Lisa Tener

Book Writing Coach

joy of writing

Day 7: October Journaling Adventure with The Joy of Writing Journal

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Today’s meditation, “Meet Your Muse,” is one of my favorite ways to help writers connect to their creativity and inner wisdom.

I taught my writing coach this meditation so she could lead me through it whenever I am searching for answers.

In today’s exploration, I journeyed to my muse. I felt the sun on my back in the meadow and then it became dark in the woods. Fireflies lit my way to the cottage where I usually meet my muse.

For the first time, I do not enter the cottage. Instead, my muse comes outside to meet me! We look at the stars and see shooting stars. My muse says, “Make a wish.”

Photo by Daniel Mayo on Unsplash

I wish for a feeling that embodies The Joy of Writing Journal. I embody the book and the book feels so happy bringing joy to many people.

I see The Joy of Writing Journal being passed hand to hand—other books, poems, journaling, coming into being inspired by the seeds of inspiration it sows in its readers/journalers (you, perhaps!).

I see a wonderful ball of light representing creativity and that grows and grows as people work through the journal. We all have so much fun. We feel more alive, more connected to each other and to our own inner worlds. The light illuminates our lives and The Joy of Writing Journal is very happy to see all this richness of experience from one little, simple book.

On the one hand, I remember feeling so light and exhilarated when I wrote this. On the other hand, I’m a little embarrassed to share it. I worrry you’ll find it trite.

I’m going to take a risk that maybe you’ll find the idea and images hackneyed but maybe you’ll bask in that ball of light with me and just enjoy how when we share our creativity it grows and grows…

The Joy of Writing Journal: Spark Your Creativity in 8 Minutes a Day

Do you have a question or two you want to ask your creative inner muse?

Listen to today’s meditation and ask your questions. See where your muse takes you.

Then write!

And after you write, or later today, spend some time on the summary page, jotting down things that happened this week that you could write about, things that inspired you. And don’t forget to record the times you plan to write each day during the coming week!

Day 6: October Journaling Adventure with The Joy of Writing Journal

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I would think that a rejuvenating activity would inspire rich exploration. But not on Day 6. I write my list and don’t feel like doing anything on the list. Instead, I skip to Day 7 and come back to my list the next day. I add “write dreams” to the list and write a short dream snippet from the night’s dreams.

As I write more comes back to me. I fill only one page but don’t feel like doing anything with the dream images. I just let them sink in and feel the healing energy of the dream that begins with a woman internally rejecting her nephew and later calling him. When she returns to me after the call, all she feels for him is love.

Your Turn

The Joy of Writing Journal: Spark Your Creativity in 8 Minutes a Day

Maybe you’ll write more than I did today. But I’m here to tell you it’s okay if you have days that you skip around to something that feels more inspiring.

If you skip, do come back to the prompt later or another day. Sometimes your subconscious mind needs time to stew on it.

What was your experience?

Let’s do something different today. Take one word or phrase from your list or your journal exploration and write it as a comment below. Together, we’ll turn our comments into a poem, with a line or word from everyone!

Looking for the full prompt? You’ll find it in The Joy of Writing Journal: Spark Your Creativity in 8 Minutes a Day.

Go write, if you haven’t yet!

Day 5: October Journaling Adventure with The Joy of Writing Journal

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Today’s list-making prompted a list of a few of my favorite animals, as well as some animals that intimidate me, like the coyotes I hear baying outside my window on cold winter nights.

Photo by Joshua Wilking on Unsplash

When it came time to write, I combined a few of the animals. Coyote and owl became a “coyowl” and deer and wolf became “the deer wolf.”

After two playful snippets about these fantasmagorical animals, I wrote about a childhood experience of a dozen of us kids packed into Leonard Davenport’s Volvo to go “moose hunting” (with our eyes; no guns involved) in Fundy Park in New Brunswick, Canada.

I only realized now that the piece about the coyowl appears on the journal page with a Jack London quotation. Somehow this seems quite fitting. Here’s my whimsical exploration of the coyowl:

The coyowl can fly from any part of the unvierse down

to just outside your bedroom window

where he alights

and who-howls

and howl-hoots

into your dreams

stalking

stealing its prey right out of your mind and

flying away

with one of your burdens.

