You can start by creating a list of anything, really. See if one of the following prompts helps you get started:

  • Things you enjoy (for breakfast, relaxation, education, etc.)
  • Fun things that you’d like to change
  • New things you’d like to try
  • List of things you're grateful for
  • Things you can see from where you’re sitting
  • Bucket list of places you’d like to visit

journal list screenshot journaling ideas

Brainyquote.com is one place you can look for quotes that get you thinking — and writing — about something important to you. Choose a meaningful quote that resonates or that makes you want to argue with it.

Choose a favorite positive affirmation or one on which you’d like to elaborate. It can be about your personal development, your career, money, relationships, or anything of great importance to you.

Gratitude and journaling belong together. Start with one thing you’re grateful for, and either expand on that one thing or add at least two more. Pretty soon you'll have a mood-boosting gratitude list you will find very uplifting.

screenshot of 90-day gratitude journal by Barrie Davenport journaling ideas

No doubt, the words “I forgive” bring a certain person to mind whom you find it difficult to forgive. But for your own sake — so you can move past it — at least journal the words “I forgive ____, and I want only what’s good for him/her,” even if you’re not feeling it.

You might preface this journal entry with a memory of something that person said or did that you appreciate.

Or you can think of something this person might hold against you, try to see your words or actions from their perspective, and write a genuine apology to them.

Think of the last time someone did or said something that made you smile in gratitude or admiration.

What was that thing, and what was it about the context of that thing that made you more likely to smile about it?

Imagine you’ve been asked to write something positive about someone — only that someone is you.

This is a creative way to practice some self-love

Maybe you don’t do everything the same exact way every morning (or maybe you do), but there are probably some things you do every morning.

Why do you do them, and what new habits would you like to add to your morning routine to give your day a better start?

What morning habits would you like to replace with better ones?

This is a fun one, but you have to remember not to stop yourself with the question, “What is the point of even writing this when my circumstances probably make it impossible?”

Write it anyway, and remember to seal your answer with the words, “This or something better.”

This question can also be liberating. If you need to allow yourself to articulate these thoughts while answering the question from #9, go ahead.

Allow yourself to get those thoughts out into the open. Just don’t allow yourself to be tied down to them. Use them as a chance to air and then evaluate those thoughts.

Think of an accomplishment that gets you closer to your personal goals. Have you reached it? If not, how close are you to reaching it, and what do you have to do every day to get yourself closer to it?

This can take place in the present or three years from now. Put a description in your journal of the whole day, from waking up in the morning to going to bed that night. Write down all the important details — the big ideas that make your day perfect.

Write about someone you’re thinking about for some reason — someone you miss, someone who’s made you angry, or maybe someone you’d like to meet.

woman writing in diary sitting outside journaling ideas

It can be anyone, and you can either write about why this person is on your mind, or you can write a script for an imaginary meeting or a necessary conversation.

Where do you want to be three years from now? Again, you’ll want to focus on the most important elements of that vision.

You don’t need to know exactly where you’ll be living or what your new favorite chair will look like (though you’re allowed to). What’s the bigger picture for this vision?

When you get to the end of this day, how will you want to have spent it? Or what top three things do you want to focus on today? How will this day get you closer to your vision for the future?

And feel free to make it sound as fancy or as decadent as you want. Try including sensory details in your journal to motivate yourself to mindfulness practice even while you’re eating.

Whether you’re starting a new dietary regimen or not, sometimes it helps to keep a detailed account of everything you’ve eaten and everything you plan to eat for the rest of the day. No judging.

Or pretend you’re a food blogger for a day and write about your ideal menu or a meal you had recently at a restaurant.

Whatever event stirs up memories (good memories or the other kind), write about that. Or write about an upcoming event that’s important to you.

What hurdles have you jumped in your career, with your relationship, or with your personal development? Or what breakthroughs have you had? What challenges remain?

You probably know solutions to some problems or ways to overcome a particular challenge. Maybe you learned it the hard way. Your journal entry about it could turn into a helpful blog post or even a book.

Whether you’re thinking of a memorable passage from a book you’re reading, a blog post or article you’ve read recently, or a magazine headline you saw while standing in a check-out line, write about what sticks in your mind and why it matters to you (if it does).

Ever caught yourself dwelling on a fear that you had — or still have?

How have you chosen to respond to that fear? Does it hold you back in some way? How will you overcome your fear?

If you pray to a higher power, your daily journal is a great place to articulate exactly what you want to say.

Whether you have questions you need to be answered, or you’d like help with something, writing about it makes it more likely that you’ll get closer to the answers, blessings, and accomplishments you’re seeking.

You can also begin with a note to yourself for any of the following:

  • Something you want to remember that day
  • Something you need to change
  • Something you’ve noticed about yourself
  • Something you like  about yourself
  • Something you’d like to do short-term
  • Something you’d like to do one day

A great journal writing prompt is to write a letter. In your journal you can prepare the message to someone with whom you’re having a dispute, someone you need to reconnect with, or someone you want to share your love for.

From there, you can either copy and paste it into an actual message or write it out by hand and send it by snail mail — maybe with a treat, you know its recipient would enjoy.

If you never had the chance to tell someone something you needed to say, writing it in a journal can at least provide some closure, even though it’s not the same as actually telling that someone.

If it helps, try writing it as a script, with your part and that of the person who has passed on. Make it a conversation that ends in a plausible and satisfying way.

Write in your journal about a memory that has come to you recently — perhaps because something in your life triggered it.

woman sitting on floor with journal diary journaling ideas

Whether it’s a happy memory or not, you might enjoy writing about it. Try to recall as many sensory details as you can.

If you’ve ever bought a painting that made you imagine a life that might one day be your own, or if you saw an image in a magazine or on the internet that caught your attention and took you places in your mind, write about that.

Some dreams stick around longer for a reason. What was your most memorable dream, and why do you think you still remember it?

What details stand out the most? Is there something about that dream that you want to recreate in your conscious life? Or does the dream represent a fear or concern you need to address?

Set a timer for ten to thirty minutes and just write whatever comes to mind. Don’t stop until the timer goes off. Sure, much of what you write will sound frivolous or random, but who cares?

Write whatever is trampling over other thoughts to get out the door. Normally, you wouldn’t want to reward such behavior, but thoughts get away with a lot more than we do.

Write a single sentence. Then another. Then a third sentence. You can stop then, or you can keep going. Maybe one of those sentences will trigger something. But even if they don’t, you’ve written three sentences, and that’s something.

If you’re not satisfied with just writing three random sentences, make them an answer to a question or write a sentence for each of the three things you’re most grateful for in that moment.

More Related Articles:

41 Sunday Things To Do That Are Fun, Relaxing, And Productive

201 Of The Best Loneliness Quotes

Write A Thoughtful And Romantic Love Letter To Your Crush Using Our 13 Examples

Write a creative journal entry sketch of a character based on yourself — or on someone you know. Or create a completely fictional character with strange quirks or with a terrible secret.

This journal entry might become the starter for a new novel or short story. Or it might just help you get better acquainted with a character you already have.

Start with a nonsense observation — like “the sun is a radish this morning” or something more ridiculous.

Write about how your favorite color is connected to the day of the week you were born and the number of hairs in your father’s left ear. Go crazy with this journal idea.

Begin like your writing in a diary and write an encouraging note to yourself about the day you’re going to have or about a challenge you’ll be facing today. Be a friend and write the words you need to hear.

Write about your favorite meal and how it’s prepared. Write about the best time you had when you were able to enjoy this meal — alone or with good company. Why is it your favorite?

Write about how your day (or at least your morning) is going so far, what has happened, and what you’re thankful for.

Write about the direction your day is taking, and whether it’s the direction you want it to take or you’d like to change course and make it better.

sample journal page the mindfulness journal

I know it’s easier to write about why you’re angry with someone, but try writing only positive things about this person.

If no words come to mind, try writing about good things you want for this person. The more goodwill you exercise toward other people in writing, the easier it becomes to forgive them.

If you took one of your paychecks and pulled 10% out in cash for your own personal spending, what would you spend it on and why?

Imagine doing this and describe how you’d feel while you were spending the money. Could you do this on a regular basis?

If you’ve never considered doing this, what would you have to do in order to make it a regular thing?

Write about the person you want to be, focusing on your end goals and the person you have to be in order to reach them.

Visualize yourself as this person and describe your lifestyle, where you live, and how you spend your time. Write about the qualities you admire and want to see in yourself.

When was the last time someone forgave you for something? How did that change things for you?

What did it do for your relationship with this person — and for other relationships? How did it change the way you feel about this person and about yourself?

What questions do you have about the afterlife, about religion, about a higher being? What do you want to know about the universe and your relevance and connection to it?

How would you answer someone else’s question about what you believe?

If you’ve ever caught yourself saying things like “I hate driving in the dark! It’s so scary…” or “I’m terrible at making small talk ! I make a fool of myself every time,” you already know why you prefer to avoid those things.

Now, imagine how differently you’d see those things if you instead told yourself, “Sometimes I really enjoy a nighttime drive,” or “Small talk is nothing to be afraid of.

It’s just talking about the first socially appropriate things that come to mind and listening to other people do the same thing. I’m great at talking, and I’m an even better listener.”

You probably wouldn’t be as anxious to avoid night driving and small talk.

What scares you that you have to do anyway? Maybe you have teenage kids with jobs, and you have to pick them up after their shifts end around seven or eight o’clock.

Maybe you live in an apartment complex and always run into a small crowd of familiar faces when you’re heading in and out.

Write about whatever comes to mind for you, and compose some empowering self-talk to help you get through whatever you have to do that (you think) doesn’t come naturally to you.

Not only is it good practice for writing about your fears and how to address them, this is yet another journaling example of how starting a journal can help you become the person you want to be.

Pretend you’re preparing for an exercise where each of you takes turns sitting in a chair while others each pay you a genuine and true compliment . Everyone has to take a turn in the “seat of regard.” And the only response the receiver can give (besides crying) is “Thank you.”]

Invite two of your “selves” to an honest conversation about something. Think past self vs. present self — or hurting self vs. compassionate caregiver self — or tempted self vs. powerful self. Make a pressing issue the main topic and take dictation for the voices in your head. 

Some years bring more change than others, but what specifically is different for you about this past year? Think beyond events and changes that everyone is experiencing and focus on your own internal changes and personal progress.  

Some compliments make a deeper impression than others, and you can probably think of compliments you’ve received along the way that took you by surprise and changed the way you see yourself. Describe one of these compliments along with who gave it to you. 

Get down to the things you’d absolutely want to hold onto if you lost everything else — whether that’s a special lotion, a kind of tea, your favorite pair of pants, or something else. How did you discover it, and why do you consider it an essential part of your life? 

Make an honest list of the emotions that come to mind and take note of the strongest ones. Then dig a little deeper to explore why you feel those things. If what you’re feeling is an understandable response to a painful experience, honor those feelings, and write with honesty and self-compassion. 

