I TEACH JOURNALING to Media Writing students and for the next three years I plan to enhance that creative process with a few specific tips. One is to require a double spread page of speech bubbles and another task is to show a page that emerges from text input on a keyboard. I believe the Media Writing Journals I will review will have greater creative content at the end of the semester.
The speech bubbles task could arise after watching film or video clip. I reckon the speech bubbles could be laid down on a timeline to produce a rudimentary script--that's a task we attempt to complete inside the Media Writing module we deliver to second year students on the Clonmel Digital campus.
Typing on a keyboard could help capture thoughts quickly. When using our Office 365 tools, typed content will reveal spelling mistakes and the keyboard entries often automatically save into Class Notebooks where they can be transcribed into physical journals. I've asked students to attempt this workflow before and it has helped some people produce long entries that stretch across a week of thoughts.
Years ago, I kept a link to a Google Doc on the homescreen of my phone where I would add random thoughts. Then I would open the Google Doc in a quiet place to revise my meanderings before transcribing them into a Moleskine when I had quiet time. That process helped me create more sophisticated entries without the pressure of having to do everything on the run. The biggest advantage was being able to write down things while they were fresh, pushing some of them to Instapaper or Readwise, and then discovering them later inside Roam Research where they would generate back links to clever ideas, especially if woven into a shared graph on Roam. When I spend time reviewing my Instapaper, I can curate and cull snippets for coffee chats with colleagues. This entire creative review process helps me see connections I did not imagine at the time.
Typing creative thoughts into Google Keep helps me improve the overall quality of deep thinking. I use Google Keep to keep time codes from podcasts I hear. I also use a time-tested share sheet process with Trello.
Bonus Links
- Bernie's 220 Moleskines on Flickr
- 142 previous items on Journals
- Why keeping a journal matters
- Browsing Instapaper
[Top image from Stuart Mackey. Bernie Goldbach teaches creative media for business on the Clonmel Digital Campus.]