Hey, hey, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here. I haven’t written a writing brain dump in a while, because frankly, I haven’t been writing as much fiction over the past month to a month and a half. I’ve been writing plenty for JK Geekly and board game rulebooks, but fiction writing has taken a backseat for a hot minute. And that makes sense for me. Typically, I end my year with writing a ton in the Ber season, the months ending in B-E-R. We’re a lot closer to that season than I originally thought. Anyway, I’ve been getting back into the swing of things by journaling.

Yes! I’ll be sharing a quick journaling method that gets me observing the world around me, and observing the world is necessary for writing fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction. This journaling method is easy to maintain. It helped me break out of my slump, and it may help you break out of a writing slump.

The following is a diagram of a journal page. We’ll discuss it at length in just a minute.

First, I split my journal pages into four unequal parts. The top two sections will be larger than the bottom two. Second, I start with the things I accomplished during the day. What I did during the day always occupies the top left section of my journal page. This grounds me with which day I’m discussing and reminds me that I do plenty of things throughout the day. I spend no more than two and a half minutes on this section. Timing is key.

If you added all four sections together, you’d arrive at six minutes. All it takes is six minutes for this journaling style. Most people have six minutes to spend. Six minutes with a defined format like this makes journaling easy. This helps me relax at the end of the day. When I journal (end of the day) is another reason why I start my journaling with seven things I did. This gives me visual confirmation that I accomplished things and may go to sleep.

Third, I’ll usually write seven things I saw. This also takes two and a half minutes. But here’s where I can shuffle the journaling format a touch. Sure, most days I list what I’ve seen, but sight isn’t the only sense. Some days, when I’m feeling up for it, I’ll list seven things I smelled, tasted, or heard. This section and the next one allow me to describe sensory details. Sensory details are a must for most writing, and most writers use sight as a crutch.

Fourth, I’ll spend half a minute writing about something I heard. Ah! Found dialogue. You won’t believe the fun and inventive turns of phrase I’ll hear. And I’m totally stealing these tidbits of dialogue for a story. Again, I can shake up this section with a different sensory detail. Because this section is so small, I started choosing different sensory details here first, before changing up what I saw.

And finally, I doodle for half a minute. I’m no artist, but I do my best. This is a way to spark creative juices by channeling a different medium. And it’s fun. The doodle can be something related to one of your other sections, or it could be a random doodle. Who cares? You’re the only one reading this journal. Okay. Mrs. Geekly sneaks a peek at my journal when I’m not looking, but I promise your doodles will improve.

That’s all I have for today’s writing brain dump. How do you journal? I’m open to more ideas. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day. Happy writing!