Are you anxious about something right now? Or what coping strategies have you learned that help you deal with your everyday anxiety or with unusual stressors in your life? Write about a moment when you used one of those strategies and how it helped. 

Was your mind playing in-house movies last night? What was on your mind, and why do you think you had such a hard time putting those thoughts to rest? Are you worried these thoughts will come back to disturb you tonight? 

What can you do to help guarantee a better night’s sleep?

You can be as general or specific as you like with this, as long as you identify your top three priorities. Then look at how you prioritize them every day. What does that look like? And what habits are making it easier or harder to keep your priorities straight? 

If you don’t want to name specific people, just write about a painful experience and what you learned from it. Have you changed the way you respond to similar situations? Have your actions since then helped you think of them differently or even forgive them? 

You picked up a “genie lamp” from an antique store, and with a few rubs with your polishing rag, suddenly a genie is offering you three wishes. What do you do with them? Would you change your career, your home, your income…?

And would you use your last wish to free the genie?

What habits have you picked up that are not serving you well? And what habits would you like to replace them with? How might your life change if you replaced even one of those self-sabotaging habits with an empowering one? And which habit will you change first? 

Maybe you were in a school play, concert, or recital, and your family and friends celebrated your performance. Whatever comes to mind, write about it in your journal, adding every detail you can remember. 

Maybe you want to start practicing daily meditation. Or maybe you can stop at two cups of coffee and switch to tea before the jitters set in. Whatever change you’d like to make, describe it and write about how you think it would change your life for the better. 

Start with a shortlist of the apps you use most. Then describe one or more of your favorite apps and how they help you every day. Why are they better than any competitors you’ve tried. What difference have they made in your life? 

Journal about a friend from years back and describe a special moment during your time as friends. When was the last time you talked to them? Do you know how to get a hold of them? Do you want to? Why or why not? And why are they no longer a part of your life? 

Maybe you want to start saving $25 or $50 from every payday. Or maybe you want to start paying off your smallest debt more quickly. Whatever financial concern is at the top of your list, write about what you’re thinking and what action you plan to take. 

You know your body needs movement. Ever since hearing that “sitting is the new smoking,” you’ve thought of how to make exercise a part of your daily life. So, what can you start with today or this week that you know you could stick with? 

Think about teachers or coaches, counselors/therapists, bosses/managers, roommates — anyone who made a positive impact in your life. Write about how you met and what they said or did that helped you make a better choice or see things differently. 

You wake up, and a special, handmade gift is waiting for you on your dresser. Or you come downstairs to find your favorite breakfast waiting for you. Whatever you remember, describe it with as much sensory detail as you can recall.

Whether you use daily journaling prompts or just write whatever is on your mind, knowing how to journal opens a word of self-discovery.

Journaling gives you a safe space to explore creative things and to ask yourself deeper questions.

Keeping a journal is also a way to process and keep a list of things you’ve been learning from a new book, course, or online program.

The simple exercise of writing someone else’s message into your own words helps you make sense of it by filtering it through your own understanding and perspective.

Not only are you then better able to incorporate what you’ve learned, but you’ve also become better at learning.

They really should teach this in schools.

What you write in your journal is your own, though, and however you get those thoughts down onto the page — as neatly printed (or typed) lines, doodles , mind maps, or a combination of all these — the most important thing is to keep journaling daily.

So, there’s no need to ask how to write a journal. Better to ask how journaling can best serve you — and what personal journal ideas can help you make the most of it.

Journal Writing vs. Journal Typing

So, is typing your journal entry as good as writing in your journal by hand?

When it comes to the most powerful benefits of journaling, yes. While there are proven cognitive benefits to writing by hand, the important thing is to get your words onto a page — whether it’s digital or something you can touch.

The most important thing is to create and maintain the habit of journaling every day (or as close to that as possible).

You can always mix it up and do both, choosing one or the other based on convenience or a desire to do something different (or to use that brand new journal).

Journal is a way that works best for you. Your brain will be healthier and happier either way.

Did you find helpful ideas on what to write in your journal?

If you’ve found value in this journaling ideas post, I hope you’ll share it and encourage others to pass it on.

The benefits of daily journaling are too good to keep to yourself, and you know you want to contribute to a more self-aware and generous world.

So, if this article will help you to thrive today and become the person you want to be, please bless another person today — or as many as you can. And may your generosity and goodwill infuse everything else you do today.

journal writing group

2 thoughts on “61 Of The Best Journaling Ideas To De-Stress And Feel Happy”

I love this! One of my most favorite ways to journal has been a dialogue between various parts of me. When I’m hurt, I journal from that part. Then I have the validating, caring adult side of me respond. It sounds trippy but it has been really helpful in overcoming some challenging emotions and situations. Great ideas here!

Wonderful This really helps me and inspire me to write my diary Thank you so much

Comments are closed.

Therapeutic Journaling: An Introduction & Guide to Writing for Your Mental Health

If you're feeling stressed, anxious, or down, try therapeutic journaling. While it’s not a total replacement for therapy, it is one tool that can help you to create meaning and feel better, or serve as a helpful addition to traditional talking therapies.

Here's what to know about therapeutic journaling, plus guidelines and suggestions for keeping a therapeutic journal of your own!

Therapeutic journaling is a deep-dive into internal thoughts and experiences, in order to gain new self-perspective

Therapeutic journaling is the process of writing down our thoughts, emotions and experiences.

It differs from the process of recording daily events in a diary, which many of us are probably familiar with. Therapeutic journaling is about delving a little deeper; writing in a way that helps us to make sense of our internal experiences, learn, and gain new perspectives on our challenges.

Writing about our thoughts and emotions enables us to express them in a way that can help work through difficulties and move forward.

journal writing group

How to keep a therapeutic journal

There is no right or wrong way to keep a therapeutic journal. However, the following tips might help you to get started:

Create a routine of your journaling habits

Many people begin journaling with the best intentions, but find that the habit is difficult to establish. Scheduling time in advance is one way to enhance your commitment to journaling.

For example, you might schedule that every day between 5 and 5:15 p.m., you’ll write your journal entry.

Find somewhere quiet to write

Find somewhere quiet to sit and write, where you won’t be disturbed by other people or alerts on your phone.

Decide on the topic you want to explore

Consider writing about any events that have brought up difficult emotions for you, such as sadness, anxiety, anger, shame or guilt.

(Please note that if the emotions are strong and you find it difficult to cope with them, it’s best to stop writing and seek help from a therapist.)

Start writing!

You might spend 15 or 20 minutes exploring your thoughts and feelings about your difficult experience.

That said, there aren’t limitations to what you write about, and many people find that the flow of writing leads them onto quite different thoughts and ideas. That's okay!

Let your ideas flow, without worrying too much about spelling or grammar.

Try to write every day for two weeks (or however long it takes you to form new habits), even if it’s only just for a few minutes.

Sample prompts for a therapeutic journal

A prompt for your journaling may help get your creative and healing juices flowing. Here are just a few to consider when starting out:

  • What are your five favorite qualities about yourself?
  • Write a letter to someone who has had a positive impact on your life.
  • List out three of the best compliments you've ever received.
  • Write down five positive things you'd like to remember the next time you're in a bad mood or spot.
  • List 10 things that make you smile, no matter what.
  • Write a letter of forgiveness to someone in your life who has caused you pain.
  • Write a letter of forgiveness to yourself for past actions you're not proud of.  

How therapeutic journaling can help mental health conditions

Journaling can help people who are experiencing symptoms of common mental health challenges such as:

  • Life transitions

It can also be a tool used to complement progress in talking therapies.

Additionally, researchers have found that therapeutic journaling can help people who are experiencing physical health problems such as chronic illnesses (1, 2).

However, if you have experienced trauma , journaling should be approached cautiously. It can create more distress if not undertaken with the help of a mental health professional. If you would like to journal, it’s best to discuss in therapy first.

Benefits of therapeutic journaling

Therapeutic journaling can help improve physical and psychological wellbeing in various ways, by:

  • Keeping a record of ideas and concepts, or things you learn in therapy
  • Tracking your progress
  • Helping to make sense of thoughts and experiences, and organizing them in a meaningful way
  • Helping you to recognize patterns in thoughts, feelings or behavior
  • Providing an opportunity for self-reflection
  • Providing an opportunity to consider experiences from alternative perspectives or practice helpful thoughts
  • Helping to boost the immune system (1)

How therapeutic journaling works

It’s likely that therapeutic journaling can help people in various ways. A recent study found that therapeutic journaling can help to improve psychological wellbeing by:

  • Reducing intrusive thoughts
  • Decreasing the avoidance of negative thoughts
  • Improving working memory

By doing this, it is thought people become able to deal with stress more effectively (3).

Therapy types to consider combining with therapeutic journaling

To maximize the effectiveness of therapy, try journaling as a complementary tool to just about any therapy type , including:

  • Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)
  • Mindfulness Practices
  • Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
  • Psychodynamic Therapy
  • Motivational Interviewing
  • Solution-Focused Therapy (SFT)
  • Holistic Therapy

Keeping a therapeutic journal can help you tap into deep-set emotions, and manage your mental health.

Whether you keep at it consistently, or save it for occasional use as part of your self-care arsenal, it's a great way to strengthen your mindfulness and self-reflection abilities.

Sources and references:

  • https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9280.1997.tb00403.x
  • https://www.americansforthearts.org/sites/default/files/338full.pdf
  • https://www.apa.org/monitor/sep01/keepdiary
  • http://projects.hsl.wisc.edu/SERVICE/modules/12/M12_CT_TherapeuticJournaling.pdf

Read Next: More On mental health topics

How to heal your inner child.

Because childhood is a critical period of development, many adults who experienced trauma at this time may find themselves struggling to manage their emotions, engaging in toxic relationship dynamics, and more. For these adults, inner child therapy can have significant benefits.

How to Take a Mental Health Day

Mental health days help us recover our energy and avoid reaching a state of burnout. Here's how to take one.

6 Ways To Support A Loved One With Bipolar Disorder

For some, bipolar disorder symptoms are pervasive, even when taking medication. For this reason, having a good support system is key for leading a healthy life. If you’re part of such a support system for a loved one, here are six ways to support someone with bipolar disorder.

Looking to publish? Meet your dream editor, designer and marketer on Reedsy.

Find the perfect editor for your next book

1 million authors trust the professionals on Reedsy, come meet them.

Blog • Perfecting your Craft , Understanding Publishing

Posted on Nov 19, 2018

15 of the Best Online Writing Communities for Aspiring Authors

As enjoyable and fulfilling as writing can be, the truth is that it’s often a solitary endeavor. While we might romanticize the focused artist typing away while imaginary worlds and narratives swirl inside their minds — authors know the truth: writing can get lonely. And moreover, when you’re working on a one-person project, it can be hard to remain motivated and accountable. That’s where writing communities come in.

Writing communities are the perfect place to find answers to your writing questions and to discuss the ins and outs of the writing life with people who actually understand what you’re talking about.

So, if you are tired of listening only to the voices in your head, take a look at our list of top online writing communities. (And if you're hungry for more, check out our more exhaustive list of the very best writing websites !)

