Writing has always been something easy for me. The flow of written words has been a steady one since I began to write for my amusement all those years ago. And it is because of this background in writing for fun that the First Thoughts activity was both easy and therapeutic for me.
So I'm used to jotting down my first thoughts without much hesitation to be able to build up ideas for my stories. Because of my experience in writing just for fun, I found that this project was rather simple, yet mind opening.
The First Thoughts activity comes from Natalie Goldberg's "Writing Down the Bones". It is a simple yet thought-inducing (literally!) exercise for anyone that wants to try their hand at writing. The whole idea of it is to take up ten minutes of your day to force yourself to write down the first things that pop into your mind. The hard part is exactly that. Writing down everything that flits across your mind in those minutes without stopping to fix anything or think about the 'best' way to put the words.In the beginning, it was somewhat hard to follow the rule of 'Don't Think'. How can someone write their thoughts without thinking? To me it was a bit of an oxymoron. Because, really, how can one not think about what they're going to write?
Eventually, I began to write my thoughts as they came to me, and I believe that this was what the fourth rule was all about. Aside from that rule, the sixth rule: Go for the jugular, gave me a bit of trouble as well. But this was only for the first few days until I managed to get the hang of the journal.
Obstacles are always something to be found in daily life. It's just a normal part of life that cannot be avoided. And one of the obstacles I encountered while completing my First Thoughts Journal was trying to find the time to write in it. All of the schoolwork I had to accomplish aside from this project really cut into my writing time. But through it I learned to juggle all of my responsibilities and make time to complete everything I have to.
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| The only tools needed for this activity |
Throughout the whole project, I noticed that the fluidity of my thoughts became much more pronounced. At the beginning, writing was easy. But the more that I wrote, the more natural jotting my thoughts down became. My words just took on a more flowing nature and felt more honest. And because I was able to become more genuine with my thoughts in this project, I was able to transfer that authenticity of emotions into my narration for my stories and believe that it really has helped me in this respect.
Aside from finally having some clue about how to schedule and prepare for my coming assignments, this project has helped me in my own writing career. Through writing down my thoughts, I have been able to write down some of the ideas I have for different kinds of stories I have yet to begin to write. And even though I wrote a lot before the beginning of this project, I feel like my writing style overall has become more natural, less stiff, and more in tune with the emotions felt by my characters.
This project was one I readily enjoyed because of its roots in the human mind and developing a thought process. It helped me find a new side to my writing style and was the foundation to me finally being able to plan ahead for all the tasks assigned to me by my classes. And I know that I will continue using a journal like this further along the road because of how much it helps.
But, seriously what I enjoyed the most of this project was having an outlet for all my creative thoughts.
Here's the link to the website our professor sent us to for extra information on Natalie Goldberg's activity: First Thoughts
Irene, I admire so much for loving reading and writing. Personally, it was an excruciating process that I overcame with the first thoughts' activity. I went through something similar as you, when it came to organizing my life. The journal helped me organize my emotions and my daily routines. I will continue using a journal too, but for my dreams because my dreams are awesome and I want to remember them. LOL.
ReplyDeleteI noticed that you really enjoyed the project because of how creative you were writing in your notebook. You wrote in every direction so that was very cool. I totally agree with you, this project gave me also more fluidity in my writing and eventually. I wrote even better as the days passed on. Yes, I was confused as you with the "Don't think". You are a very good writing so keep up the work!
ReplyDeleteHey Irene! I like to write too, however, I write sporadically. I write poetry most of the times whenever I feel the need to get some thoughts out of my body. You should check out the page that I added to my blog where I included some of the poems that I have written in english. I think you should do the same. I would really enjoy reading some of your original work.
ReplyDeleteHi there, Irene! I'm glad you became more fluent and confident with this assignment! I also admire that you want to keep doing this for yourself as a writer and to organize your daily life. This assignment was surely a great way to expand our experience in expressing ourselves through writing. I enjoyed it too!
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