You awaken lighter

free

and wonder what he was

who scared you,

took from you,

liberated you.

a creature of the night?

predator?


ally?

so strange and yet

familiar

in an unfamiliar way.

The Joy of Writing Journal: Spark Your Creativity in 8 Minutes a Day

Consider today’s prompts an invitation to leave realism behind. Tap into your magic. What did Day 5’s prompt generate for you? Share an excerpt, insight, question or image.

And if you want some other worldly inspiration, here are some coyotes howling.

Wondering where the prompt is? You’ll find it in The Joy of Writing Journal: Spark Your Creativity in 8 Minutes a Day.

Go write!

Day 4: October Journaling Adventure with The Joy of Writing Journal

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I like to write in bed, first thing in morning. As I worked with today’s prompt, I ended up writing about my dream journal, where I record the night’s dream(s) and my associations and insights.

As I write one scene, often more scenes surface. I might remember and write four or even five scenes on a particuarly abundant morning.

Lisa Tener journaling
I don’t have a picture of me journaling in bed, so this will have to do!

Once in a while I do more with the dream. For example, I might dialogue with a dream character.

This summer I dreamt of a sasquatch on another planet. In the dream she felt big and scary (thank goodness she was outside my spaceship, though she looked big and ominous with her Sasquatch head pressed against the glass window).

After dialoguing with the Sasquatch, she became something of a cross between a spirit guide and a goddess-figure. I still picture her from time to time in a pool of water filled with phosphorescent water creatures, deep in a cave that opens to a star filled sky. Sasquatch helps me feel safe to explore deep emotions and memories.

Your Turn. Do you journal your dreams?

joy of writing journal

What techniques do you use to explore the multiple layers of meaning?

And where do you like to journal? Does a particular space inspire a particular type of journaling? Feel free to share a comment below with your response to the Day 4 prompt from The Joy of Writing Journal. Or share your response to the dream journal questions above.

Day 3: October Journaling Adventure with The Joy of Writing Journal

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Returning to my day 3 list of things that spark joy, I’m struck by the very first entry “eating violets.” Violets taste so….well…purple to me.

But I didn’t journal about eating violets. My journal writing begins with a feeling of despondency, then the woods where I find “the fey green ferns, dappled sunlight, dark wet earth, lichen painted rocks in red, yellow, pale gray-green…”

Lisa Tener Joy of Writing Journal

And a circuitous route takes me to “question everything spiritual I’ve come to believe.”

It seems curious to me that one of the most lighthearted of prompts—and a playful video that goes with it—leads me to such a place of unknowing. Maybe it’s the very lightheartedness and support of nature that gives me the courage to journey to a vulnerable inner space.

Your Turn

Have you journaled yet today? If not, I invite you to do so right now. Then share something with us about your journaling journey.

Day 2: October Journaling Adventure with The Joy of Writing Journal

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Lisa Tener Joy of Writing Journal

Welcome to Day 2 on the journey through The Joy of Writing Journal. Here I share an excerpt from my journey and I hope you will share something about yours—an excerpt, an insight, a challenge, a joy…

Journaling helps me derive meaning. In this excerpt, I begin to find meaning in my own resistance to writing…

Photo by Jonathan Kemper on Unsplash

…I pull the rock out of the earth

Scoop my hand in the dirt hole

A slimy worm

A root

The scent of earth

My brain too stupid or lazy to describe the smell

Too dull for metaphor

Too wet to catch fire

Dig

Dig

Dig

WIll I find something? Anything?

Your Turn

Share an excerpt from your Day 2 in The Joy of Writing Journal: Spark Your Creativity in 8 Minutes a Day. If you don’t have a copy, you can buy it here.

The Joy of Writing Journal: Spark Your Creativity in 8 Minutes a Day

I’d love to hear what the prompt inspired for you this morning, whether an insight, a joy, a challenge, resistance, an exploration, a poem or something else…Feel free to share anything about your response or an excerpt of what you wrote today.

Looking for the journal prompts? You can get them here.

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