Top online writing communities

1. absolute write water cooler.

With over 68,000 members, this is a large and highly active community. Here you can find threads on every genre imaginable, as well as discussions about freelance writing , the publishing industry, pop culture, writing prompts and exercises, and much more.

Perfect for: writers who are looking for a large and active community.

2. AgentQuery Connect

While this forum will come in handy for any writer, it’s especially helpful for authors who have already completed their manuscript and are wondering what to do next. The site boasts a wealth of information on publishing topics such as querying agents, self-publishing tips, and book promotion advice.

Perfect for: writers who are looking to connect with agents and learn more about the publishing industry.

3. Camp NaNoWriMo

If you’ve ever wanted to go to a writer’s retreat but can’t afford it just yet, then this site might help scratch your itch. Holding online “camp sessions” in April and July, Camp NaNoWriMo offers a digital space to encourage and empower writers at any point of their career. Here you can work on drafts, revisions, short stories, or any other writing project that involves word-count goals.

Perfect for: writers who can’t wait until November to crack their writing goals .

journal writing group

4. Critique Circle

Feedback should be a vital part of any writer’s process, and this is exactly what Critique Circle offers. This members-only site allows authors to post stories in exchange for feedback on other people’s writing. You can also find storyboarding tools , writing prompts , workshops, name generators , games like hangman, and much more.

Perfect for: writers who want honest feedback on their writing.

5. Chronicles

As the world’s largest Science Fiction and Fantasy online community, Chronicles offers writers the opportunity to get together and discuss the latest books, news, and pop culture in the Sci-Fi and Fantasy world. This is an active community with thousands of threads that include genre-specific challenges, workshops, critiques, and even publishing and industry information.

Perfect for: writers interested in Science Fiction and Fantasy writing.

6. Facebook Groups

If social media is more your style, don't miss the chance to interact with your fellow writers by joining Facebook groups in your own niche. Look for groups with a strict "no self-promotion" rules so that it remains supportive and useful to your writing goals.

There are a lot of groups out there in a variety of topics that range from genre-specific writing tips to traditional and self-publishing industry news. Here are just a few of them:

The Street Team — Reedsy's own book marketing group for self-publishing authors. 10 Minute Novelists — a group for the time-crunched writer. Calls for Submissions  — for writers looking for publication opportunities. Fiction Writers Global — a great resource for information about traditional and self-publishing. Writers Unite! — an active group with plenty of support and motivation for novice and experienced writers alike.

Perfect for: writers who prefer using social media.

FREE WRITING APP

FREE WRITING APP

The Reedsy Book Editor

Set goals, track progress, and establish your writing routine in our free app.

7. Insecure Writer’s Support Group

Whether you are a debut or seasoned author, there’s no doubt that writing a book can be intimidating and rife with bouts of self-doubt. The Insecure Writer’s Support Group aims to help you overcome those insecurities by hosting a community of like-minded authors.

Perfect for: writers who have doubts about their writing and are in need of encouragement.

journal writing group

8. The Next Big Writer

This is an international forum where writers can receive feedback on their writing and support on every other part of the creative process from drafting to publishing and marketing. The critiques are often thorough and many come from published authors. Keep in mind that there is a monthly cost associated with the membership, but it might be worth it to be able to bend the ear of published authors.

Perfect for: writers seeking in-depth critiques from an international audience.

If you struggle to write consistently, sign up for our How to Write a Novel course to finish a novel in just 3 months.  

NEW REEDSY COURSE

NEW REEDSY COURSE

How to Write a Novel

Enroll in our course and become an author in three months.

More than just a single writing community, Reddit has countless ‘subreddits’ where writers of all genres, interests, and levels of experience flock. While it may not offer workshops or tools, members can find niche threads that relate to their interests, critique other people’s work, and discover helpful sources of information.

There are so many different subreddits that you can get lost browsing them, but here are a few of the most popular ones:

r/writing — for general writing purposes. r/writingprompts — for user-submitted writing prompts. r/destructivereaders — beware, if you don’t like harsh criticism this may not be the best fit. But if you are willing to endure it, you will come out a better writer at the end. r/worldbuilding — user submitted fiction worlds. r/fantasywriters — for anybody interested in the fantasy genre. r/characterforge — the place to be for character building. r/writerchat — for those interested in talking with fellow writers. r/selfpublish — for anybody interested in self-publishing. r/logophilia — “the love of words and word games,” and that’s exactly what you’ll find here. r/freelanceWriters — for anybody interested in a career in freelance writing . r/books — because reading is just as important as writing if you want to be a successful author.

Perfect for: writers who want niche threads based on a particular interest or need.

10. Scribophile

One of the largest communities in the world, Scribophile offers workshops, tutorials, and critiques for authors in just about any genre imaginable. While it is free to join, only users who pay for a membership get access to all their features.

Perfect for: authors whowant to take part in writing workshops alongside writers of all experience levels.

journal writing group

11. She Writes

With over 30,000 members, this is the largest writing community exclusively for women. Here you can find articles on writing, editing, and marketing for every genre. There are forums tailored to specific needs, like travel writers, writing about trauma, NaNoWriMo, and many other topics.

Perfect for: women writers who want a place to connect and learn from fellow writers.

12. Talentville

If your passion lies in screenwriting, then you’ll want to book a one-way ticket to Talentville. Here you can get feedback on your writing and learn the skills necessary to perfect your screencraft. Plus, you can work on and build your network of contacts: the site is also a frequent stop for industry professionals (like agents, managers, and producers) on the lookout for new talent.

Perfect for: writers whoare interested in screenwriting and networking.

13. Underlined

A writing community by Penguin Random House. While any author can find helpful information on this website, it’s geared more towards younger writers. It has a well-designed platform, quizzes, genre-specific information, the latest news on book releases, Q&As with authors, and even some giveaways and excerpts as perks.

Perfect for: younger writers who are looking for genre-specific information and bookish perks.

journal writing group

14. Writers Helping Writers

This is a free-to-register community where you can find resources for writers, teachers, and editors alike. They offer a vast array of tools to perfect your craft, no matter your level. Their extensive creative library includes webinars, free writing and marketing tools, a thesaurus collection, story maps, idea generators, and more.

Perfect for: writers, editors, and teachers who are looking to build up their writing toolbox.

15. #WritingCommunity

Sometimes, all you need is a hashtag. And indeed, Twitter's own #WritingCommunity is one of the most robust writing collectives on the web. Ask a question, and it'll almost certainly get answered (without a lot of Twitter's trademark snark). The key here is to keep your questions concise, reply often to others, and don't go crazy with other hashtags. The community can tell if you're just thirsty for RTs. Perfect for: writers who are finally ready to use Twitter for good — and not just for procrastinating.

Do you belong to a writing community? Which one is your favorite one? Add yours in the comments below!

13 responses

27/11/2018 – 22:42

Very useful post. Thanks for this. I will be linking to it on my blog.

Dr Jack Edward Effron says:

18/02/2019 – 16:40

You left out taylz.com. It’s truly free. They are not going to give you a rubbish service to make you join their pay site because they have no pay site. Your story can be 8,000 words. They are not going to force you into flash fiction of 3,000 words. One critique out, one critique in: no mucking about with “karma” or critiquing 5+ stories to get one critique. The great new idea whose time has come! And it’s British, not American.

marieseltenrych says:

08/05/2019 – 12:28

Reedsy, thank God you are here! I want to ask a question to other authors or self publishers here: I have been approached by OmniScriptum to publish my books (research) with them. I cannot find much about this company online, so wondered if anyone has published with them recently? Thanks Reedsy in anticipation. Marie

↪️ Reedsy replied:

08/05/2019 – 12:29

Hi Marie! Sounds potentially very shady to me. If you haven't already, check out our post on predatory companies in publishing. One of the rules of thumb is that if a publisher contacts you first, be very wary. I just did 20 seconds worth of Googling and found some people who had a bad experience.

Eunice Brownlee says:

I am a member of illuminate, which is a group designed around supporting women who want to share their stories but don't know how. The majority of us write non-fiction essays and memoirs, but we have a few poets and fiction writers in the mix as well. The overall goal is to support each other, especially through those harder moments of not wanting to write, or not knowing where to start. There are monthly themes and prompts, a weekly exercise inside the Facebook group, and cross-sharing of what we're working on. My favorite feature is the expert review, where you can submit any piece you're working on each month and you'll get quality feedback from one of the editors that manage the group. This group is perfect for anyone who is just getting started writing.

↪️ Brittani B replied:

11/02/2020 – 19:27

I tried the link multiple times both from this page and separately searched and was unable to access the site.

Harry says:

05/06/2019 – 07:51

Personally I think you missed out the best writing community: https://community.jerichowriters.com/ Jericho Writers is a free writing community that writers can safely share thought, make friends, swap work and get advice

Christian says:

08/08/2019 – 12:21

I only recommend Scribophile if you enjoy being coerced into groupthink. If you hope to get meaningful critique that will help you, look elsewhere. The critiques here are mostly SPAG, and it's forbidden to discuss your work on the main forums, except in the broadest, vaguest way.

Randy says:

18/08/2019 – 06:11

I have all my dads writing research and copyrights to 18 different books....all this was before the digital world .... many negatives photos ....every major story from all over the world with his .copyright . These are huge stores and his books are really well written ....what should I do with them .....incredible spy work as well

Ratih says:

27/08/2019 – 03:50

As a new writer this article is really useful for me. Thank you reedsy

Jennifer says:

02/09/2019 – 14:15

Hi guys! Great blog! Just wanted to let you know that we linked to you in a blog on the Peaceful Living Wellness Online Magazine :) It will be published on Friday, September 6th, 2019

↪️ Martin Cavannagh replied:

17/09/2019 – 09:04

Thanks! We appreciate that!

Kaylee Downey says:

14/02/2020 – 19:09

Um...what about Wattpad?

Comments are currently closed.

Continue reading

Recommended posts from the Reedsy Blog

journal writing group

Narrative Structure: Definition, Examples, and Writing Tips

What's the difference between story structure and narrative structure? And how do you choose the right narrative structure for you novel?

journal writing group

What is the Proust Questionnaire? 22 Questions to Write Better Characters

Inspired by Marcel Proust, check out the questionnaire that will help your characters remember things past.

journal writing group

What is Pathos? Definition and Examples in Literature

Pathos is a literary device that uses language to evoke an emotional response, typically to connect readers with the characters in a story.

journal writing group

How to Start a Children’s Book: Coming Up with Your Big Idea

If you've ever dreamed of writing a children's book but aren't sure where to start, check out this post to learn more about how you can create the perfect story for kids.

journal writing group

How to Become a Travel Writer in 5 Steps: A Guide for Travel Bugs

If you want to get paid to share your adventures, learn how to become a travel writer with these five tips.

journal writing group

How to Write a Biography: A 7-Step Guide [+Template]

Portraying someone’s life on paper in a comprehensive and engaging way requires solid preparation. Here are 7 steps you can follow.

