Workshop:
Six Conversations for Writing Creative
Journals
“Journaling
from the events of daily life does not mean simply keeping a log or diary of
who we saw and what we did each day. It means, rather, writing down the
experiences that have affected our soul in a particular way.” Anne
Broyles
Identify what inspires you through nature.
Here is one
view—one day—one experience—that had the ability to capture a whole inspiration
as Rainer Maria Rilke offers up a prayer from the land that carries across the
centuries of time.
Autumn
“The leaves are falling, falling as if from
far off,
as
if in the distance heavens gardens withered;
they fall
with gestures that say, ‘no.’
And in the
nights the heavy earth falls
from all the
stars into aloneness.
We are all
falling. This hand is falling.
And look at
the others: it is in them all.
And yet
there is One who holds this falling
with
infinite softness in his hands.”
Just
as a reflective journal helps connect you to your daily life from a variety of
views, so too can a nature journal be approached either randomly, or while
trying to study a particular concept, and then go deeper into certain aspects.
One
creative writing exercise, often known as the index or table of contents, works
well with nature journals to grasp an initial overview to start from. The idea
is to make a list of about 20 to 30 ideas or subjects of your choice. A list of
potential titles works well too. Do it quickly under a timer to help keep your
critical thinking set aside. Try five or ten minutes. One time after I put
together a mock index of things I’d like to read/write/study I discovered to my
great surprise that 22 out of 25 topics were all nature related.
Below are some headings Hannah
Hinchman used in A Trail Through Leaves.
“Feeling It In Your Bones
The Power of
the Ordinary
The Flow Of
Attention
Seeing Order
Seeing Chaos
Unmeasureable
Phenomena”
Action
Steps:
1. Make a table of contents list from one
particular season and write down as many nature memories you can think of. It
can be in a specific season one year or a general overview of memories over the
years.
2. Then expand each one with concrete
details. For example: Did it rain one whole week? What did it sound like—list
all the other characteristics you remember as well.
3. Now go back to the description exercise
and choose five episodes from your list above that affected you either
positively or negatively. Now write them up in descriptive detail.
Share: Which season
most captured your heart?
Read deep, marcy
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