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Raul wrote in to ask, with deep yearning and colorful examples, “Can journaling help me become a better writer?” Both Mari and I reassured him that he’s already on that path, with a significant piece of evidence hiding right inside the four-paragraph question!
For a more detailed response to this question, you will surely enjoy my interview with Danielle Hanna, crime-fiction writer, and author of Journaling to Become a Better Writer.
In his book, 101 Reasons To Write a Journal, the author devotes an entire chapter to thirteen different ways that journal-writing improves your general writing skills, regardless whether you keep an analog or digital journal! Here are the first ten.
1. Capture ideas before they vanish.
2. Build grammar, spelling, and vocabulary.
3. Learn how to start, tell, and end a story.
4. Find your sense of humor.
5. Increase your writing speed.
6. Practice writing every day.
7. Develop plot-building skills.
8. Increase your writing confidence.
9. Discover whether you even enjoy writing.
10. Destroy writer’s block.
Please join the dialogue: Post comments (on our website’s comments section) if you have more examples of how journaling has improved your writing.
If you are receiving this in email format, you may also reply with your own journaling questions to be featured on a future episode of JournalTalk. Or, please call and leave a voicemail with your question at 1-805-751-6280 (only normal toll charges may apply). If your question is featured, we will send you a thank-you gift for sharing your voice! (JournalTalk Q&A, Episode #13, September 23, 2014)
Credits:
Audio Editing: Netrix Marketing
Music: Pond5.com
Voiceover: Thomas Gerrard
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