Join a community of over 1 million authors

Reedsy is more than just a blog. Become a member today to discover how we can help you publish a beautiful book.

RBE | We made a writing app for you (photo) | 2023-02

We made a writing app for you

Yes, you! Write. Format. Export for ebook and print. 100% free, always.

Reedsy Marketplace UI

1 million authors trust the professionals on Reedsy, come meet them.

Enter your email or get started with a social account:

journal writing group

  • Copy Link Link Copied!
  • Relational Aesthetics
  • Soviet Union
  • Socially Engaged Art
  • Conceptual & Post-Conceptual Art
  • Art Collectives

Claire Bishop

Participants.

  • Collective Actions
  • Ilya Kabakov

Zones of Indistinguishability: Collective Actions Group and Participatory Art

The rise of participatory art since the 1990s invites us to constitute a history of this practice, ideally one that reflects the global spread of this work today. 1 In charting this history, important variants appear that challenge the dominant way of thinking about participatory art in Western Europe and North America, where this work tends to be positioned as a political, constructive, and oppositional response to the spectacle’s atomization of social relations. By contrast, the participatory art of Eastern Europe and Russia from the mid-1960s to the late 1980s is frequently marked by the desire for an increasingly subjective and privatized aesthetic experience. At first glance, this seems to be an inversion of the Western model (despite Guy Debord’s observation that bureaucratic communism is no less spectacular than its capitalist variant; it is simply “concentrated” as opposed to “diffused”). 2 However, and crucially, the individual experiences that were the target of participatory art under really existing socialism continue to be framed as shared privatized experiences: the construction of a collective artistic space amongst mutually trusting colleagues. Rather than frame this work as “implicitly political,” as is the habit with current Western approaches to Eastern bloc art history, this essay will argue that work produced under state socialism during these decades should rather be viewed in more complex terms. Given the saturation of everyday life with ideology, Soviet artists did not regard their work as political but rather as existential and a political, committed to ideas of freedom and the individual imagination. At the same time, they sought an expanded—one might say democratized—horizon of artistic production, in contrast to the highly regulated and hierarchized system of the Union of Soviet Artists.

journal writing group

In the present essay, I want to focus on the Collective Actions Group, active in Moscow from the mid-1970s onwards, from the perspective of Western participatory art. Unlike many recent socially-engaged artists, for whom social participation in art denotes the inclusion of the working class, marginalized communities, or at least everyday non-professionals (rather than the artists’s friends and colleagues), the political context of the Collective Actions Group rendered such distinctions redundant. The impulse to collaborate with disenfranchised communities that we see so frequently today was a somewhat alien concept in the 1970s: under Cold War socialism, every citizen was (nominally at least) equal, a co-producer of the communist state. Class difference did not exist. 3 Finding participants for one’s art was therefore a question of selecting reliable colleagues who would not inform on one’s activities. In an atmosphere of near constant surveillance and insecurity, participation was an artistic and social strategy to be deployed only amongst the most trusted groups of friends. The restrictions of life under Cold War communism do more than simply affect the question of who participates in art. They also govern the appearance of these works: materially frugal and temporally brief, many of these actions and events were located in the countryside, far away from networks of surveillance. The fact that many of these actions do not look like art is less an indication of the artists’s commitment to blurring “art and life” than a deliberate strategy of self-protection, as well as a reaction to the state’s own military displays and socialist festivals as a visual reference point; these events dissuaded artists from contrived displays of collective participation even if they had the resources to emulate them. 4

journal writing group

It is useful to remind ourselves that unofficial art began in Moscow in 1964, after Khrushchev visited the thirtieth anniversary show of the Moscow Union of Artists at the Manezh Gallery, which included a display of non-figurative, abstract paintings; Khrushchev declared these to be (among other things) “private psycho-pathological distortions of the public conscience.” 5 The extent of his reaction led to the ever-increasing domestic isolation of independent artists and their being denied the right to show their works to the public in any place or form. And yet, despite being severely criticized and censured, unofficial art continued into the mid-1970s, when the first legal exhibitions took place and a shadow union for unofficial artists was set up (the Graphics Moscow City Committee). After the controversial Bulldozer exhibition of September 1974 (in which an exhibition of unofficial art was destroyed by bulldozer), cultural authorities decided to regulate and legalize their relationships with “underground” art via the State Committee for Security (KGB). Most unofficial art was exhibited inside private apartments, forcing a convergence of art and life that surpassed what the majority of twentieth-century avant-gardists had ever intended by this term. The phenomenon of “Apt-Art” (apartment art), an initiative by Nikita Alekseev, referred to exhibitions and performances taking place in private homes for small networks of trusted friends; Apt-Art flourished in the early 1980s.

It was in this context that the most celebrated of Moscow Conceptualists, Ilya Kabakov (b.1933), developed his personal work alongside his official job as a children’s book illustrator. Kabakov’s Albums (1972–75) are illustrated narratives, each revolving around one fictional character, most of whom are isolated, lonely, idiosyncratic figures on the margins of society, cocooned in a private dream world. The first, Sitting in the Closet Primakov , is typical in that it describes the life of a boy who sits in a dark closet and refuses to come out; when he does, he sees the world in terms of modernist abstract paintings. Each Album was accompanied by drawings and general comments on the character spoken by other fictional commentators. Crucially, these Albums were not read as books but were performed by the artist for small groups of friends. Boris Groys recalls that one would make an appointment with Kabakov (rather like organizing a studio visit) and go to his home, where the artist would place the book on a music stand and read the entire text in a neutral and unexpressive tone of voice. The experience was extremely monotonous but had a ritualistic quality in which the turning of the pages became central. Most readings took an hour, although Groys recalls once undergoing an eight-hour performance. 6 One of the key points to emerge here is the use of a neutral, descriptive, analytical language focusing on the inconspicuous, the banal, and the marginal; another is that the stories are geared more towards invented forms of survival and endurance than of criticism; and another is the repeated motif of isolated individuals negotiating the endless and uncomfortable scrutiny of the communal apartment. 7 All of these points provide an important contextual precursor for the work discussed in the remainder of this essay.

journal writing group

It is in this literary context, with a strong reverence for textual expression, that the Collective Actions Group (CAG) ( Kollektivnye Deistvia , or K/D ) was formed in 1976; at its inception there were four members; by 1979 there were seven; and in 2005 there were six. 8 The group took its lead from the first generation of Moscow Conceptualists, especially Kabakov, whose installations implied characters and viewing subjects caught between “a communal body” and “an existential individualist.” 9 The central theorist of CAG, Andrei Monastyrsky (b.1949), has recalled that their earliest pieces were perceived as a form of poetry reading. The group continues to produce around eight performances a year, although the character of this work has changed considerably since 1989: the actions are more complex, with more references to Eastern mysticism, and frequently make use of documentation (especially tape recordings) from earlier actions. Since the focus here is on participatory art under socialism, the following discussion will concern a selection of actions produced in the first decade of the group’s existence. Most of these actions typically followed a standard format: a group of fifteen to twenty participants were invited by telephone (at a time when, of course, phone lines could be tapped) to take a train to a designated station outside Moscow; they would walk from the station to a remote field; the group would wait around (not knowing what would happen), before witnessing a minimal, perhaps mysterious, and often visually unremarkable event. On returning to Moscow, participants would write an account of the experience and offer interpretations of its meaning; these subsequently became the focus of discussion and debate amongst the artists and their circle. 10

It should immediately be apparent that the intellectualism of this structure is a considerable step away from the 1960s model in both Europe and North America, in which it was regarded as sufficient simply for things to “happen,” and through which the participating subject would attain a more vivid, authentic level of reality (as seen, for example, in the work of Knížák and Kaprow). Monastyrsky complicated this paradigm by aiming to produce situations in which participants had no idea what was going to happen, to the point where they sometimes found it difficult to know if they had in fact experienced an action; when participants’s engagement finally occurred, it was never in the place where they expected it. 11 CAG stretched the temporality of event-based art away from pure presence and into a relationship of distance between “then” (I thought I experienced…) and “now” (I understand it to be otherwise…). It is also of central importance that this production of distance was not only temporal but social, prising open a space for modes of communicational practice otherwise absent in the rigid and monolithic ideology of Soviet collectivism. The event itself is effectively an “empty action,” designed to preclude interpretation from taking place during the performance, and thereby serving to prompt a wide range of descriptions and analyses, which were undertaken individually but shared within the group.

The first key action that crystallized this form of working was Appearance (March 13, 1976). Devised by Monastyrsky, Lev Rubinstein, Nikia Alekseev, and Georgii Kizevalter, it involved around thirty audience members as participants. Upon arriving in a remote field at Izmaylovskoe, the group was asked to wait and watch for something to appear in the distance. Eventually, a couple of the organizers became visible on the horizon, in what Monastyrsky refers to as the “zone of indistinguishability”: the moment when one can tell that something is happening but the figures are too far away for one to clarify who they are and what exactly is taking place. The figures approached the group and gave them certification of having attended the event (CAG refers to this as “factography”). Monastyrsky later explained that what had happened in the field was not that they (the organizers) had appeared for the participants, but rather, that the participants had appeared for them . This inversion of what one might expect to experience with an artistic action—an unfurling of events for the organizers rather than for an audience—was matched by the group’s preference for the banality of waiting rather than the production of a vivid and visually memorable event: Monastyrsky described the participants’s eventual appearance in the work as a “pause,” thereby reconceptualizing the waiting not as a prelude to some more specific action, but as the main event. 12 Typically, CAG’s primary focus is never on the ostensible action taking place in the snowy landscape, but rather the deferral and displacement of this action both physically (events happen where one was not prepared to see them) and semantically. The phenomenological level of immediate events was subordinated to the conceptual and linguistic activity that subsequently took place in the participants’s consciousness: in Monastyrsky’s words, the mythological or symbolic content of the action is “used only as an instrument to create that ‘inner’ level of perception” in the viewer. 13

This technique can be seen in other early works such as Pictures (February 11, 1979), which divided the participants into two groups, one of which undertook an action in the snow, watched by the other group. Twelve sets of twelve colored envelopes (in gradually larger sizes) were distributed to twelve of the thirty participants. Inside each envelope was a description of the key components of the event: from schedule, setting, and weather to audience reaction, meaning, and interpretation. After they had read the instructions, the participants were told to fold and paste each set of envelopes on top of each other, with the largest on the bottom, to form a concentric pattern of color; these were later signed as certification of the participants’s attendance. While all this was going on, three of the participants (the organizers) crossed the field and wandered into the woods on the other side. Once again, the “zone of indistinguishability” was put into play: the participants’s preoccupation with making the pictures was a distraction from the action on the margin, namely the organizers’s disappearance into the woods. The participatory activity (finding and assembling the colored envelopes) was undermined as a central focus by the sly subtraction of the organizers’s presence, indicating that—contra the US model of the Happening—in CAG’s works there is no authentic shared experience underlying the event.

journal writing group

In his article “Seven Photographs” (1980), Monastyrsky presents seven near identical photographs of a snowy field, each of which relate to a different action by CAG, including Appearance and Pictures . The bleak similarity of the images is amusing, but drives home his point that secondary material such as photographs, instructions, descriptions, and participant recollections have a completely separate aesthetic reality to the action itself. (At best, he writes, “a familiarity with the photographs and texts can bring about a sensation of positive indeterminacy.” 14 ) Influenced by semiotics and making frequent reference to Heidegger, Monastyrsky argues that the group’s actions result for the participants in a real experience, but not in an image of that experience. The event’s existential presence takes place in the viewer’s consciousness (as a state of “completed anticipation”) and thus cannot be represented: “The only thing that can be represented is the thing that accompanies this internal process, the thing that takes place on the field of action at the time.” 15 The exquisite precision of this idea, in which documentation is conceived as a representation of what accompanied an artistic experience, explains the repetitive quality of CAG’s photographs of (apparently) nothing taking place, since they record only what seems to be a withdrawal of action. Each photograph is to be considered, Monastyrsky writes, as “a sign of a higher order, a sign of an ‘unarbitrary emptiness’ with the following meaning: ‘nothing is represented on it not because nothing happened at that given moment, but because the thing that happened is essentially unrepresentable.’” 16 The highly theorized, quasi-mystical flavor of this position gives CAG a unique status within a history of performance documentation, while also being highly suggestive of an approach to documentary that is ripe for re-exploration today.

