Writing Process Journal

In a recent workshop with Emily Mohn Slate, poet, essayist, and teacher, she shared an idea from Ruth Ozeki, American author, filmmaker and Zen Buddhist priest called a Writing Process Journal. Ozeki talks about it briefly in this interview at LitHub. She writes: “I talk to my process journal and ask it questions. Somehow, the act of formulating and asking questions seems to generate answers, and when they come, I write them down. I give myself assignments and deadlines. I make lists and analyze narrative problems I’m trying to solve. I make To Do lists of things I need to research. I make notes about whatever I’m reading or watching and jot down things I want to use or steal. I track my progress, log the number of hours or words or pages I’ve written. I brag, complain, whine, worry, catalogue my biggest fears and smallest triumphs.” 

Emily had us keep a writing process journal that semester to track goals, make to-do lists, catalog wins and frustrations, and whatever else made sense for us. It was a very clear shift in my writing. Even as a lifelong journaler, it never occurred to me to keep a journal about my writing life and process. I've kept it up now for over a year and a half and I see no signs of stopping. I would highly recommend giving it a shot. My first entry listed my fears (do I have more great poems in me, does the inner-wise-brilliant-writer in me that I saw in that first collection still exist, and can I write beyond the subject of grief?), my blocks (physical pain, dearth of emotional/psychic energy), things that help me write (a clean, organized study, framing writing time as PLAYTIME, some kind of accountability, scheduled blocks that I adjust weekly as needed, music, book-companions: who do I want with me today, being warm/cool, temperature-controlled (weird, but yes!), and remembering what Brenda Hillman told me: I affirm the poet’s right to exhaust an impulse. YES!).

my favorite spot to write in my study