Monastyrsky’s article was written before Ten Appearances (1981) and seems to pave the way for the centrality of photography in this work. The participants in Ten Appearances were notified that everyone attending would have to participate in the work; those who were unwilling should not come. 17 ], 151. Trans. Anya Pantuyeva.)] The action took place in a snowy field and was organized around a flat board bearing dozens of nails with bobbins, each wound with 200–300 meters of white thread. The assignment was for each of the ten participants to take a thread and walk away from the board in a different direction towards the forest that surrounded the field. Kabakov describes the minutiae of his volatile emotions as he underwent this process: from anxiety (about how long he would be standing in the cold) to fear (suspecting the organizers of sadism) to sheer joy and “mystic melancholy” on finally reaching the end of the thread, to which was affixed a piece of paper bearing the “factographic text” (the name of the organizers, time, date, and place of the action). 18 At this point it was up to the participants to decide what happened next. Eight of them walked back out of the forest to rejoin the group; two did not return and got a train back to Moscow. Those who returned were given a photograph of themselves emerging from the forest in the “zone of indistinguishability,” with each image captioned “The appearance of [name] on February 1, 1981.” This simulated photographic documentation had been taken a few weeks earlier but was indistinguishable from the actual appearance of the participants as they emerged from the forest. Monastyrsky refers to these photographs as an “empty act”: a mere sign of the elapsed time between the end of the first phase of the action for the participants (receiving the factographic text) and their reappearance in the field (“the signified and culminating event in the structure of the action”). 19 Both the act and the image are empty signifiers; the meaning is formulated subsequently by reflection on the totality of the events experienced.

Of course, the poignant fact that two participants, Nekrasov and Zhigalov, didn’t return to the group did not mean that the work was a failure. Rather, Monastyrsky asserted, it showed that the participants had emerged from a “non-artistic, non-artificially-constructed space”—in other words, an everyday reality in which they were capable of acting of their own free will. 20 This, Monastyrsky reasoned, was why the same people kept coming back to their events over the course of fifteen years: the pretextual nature of the experiences that the group constructed ensured that participants were continually intrigued, as well as continually motivated to write descriptions and analyses. Since it was near impossible to scrutinize the events as they were happening, these hermeneutical narratives had a compensatory aspect, endlessly chasing a meaning that remained elusive, precisely because the generation of different interpretative positions was the meaning. 21 The surfeit of texts that resulted from these actions were collected into books every three to five years, and are published in Russian and German under the title Trips to the Countryside ; the group is currently at work on an eleventh volume. 22 Volume two, from 1983, for example, is typical in its structure: a theoretical preface by Monastyrsky; descriptions of the events with photographs; an appendix of documentation, which includes the schema of Ten Appearances and a list of slides; texts by participants (including Kabakov on Ten Appearances ); photographs and descriptions of actions by individual artists that are close to CAG’s actions, such as Monastyrsky’s Flat Cap (1983); commentaries and photographs. Later volumes also include interviews and a list of videos, produced after the German artist Sabine Hänsgen joined the group.

Boris Groys has observed how CAG’s performances were “meticulously, almost bureaucratically, documented, commented on, and archived.” 23 This textual production is one of the dominant characteristics of their practice, and positions it as the inverse of the impulse to make participatory art in Western cultures—which can broadly be summarized as positioned against the atomization of social relations under consumer spectacle. Groys has argued that Soviet society, by contrast,

was a society of production without consumption. There was no spectator and there was no consumer. Everyone was involved in a productive process. So the role of Collective Actions and some other artists of the time was to create the possibility of consumption, the possibility of an external position from which one could enjoy communism. 24

What CAG’s works gave rise to, then, was not unified collective presence and immediacy but its opposite: difference, dissensus, and debate; a space of privatized experience, liberal democratic indecision, and a plurality of hermeneutical speculation at a time when the dominant discourse and spectatorial regime was marshaled towards a collective and rigidly schematized apparatus of meaning. This is borne out by Monastyrsky’s observation that

in the Stalin or Brezhnev era, contemplation of an artwork involved a certain compulsion, a kind of tunnel vision. There was nothing peripheral. But when one comes to a field—when one comes there, moreover, with no sense of obligation but for private reasons of one’s own—a vast flexible space is created, in which one can look at whatever one likes. One’s under no obligation to look at what’s being presented—that freedom, in fact, is the whole idea. 25

The use of a field as the backdrop to so many of CAG’s works is therefore doubly salient. 26 It did not designate a specific rejection of the city or a conscious embrace of nature; as Sergei Sitar notes, the field is not chosen for its independent aesthetic merits, “but simply as ‘the lesser evil’—as a space that is the least occupied, the least appropriated by the dominant cultural discourse.” 27 For Monastyrsky, it is a space “free from any affiliation”: “the countryside, for us, isn’t the countryside tilled by peasants but that of the thinking classes’s vacation retreats.” 28 The fields are less about framing (in the way that Prague’s Wenceslas Square frames Jiří Kovanda’s contemporaneous actions) than un framing; the countryside’s multiple perspectives corresponded to the group’s open-ended, neutral actions that were contrived to leave room for the greatest number of hermeneutic possibilities. The result was a privatized liberal space that existed in covert parallel to official social structures. As Kabakov recalls:

From the moment I got on the train … my goals, the questions and affairs that constantly preoccupied me, my fears of myself and others, were all, as it were, taken away from me. The most remarkable thing, however, was that those who led us had no goals either! And, of course, there is something else: for the first time in my life, I was among “my own”; we had our own world, parallel to the real one, and this world had been created and compressed by the CA group until it had achieved complete materiality, or, one might say, tangibility—if this notion is at all applicable to something absolutely ethereal and elusive. 29

And again, in concluding his account of Ten Appearances :

This [action] actualized one of the most pleasant and practically unknown sides of the socius, the socius that is so painful in our time. Here the social is not antagonistic to you, but instead good-willed, reliable, and extremely welcoming. This feeling is so unusual, so not experienced before, that it not only recovers you, but also becomes an amazing gift compared to everyday reality. 30

Between Monastyrsky’s highly theoretical musings on semiotics and orientalism, and the more accessible narratives of those who participated in the works, it was this emphasis on freedom—the self-selecting construction of a self-determining social group—that formed the social core of CAG’s practice. Participation here denoted the possibility of producing individual affect and singular experience, relayed through a meditative relationship to language that in turn presupposed collective reception and debate.

journal writing group

Participatory art under state socialism in the 1960s and 1970s provides an important counter-model to contemporaneous examples from Europe and North America. Rather than aspiring to create a participatory public sphere as the counterpoint to a privatized world of individual affect and consumption, artists working collaboratively under socialism sought to provide a space for nurturing individualism (of behavior, actions, interpretations) against an oppressively monolithic cultural sphere in which artistic judgments were reduced to a question of their position within Marxist-Leninist dogma. This led to a situation in which most artists wanted nothing to do with politics—and indeed even rejected the dissident position—by choosing to operate, instead, on an existential plane: making assertions of individual freedom, even in the slightest or most silent of forms. 31 We can also contrast this approach with that taken by artists in South America, where participation was used as a means to provoke art audiences into heightened self-awareness of their social conditions and thereby (it was hoped) to impel them to take action in the social sphere. For artists living under communism, participation had no such agitationary goals. It was, rather, a means of experiencing a more authentic (because individual and self-organized) mode of collective experience than the one prescribed by the state in official parades and mass spectacles; as such it is frequently figured as escapist or celebratory, regardless of whether it took place on a physical or solely cerebral level. Today, the escapist and celebratory tend to be weak terms in contemporary art criticism, signifying a willful refusal of artists to engage in their political reality and to express a critical stance towards it. However, the example of the 1960s and 1970s avant-garde under socialism reminds us that there is an unimaginably large gap between managing such contextual awareness and heroic acts of dissidence (the latter being, for the most part, a Western fantasy). The reality of daily life under these regimes necessitates a more sober understanding of the artistic gestures achieved there, and appreciation of the consummate subtlety with which so many of them were undertaken.

This essay forms part of a chapter in my forthcoming book Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship (London: Verso, 2011).

“The spectacle exists in a concentrated or a diffuse form depending on the necessities of the particular stage of misery which it denies and supports. In both cases, the spectacle is nothing more than an image of happy unification surrounded by desolation and fear at the tranquil center of misery … If every Chinese must learn Mao, and thus be Mao, it is because he can be nothing else. Wherever the concentrated spectacle rules, so does the police.” Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle (New York: Zone Books, 1994), sections 63 and 64.

Of course, memories of class difference were not entirely erased. In “The Power of the Powerless,” Václav Havel speaks of his social awkwardness at having to work in a brewery in the mid-1970s (Havel, Open Letters (London: Faber and Faber, 1991), 173–4). The artist Vladimír Boudník (1924–68) worked in a print factory and declared, a good decade before Joseph Beuys did, that everyone was an artist. He viewed his art as having an educative mission: he produced work in the streets (late 1940s–50s), finding images in peeling paint and stains on walls, occasionally adding to them, and framing them (for example with paper), before encouraging passers-by to converse with him about their meaning. See Vladimír Boudník (Prague: Gallery, 2004). Mílan Knížák was aware of Boudník’s work, and some of his early actions make reference to everyday workers. For example, Anonymous (1965) involved scattering the following script in the street: “1. A HAPPENING for street sweepers and janitors. 2. ENVIRONMENT for pedestrians. 3. DELIGHT for the creator, resulting from the action.” See Milan Knížák, Actions For Which at Least Some Documentation Remains, 1962–1995 (Prague: Gallery, 2000), 73.

The socialist calendar in Slovakia, for example, included organized mass parades for Victorious February (February 25), International Women’s Day (March 8), International Workers’s Day (May 1), Liberation Day (May 9), International Children’s Day (June 1), Nationalization (October 28), and the Great October Socialist Revolution (November 7). See Mira Keratova, “Vivez sans temps mort,” Transforming 68/89 (Berlin: Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung, 2008), 528–37. For the Yugoslav context, see Branislav Jakovljevic, “Balkan Baroque: Yugoslav Gestural Culture and Performance Art,” 1968–1989: Political Upheaval and Artistic Change , eds. Claire Bishop and Marta Dzeiwańska (Warsaw: Museum of Modern Art, 2010), 31–50.

Andrei Erofeev, “Nonofficial Art: Soviet Artists of the 1960s” (1995), Primary Documents : A Sourcebook for Eastern and Central European Art Since the 1950s , eds. Laura J. Hoptman and Tomáš Pospiszyl (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2002), 42. See also William J. Tompson, Khrushchev: A Political Life (Basingstoke: MacMillan, 1995), Chapter 10.

Groys, conversation with the author, New York, January 28, 2010.

“The communal apartment is a place where the social dimension occurs in its most horrifying, most obtrusive, and most radical form, where the individual is laid bare to the gaze of others. Furthermore, this gaze belongs to largely hostile strangers who consistently exploit their advantages of observation in order to gain advantage in the power struggle within the communal apartment.” Boris Groys, “The Theatre of Authorship,” Ilya Kabakov: Installations 1983–2000, Catalogue Raisonné Vol. 1, ed. Toni Stoos (Kunstmuseum Bern: Richter Verlag, 2003), 40.

According to an interview with Monastyrsky in Flash Art (October 2005): 114. The initial group consisted of Nikia Alekseev, Georgii Kizevalter, Andrei Monastyrsky, and Nikolai Panitkov, later joined by Igor Makarevich, Elena Elagina, and Sergei Romashko. On the literary aspects of Moscow Conceptualism, Kabakov has noted the central role of the Russian literary tradition of the nineteenth century: “Literature took upon itself all moral, philosophical, pedagogical, and enlightening functions, concentrating them all in itself and not simultaneously in the plastic arts, which did happen in the West.” Kabakov, “On the Subject of the Local Language,” in Kabakov, Das Leben Der Fliegen (Berlin: Edition Cantz, 1992), 237.

Viktor Misiano, “Solidarity: Collective and Collectiveness in Contemporary Russian Art,” in WHW, Collective Creativity (Kassel: Fridericianum, 2005), 185.

It should be noted that CAG also designed actions for individuals or pairs; for example, For N Panitkov (Three Darknesses) , 1980; For G Kizevalter (Slogan-1980) , 1980; The Encounter , 1981; For N Alekseev , 1981. It was rarer for actions to take place in private apartments ( Playback , 1981) or in the city streets ( Exit , 1983; The Group , 1983).

Monastyrsky refers to this as a psychological state of “pre-expectation,” created through the form of the invitation and through the spatio-temporal peculiarities of the journey to the site of the event. See Monastyrsky, “Preface to the First Volume of Trips to the Countryside,” Total Enlightenment: Conceptual Art in Moscow 1960–1990 , ed. Boris Groys (Frankfurt: Schirn Kunsthalle/Hatje Cantz, 2008), 335.

“And yet, if the experience so far was that of pure expectation, this experience now transforms upon the appearance of the object of perception on the real field. It is interrupted , and there begins a process of strenuous looking, accompanied by the desire to understand what this object means. In our view, this new stage of perception constitutes a pause. While it is a necessary stage in the process of perception, it is by no means the event for the sake of which all of this was arranged” (ibid., 336).

Ibid., 333.

Andrei Monastyrsky, “Seven Photographs,” trans. Yelena Kalinsky, available at → (last accessed July 23, 2009).

This, reports Kabakov, was unusual in setting up a particular experience of expectation: “one was going there with the idea of participation, and one was wondering what would happen” (Ilya Kabakov, “Ten Appearances,” in Kollektivnye deistviya, Poezdki za gorod [Moskva: Ad marginem, 1998

Ibid., 151–2.

Andrey Monastyrsky, “Ten Appearances” (1981), reprinted in Participation , ed. Claire Bishop (London: Whitechapel and Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006), 129.

This is what I understand him to mean by the following dense sentence: “The fact that of the ten possible appearances only eight, and not all ten, came to pass, represents in our view not a failing of the action but, on the contrary, underscores the realization of zones of psychic experience of the action as aesthetically sufficient on the plane of the demonstrational field of the action as a whole” (ibid). This is corroborated by Kabakov’s more amenable narrative: “I had some space of freedom and I had to make up my mind what to do then. But actually, I had no doubt or speculation about what to do—to leave, etc.—not at all. What I wanted to do immediately was to share this joy I experienced with the others, and also thank those people who made it happen for me” (Kabakov, “Ten Appearances,” 153).

Viktor Tupitsyn: “The same happens in combat: while you’re in the thick of it, everyone is so busy with the ‘physical stuff’ that all kinds of hermeneutic activities are foreclosed. Later, though, this void is going to be filled with interpretations, whose excessiveness will compensate for the lack of interpretation at the site of Action.” Monastyrsky: “Exactly! … Quite a number of texts about our Actions were composed by both spectators and organizers, who were equally fond of writing down what had really happened—first Kabakov, followed by Leiderman, and then by Bakshtein and others. They were impelled to do so in order to compensate for the impossibility of commenting on and interpreting the Actions as they occurred.” Tupitsyn and Monastyrsky, unpublished interview, 1997, archive of Exit Art, New York.

English translations of the works and photo-documentation can be found at → (last accessed July 23, 2009).

Groys, “Communist Conceptual Art,” in Groys, Total Enlightenment: Conceptual Art in Moscow 1960-1990 (Frankfurt: Schirn Kunsthalle/Hatje Cantz, 2008), 33.

Groys, in Claire Bishop and Boris Groys, “Bring the Noise,” Tate Etc . (Summer 2009): 38.

Tupitsyn and Monastyrsky, unpublished interview, 1997, archive of Exit Art, New York. However, it’s worth noting that Monastyrsky goes on to assert (contra Groys) that CAG sought to erase the distinction between work of art and spectator and with it the critical distance that might constitute the political:

The snowy fields have variously been compared to Malevich’s White Paintings and the white pages of Kabakov’s albums. It is worth noting that CAG was not the first to use white fields as the site for art: Francisco Infante had also deployed the field as a backdrop for photo-conceptualist works in the late 1960s, such as Dedication (1969), a Malevich-style constructivist composition made of coloured papers on white snow.

Sergei Sitar, “Four Slogans of ‘Collective Actions,’” Third Text 17:4 (2003): 364.

Tupitsyn and Monastyrsky, unpublished interview, 1997, archive of Exit Art, New York.

Cited in “Serebrianyi Dvorets,” a conversation between Ilya Kabakov and Victor Tupitsyn, Khudozhestvennyi Zhurnal No. 42 (2002): 10–14. Cited in Viktor Tupitsyn, The Museological Unconscious: Communal (Post-)Modernism in Russia (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2009), 70.

Kabakov, “Ten Appearances,” 154. Translated by Anya Pantuyeva.

See for example the interview with Joseph Beuys undertaken by two Russians, V. Bakchahyan and A. Ur, in the samizdat magazine A-YA at the time of Beuys’s Guggenheim retrospective. Their questions make explicit their wariness of art having anything to do with social change, since the work of the avant-garde post-1917 was so flagrantly co-opted by political officials to be a harbinger of communism: “Our Russian experience shows that to flirt with politics is dangerous for an artist … Aren’t you afraid that the artist who’s inside you is being conquered by the politician?” (V. Backchahyan and A. Ur, “Joseph Beuys: Art and Politics,” A-YA 2 (1980): 54–5).

Claire Bishop (b.1971) is Associate Professor in the PhD Program in Art History at CUNY Graduate Center, New York. Her publications include Installation Art: A Critical History (2005), and the edited anthologies Participation (2006), and 1968-1989: Political Upheaval and Artistic Change (2010). She co-curated the exhibition “Double Agent” at the ICA London in 2008, and the performance festival “Prelude.11” at the Graduate Center in 2011. She is a regular contributor to Artforum and her second monograph, “Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship”, will be published by Verso in 2012.

journal writing group

e-flux announcements are emailed press releases for art exhibitions from all over the world.

Agenda delivers news from galleries, art spaces, and publications, while Criticism publishes reviews of exhibitions and books.

Architecture announcements cover current architecture and design projects, symposia, exhibitions, and publications from all over the world.

Film announcements are newsletters about screenings, film festivals, and exhibitions of moving image.

Education announces academic employment opportunities, calls for applications, symposia, publications, exhibitions, and educational programs.

Sign up to receive information about events organized by e-flux at e-flux Screening Room, Bar Laika, or elsewhere.

Thank you for your interest in e-flux . Check your inbox to confirm your subscription.

Death of Nex Benedict did not result from trauma, police say; many questions remain

As police continued Thursday to probe the death of an Oklahoma teen who died a day after being involved in a fight that broke out in a high school bathroom, authorities announced a preliminary autopsy showed the student's death was not the result of "trauma."

The death of Nex Benedict, 16, has prompted widespread attention and nationwide calls for schools to better protect students who may be bullied because of their gender and sexual identities. Nex, a sophomore at Owasso High School, used they/them and he/him pronouns and identified as gender expansive, an umbrella term that describes people whose gender identity expands beyond traditional gender norms, according to the National Institutes of Health .

Nex had previously been bullied because of their gender identity, friends of Nex told an advocacy group . Authorities are investigating what led up to the fight and whether Nex was targeted because of their gender identity. A police spokesperson, Nick Boatman, told NBC News investigators have reviewed a video that shows Nex before and after the fight and will release it “at some point," the outlet reported.

While the Owasso Police Department said Wednesday that Nex's death was not the result of injuries from a fight, its statement added that the findings were preliminary and investigations by the medical examiner's office and the police department remain underway. The police statement provided no additional details but said an official autopsy would later be released.

"At this time, any further comments on the cause of death are currently pending until toxicology results and other ancillary testing results are received," the police statement said. "The official autopsy report will be available at a later date."

Nex's family says though many questions remain unanswered, the facts of the case so far are troubling. They plan to conduct an independent investigation, relatives confirmed in a statement issued Wednesday. They also urged officials to "hold those responsible to account and to ensure it never happens again."

"While at Owasso High School, Nex was attacked and assaulted in a bathroom by a group of other students," the family said in a statement issued by its attorney. "A day later, the Benedict's beautiful child lost their life."

What happened to Nex Benedict? Search warrant reveals new details

A search warrant filed in the Tulsa County courts Wednesday and obtained by the Oklahoman, part of the USA TODAY network, shed new light on Nex's death and the investigation, including that a detective asked a judge for permission to look for traces of blood and other evidence at Owasso High School.

Penny Hamrick, an Owasso Police detective, wrote in the search warrant that "officers suspect foul play involved and need to initiate an in-depth investigation into the death."

According to the warrant, police were called to an Owasso hospital shortly after 3:30 p.m. on Feb. 7 in response to a report that Nex had been injured in a fight at school. Sue Benedict, Nex's mother, wanted to report the assault and asked police to talk with school administrators about what had happened. She did not ask officers to pursue charges against the other students at that time, Hamrick wrote.

Nex was later discharged from the hospital. But shortly before 3 p.m. the next day, Benedict called 911 to report Nex was experiencing medical issues, including shallow breathing. She told the 911 operator about the altercation at school and said Nex had hit their head on the bathroom floor, Hamrick wrote.

Emergency medical crews performed CPR on Nex and drove them to a Tulsa hospital, where they were pronounced dead around 3:30 p.m.

In the search warrant, Hamrick said police may also look through school records, including photographs, documents and attendance data. Investigators have previously said they plan to spend several days interviewing students and teachers.

FBI, homeland security investigate threat against school staffer

Since Nex's death, a barrage of threats have been made against the Owasso school district and at least one credible threat is being investigated in conjunction with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, said Lt. Nick Boatman, a spokesman for Owasso Police.

Boatman said the message that prompted federal agencies to join the investigation included a specific threat of violence against a specific individual. Boatman declined to name the person or disclose any other details about the content of the message. 

Meanwhile, Margaret Coates, the superintendent of Owasso schools, announced in an email that all district schools will have increased security.

A news story that went viral about Nex's death included allegations that teachers failed to summon medical care for the teenager after the altercation, and that Nex was so badly injured in the fight that they could not walk on their own. Police and school officials said the claims were false.

In a statement on Facebook, the Owasso Police Department said each student involved in the fight "walked under their own power to the assistant principal’s office and nurse’s office" after it was broken up. A registered nurse at the school then assessed the health of each student involved in the fight, according to police. Though she determined that "ambulance service was not required," the nurse recommended that Nex "visit a medical facility for further examination," the statement said. Nex was taken to the hospital that afternoon.

Nex Benedict was a 'wonderful child,' sister says

Questions and grief over Nex’s death – at a time when debates over gender and sexuality are becoming increasingly common at school board meetings and legislative hearings nationwide – have spread far beyond the state of Oklahoma. 

On Wednesday, U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said on X that he was devastated to hear of Nex's death and said more must be done to ensure "transgender and nonbinary students feel safe in schools and in our communities"

“Violence has no place in our school,” Cardona said. “It is our responsibility to protect all students by creating spaces where they feel safe to be their true selves.”

Nex loved to draw, read and play the video games Ark: Survival Evolved and Minecraft, according to their obituary.

“They were a wonderful child, and they were important to us in ways that are really difficult to articulate at this time,” said Malia Pila, the teen’s sister, in a brief conversation with The Oklahoman, part of the USA TODAY network . “They were really great, and we are incredibly sad.”

Nex Benedict suffered bullying, friends tell advocacy group

Nicole McAfee, who leads Freedom Oklahoma, said the organization has been working with some of Nex’s friends and others in Owasso as they process their grief over Nex’s death. The group is focused on making Oklahoma a safer place for people of all genders and sexualities.

McAfee said none of Nex’s friends currently felt comfortable being quoted directly in news stories but that they reported to Freedom Oklahoma that “Nex had been bullied for their gender identity for well over a year."

Jordan Korphage, a spokesman for the school district, did not respond to questions about whether the school had received prior reports of bullying involving Nex. He also would not say what grade Nex was enrolled in or whether the school had any groups aimed at supporting students of various gender and sexual identities.

State superintendent sued over student gender change restrictions

Ryan Walters, the state's superintendent who has come under fire for his efforts to prevent students from changing their gender in school records, addressed Benedict's death at a board meeting of the Oklahoma State Board of Education.

" We've had a lot of folks that have rushed to have an opinion and judgment there in the wake of the tragedy," Walters said. "There's little information available, and there will be more that comes out over the next few weeks as law enforcement is doing their investigations."

" We need to wait for those things to be done before we pass judgment," he said.

A student filed a lawsuit against Walters and the board in December over a rule barring students in the school district from changing their recorded gender without the board's authorization.

The board temporarily approved the rule in September. A month after the lawsuit was filed, it voted to make the rule permanent . In October, Walters dismissed court ordered requests from two school districts to change the gender on students' records.

This week, attorneys for the student asked a judge to move the suit from federal to state court, where it was originally filed.

Controversial social media personality on library review panel

In January, Walters appointed Chaya Raichik , the controversial conservative social media personality behind the "Libs of TikTok" account on X, to a library review committee. The account often stokes online right-wing outrage through videos and content criticizing or deriding LGBTQ+ and trans people.

The education board told the Oklahoman that the committee's purpose is to remove "pornographic or sexualized content from public schools in the State of Oklahoma."

Log in using your username and password

  • Search More Search for this keyword Advanced search
  • Latest content
  • Current issue
  • JME Commentaries
  • BMJ Journals More You are viewing from: Google Indexer

You are here

  • Online First
  • Advance directives for oral feeding in dementia: a response to Shelton and Geppert
  • Article Text
  • Article info
  • Citation Tools
  • Rapid Responses
  • Article metrics

Download PDF

  • Paul T Menzel
  • Philosophy (emeritus) , Pacific Lutheran University , Tacoma , Washington , USA
  • Correspondence to Dr Paul T Menzel, Philosophy (emeritus), Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Washington, USA; menzelpt{at}plu.edu

In a recent paper in JME, Shelton and Geppert use an approach by Menzel and Chandler-Cramer to sort out ethical dilemmas about the oral feeding of patients in advanced dementia, ultimately arguing that the usefulness of advance directives about such feeding is highly limited. They misunderstand central aspects of Menzel’s and Chandler-Cramer’s approach, and in making their larger claim that such directives are much less useful than typically presumed, they fail to account for five important elements in writing good directives for dementia and implementing them properly: (1) Directives should be paired with appointment of trusted agents. (2) Appointed agents’ authority can be greatly weakened without advance directives to guide them. (3) Directives’ implementation does not require clinically precise assessment of dementia’s stage. (4) Palliative support is typically required for withholding of oral feeding to be compassionate. (5) The central purpose of stopping feeding is often not the avoidance of suffering but not prolonging unwanted life.

  • Advance Directives
  • Palliative Care
  • Ethics- Medical
  • Paternalism

https://doi.org/10.1136/jme-2024-109909

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request permissions.

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

Introduction

How compelling for future caregivers are advance directives to withhold assisted oral food and drink in advanced dementia? Even when clearly written, how effective can they be? Even if effective, how important are these documents in a clinical world where few patients have them?

Shelton and Geppert 1 argue that such directives ‘should have less application to questions about feeding patients in the clinical course of dementia than often has been presumed.’ In developing the conceptual basis for their claim, they rely significantly on the approach to such directives taken by Chandler-Cramer and me 2 : as the ‘experiential’ interests of patients with advanced dementia in being fed wane, dominant moral weight shifts to the ‘critical’ interests previously expressed in having assisted feeding withheld (hereafter referred to as the ‘balancing’ approach, our 1 label for it). As useful and revealing as Shelton and Geppert’s use of our approach at times is, they misconstrue not only our approach but the underlying Dworkin/Dresser debate 3 4 about critical and experiential interests with which it deals. They also fail to account for important elements of well-written and properly implemented directives to withhold food and water by mouth, leading them to inflate the limits they claim for the usefulness of such directives.

The basic misunderstanding

Our paper as well as the heart of the Dworkin/Dresser debate concerns situations when the critical interests expressed by patients when they had decision-making capacity conflict with experiential interests later in dementia when they still want to eat. Shelton and Geppert focus in detail on a situation in which the experiential interests in being fed have waned to the point where even the current patient’s ‘best interest’ is not served by being fed. Their use of our ‘balancing’ approach for this different situation is thus suspect from the start.

Correctly, they note that even without prior direction, at some point the patient will have no interest in being fed, and should not be. This is entirely consistent with our position. As dementia deepens, the desire to eat may diminish to the point where the person merely stares at food placed before her, needing to be spoon-fed and persistently coaxed to swallow. Unless she experiences distress in not being fed, being fed enough to survive is not in her best interest. If she does not benefit from being fed, caregivers have sufficient reason to stop feeding her, and if she is harmed by it (risk of aspiration, struggling to swallow, etc), they are obligated to stop. This is entirely consistent with our position, and even Rebecca Dresser would agree with it. That kind of situation where experiential and critical interests align, however, is neither Dresser’s nor our focus; it is, rather, situations where critical and experiential interests conflict.

Moreover, Shelton and Geppert go on to interpret our position as requiring that before food can be withheld, patients’ prior wishes to that effect must be known. Chandler-Cramer and I spoke only to the situation where patients have a clear directive about oral feeding, arguing that the prior wishes should be controlling when, though the patient may experience some minimal contentment from being manually fed, the waning experiential interest gives way to the now relatively more important prior wishes. That is what our ‘balancing’ position implies, not that a patient’s prior wishes must always be known, even when oral feeding provides no benefit.

Failure to account for important elements of advance directives

Shelton’s and Geppert’s wider claim about how limited advance directives are in limiting oral feeding in dementia is also flawed. They fail to recognise at least five important elements in well-written and supported directives.

Advance directives need appointed agents

Advance directives do not stand by themselves. They should always be paired with the patient appointment of a healthcare agent (surrogate, proxy). A directive to stop oral feeding in dementia, for example, will articulate certain envisioned circumstances as ‘triggering’ conditions for implementation—when the person does not recognise individual close family or friends, for example, or ceases to be mentally engaged with any of his surroundings. In implementing any directive, such triggering conditions will have to be interpreted; that responsibility best falls to the person the patient appointed. Moreover, explicitly stated triggering conditions can never cover every circumstance; an agent who understands the patient and his values is needed to speak to those unanticipated circumstances.

Advance directives complement appointment of an agent

Just as the usefulness of advance directives is weakened without a patient-appointed agent, so also appointed agents’ authority can be greatly weakened without an advance directive or other expressions of the patient’s substantive desires. This is especially the case for controversial decisions, such as withholding oral feeding or refusing a standard and relatively simple treatment, such as an antibiotic for pneumonia. Though appointing a trusted agent is likely the most important thing people can do to see that their values are respected in future care, in situations like feeding in dementia, that agent’s authority in representing the patient is greatly strengthened by a relevant directive.

Clinical precision is not needed

Agents and caregivers should not expect precise clinical assessments to be the focus in determining when triggering conditions have been met. Shelton and Geppert state that my and Chandler-Cramer’s view implies that ‘determining the point at which to stop providing food to patients is aided by a thorough clinical assessment to determine as precisely as possible the stage of their disease’. Indeed, such assessment may be of assistance, but the triggering conditions that reflect the patient’s views are seldom stated in clinically precise terms. They do not need to be. Difficulty in obtaining a precise clinical assessment, then, is not a significant limitation on the use of advance directives if we understand them as expressions of a patient’s underlying values.

Palliative support is essential

Clinically competent supervision of forgoing food and drink requires appropriate palliative support. 5 6 A good directive will acknowledge this need by addressing how extensive the patient wants that support to be, particularly whether it should include sedation (or even sedation to unconsciousness). The dilemma between relieving patient distress and suffering, on the one hand, and honouring prior patient wishes, on the other, is overdrawn if the distress that can attend to not being fed is not addressed with good palliative support. Clinicians who are not aware of the importance of such support may think that to meet their moral obligation to relieve suffering, the patient must be fed. If the distress can be relieved by good palliative support, however, there is no obligation to feed. Laudably, Shelton and Geppert see that in extreme cases feeding may not be in a patient’s best interest, but their perception of the usefulness of directives for withholding food is limited by insufficient attention to palliative support.

Avoiding suffering is not the only goal

Suffering can easily draw excessive attention in understanding the ethical importance of advance directives for advanced dementia, pushing out appreciation of not prolonging unwanted life. Some who write such directives, to be sure, envision primarily exasperation over memory loss or distress from hallucinations, but many simply want not to have their lives marked at the end by years of extremely diminished cognition and awareness. For them, ‘when will I be suffering enough to stop feeding me’ is not the appropriate question. Even if they end up being relatively contented with extreme dementia and not suffering, that is no reason for them to continue to be fed. 7 Having one’s life end in years of utter passivity and lack of engagement, especially without being able to have expectations about tomorrow, or when tomorrow comes, being able to remember anything that happened yesterday, is a life they insist on avoiding. 8–10 If their lives are made to continue by being fed, they are truly harmed.

In not attending sufficiently to such elements of advance directives for withholding food in advanced dementia, Shelton and Geppert come to an inflated assessment of their limits. Yes, directives for dementia are not unproblematic, and they need to be carefully written, with the various dimensions noted above in mind. And yes, relatively few people write them. But that is true of all advance directives. When individuals have strong feelings about what happens to them when they can no longer give or withhold consent to treatment, advance directives can be helpful in enabling people to accomplish their goals.

Ethics statements

Patient consent for publication.

Not applicable.

Ethics approval

Acknowledgments.

The author is grateful for the assistance and support of M Colette Chandler-Cramer, Robb Miller, Thaddeus M Pope and Bonnie Steinbock.

  • Shelton W ,
  • Menzel PT ,
  • Chandler-Cramer MC
  • Pope TM , et al
  • Wechkin H ,
  • Macauley R ,
  • Menzel PT , et al

Contributors I am the sole author of this submission. No one else, besides those mentioned in Acknowledgements, has assisted me with any input.

Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

Competing interests None declared.

Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.

↵ Though I am the sole author of this response, I refer to the Menzel and Chandler-Cramer paper as ‘our’ paper.

Linked Articles

  • Original research Limits of advance directives in decision-making around food and nutrition in patients with dementia Wayne Shelton Cynthia Geppert Journal of Medical Ethics 2024; - Published Online First: 02 Jan 2024. doi: 10.1136/jme-2023-109652

Read the full text or download the PDF:

IMAGES

  1. Journal Writing 2: Group Journals

    journal writing group

  2. 11 Easy Tips For Incorporating Journal Writing Into Your Class Or Group

    journal writing group

  3. The Power of Journaling

    journal writing group

  4. Building Student Relationships with Writing Journals

    journal writing group

  5. Weekly Writing Group

    journal writing group

  6. Writing Groups

    journal writing group

VIDEO

  1. What is journaling?/How to start a journal?/Informative video #shorts #ytshort #journal #journaling

  2. Purpose of Journal

  3. Journal writing video 1

  4. Writing in my Creative Journal! #journaling

  5. Journal writing / Bullet journal📘📗📙📕📔

  6. Benefits of Journal writing✍️✨ #journal #journalwriting #journaling #mentalhealth #goals #trending

COMMENTS

  1. 4 Steps To Creating A Journal Writing Group

    Maybe a journal writing group is for you? In her chapter in The Great Book of Journaling, Nancy Johnston describes how you might go about planning for and creating a journal writing group including the following suggestions … 4 Steps to Creating Your Journal Writing Group by Nancy Johnston 1. Work with a partner or team.

  2. 4 Practices to Bring Journaling into Your Workshops & Groups

    Writing Alone Together: The Benefits of Journal Writing in Workshops & Groups Journaling is one of my favourite activities to bring into my workshops, training programs and group coaching. Whether done on our own or in groups with others, expressive journal writing can be healing, creative and transformational.

  3. 4 Steps to Creating a Journal Writing Group

    Maybe a journal writing group is for you? In her chapter in The Great Book of Journaling, Nancy Johnston describes how you might go about planning for and creating a journal writing group....

  4. Journal Writing Community, Resources, Courses & more

    Featured Product Sale! Learn how to help others through The Art of Journal Coaching. Discover the art, heart and process of journaling coaching with two experienced coaches and facilitators, Lynda Monk & Eric Maisel. Join us for powerful 12 week learning journey starting April 2nd, 2024! Learn More >> $ 1,495.00 $ 1,195.00 Add to cart

  5. Journal Therapy

    Journal therapy, also referred to as journal writing therapy or simply writing therapy, involves the therapeutic use of journaling exercises and prompts to bring about awareness and improve...

  6. Group Writing

    The range of possible collaboration varies from a group of co-authors who go through each portion of the writing process together, writing as a group with one voice, to a group with a primary author who does the majority of the work and then receives comments or edits from the co-authors.

  7. 13 Tips and Prompts for Creative Journaling

    It's "how to journal" with a group twist! I started a writing group when I lived on Bowen Island, BC - and that's when I wrote 7 Tips for Starting a Writers' Group - Writing Alone, Together. A writers' group is different than a journaling group, and Cutler et al's book inspired me to start a whole new group for women who want ...

  8. Journal Writing: A Step-By-Step Guide for Beginners

    Journal writing is the practice of regularly recording thoughts, feelings, experiences, ideas, and observations in a personal, private, or semi-private format. Journal writing can serve various purposes, such as self-reflection, self-expression, self-discovery, personal growth, creativity, problem-solving, and stress relief.

  9. Journaling groups

    1,861 Writers | Tokyo, Organized by lauren shannon. 3. The Path of Consciousness 1,688 Members | Troy, Organized by Weam Namou. 4. ... Insight and implementation journal Meetup Group. 4 Members. Started Jan 1 in New York, us. Pen Gals Journey through Journaling. 8 Members. Started Jan 1 in Lacey, us. uncivilized Oklahoma.

  10. How to Start a Mindful Journaling Practice

    The practice of writing in a journal, a diary, or just scribbling notes to ourselves on pieces of paper, has both a rich history and present-day appeal. ... Others were assigned to a control group with their usual anxiety treatment. Within the 12 weeks, those who did the writing practice (compared with the control group) reported lower levels ...

  11. 19 Writing Conferences For Emerging and Established Writers

    Sewanee Writers Conference. Held on the campus of the University of the South, 90 minutes from Nashville, the Sewanee Writers Conference is a twelve-day conference that provides workshops across fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and playwriting. The conference fee for "contributors" is $1,800, which covers food and lodging for twelve days.

  12. Writing Therapy: How to Write and Journal Therapeutically

    For five to 10 minutes just start writing in a "stream of consciousness.". Start a dialogue with your inner child by writing in your nondominant hand. Cultivate an attitude of gratitude by maintaining a daily list of things you appreciate, including uplifting quotes. Start a journal of self-portraits.

  13. 61 Journaling Ideas (Basics On What To Write +Prompts)

    27. Use an image that sparks an idea for journal writing. 28. Journal about a dream you remember. 29. Use a timer for a journal writing sprint. 30. Small daily journal sentence. 31. A creative character sketch. 32. Write about something absurd. 33. Write an encouraging personal note to yourself. 34. Start with your favorite meal. 35. Describe ...

  14. Therapeutic Journaling: An Introduction & Guide to Writing for Your

    Therapeutic Journaling: An Introduction & Guide to Writing for Your Mental Health If you're feeling stressed, anxious, or down, try therapeutic journaling. While it's not a total replacement for therapy, it is one tool that can help you to create meaning and feel better, or serve as a helpful addition to traditional talking therapies.

  15. 35 Inspiring Topics for Journal Writing » JournalBuddies.com

    Journal Keeping Ideas and Topics to Spark Your Creative Juices and to Write About— This excellent set of 35 topics for journal writing is designed to serve anyone from age 12 and up into adulthood—which means it's suitable for use in your middle school, high-school, or post-secondary classroom, or simply for your own personal use. Yes!

  16. 15 of the Best Online Writing Communities for Aspiring Authors

    1. Absolute Write Water Cooler With over 68,000 members, this is a large and highly active community. Here you can find threads on every genre imaginable, as well as discussions about freelance writing, the publishing industry, pop culture, writing prompts and exercises, and much more.

  17. Journal Writing Group

    Thu, Feb 8, 2024, 11:00 AM CET Journal Writing Group. Cherry Blossom Valencia, València, VA. The how Select a question that resonates with you and write for just 10-15 minutes jotting down your reflections. Feel free to share your insights with the group for a rich discussion, (there's absolutely no pressure to do so).

  18. List of Writer's Conferences and Workshops in North America: Updated

    When you're at a Writers' Conference with thousands of other writers, authors, and publishers who are all passionate about writing, you will also get the desire to write more than you ever have before. It's a great way to stay motivated and inspired and to make sure that you keep working on your writing career. 5. Community

  19. The Big, Big List of Literary Magazines and Journals

    Atticus Review. Atticus Review is a daily online journal that publishes fiction, poems, and creative nonfiction, as well as graphic art, mixed media, music essays, and, on occasion, blog posts, interviews, and non-traditional book reviews. The writing in Atticus Review is unashamed, unadorned, and unafraid.

  20. Zones of Indistinguishability: Collective Actions Group and

    It is in this literary context, with a strong reverence for textual expression, that the Collective Actions Group (CAG) (Kollektivnye Deistvia, or K/D) was formed in 1976; at its inception there were four members; by 1979 there were seven; and in 2005 there were six. 8 The group took its lead from the first generation of Moscow Conceptualists, especially Kabakov, whose installations implied ...

  21. Nex Benedict case: Oklahoma police says teen did not die from 'trauma'

    Nex was later discharged from the hospital. But shortly before 3 p.m. the next day, Benedict called 911 to report Nex was experiencing medical issues, including shallow breathing.

  22. Advance directives for oral feeding in dementia: a response to Shelton

    In a recent paper in JME, Shelton and Geppert use an approach by Menzel and Chandler-Cramer to sort out ethical dilemmas about the oral feeding of patients in advanced dementia, ultimately arguing that the usefulness of advance directives about such feeding is highly limited. They misunderstand central aspects of Menzel's and Chandler-Cramer's approach, and in making their larger claim ...