H.P. Lovecraft

The other day I picked up the book Great Tales of Horror. It is a collection of stories by Lovecraft. I had never read any of his stories before now. There is a creepiness in his works tat give chills. Poe is one of my favorite authors so isn't surprising that I enjoy Lovecraft. I read the short story 'The Statement of Randolph Carter' and immediately began another story 'The Thing on the Doorstep.' If you enjoy horror stories then I would pick up one of Lovecraft's pieces.

Keeping a Journal

I found some excellent resources for getting started writing a journal. I know with myself sometimes I can sit down and just write whatever comes to my mind. Other times it is more difficult to keep the pen moving. The first is a book titled Room to Write: daily invitations to a writer's life by Bonni Goldberg. Each page contains a new scenario or idea to write about. I usually find one I want to use that day and title my journal entry with the name of the scenario/idea and page number. Then I write until I can't. I find it good to set apart a specific time period in the day and stick to it. Let's say you save thirty minutes for journaling - you keep the pen moving even if it's the same word. Eventually others will join it. I find it's easier to keep a separate blog or word document because typing is faster and the muscles are more active. We sadly don't write by hand as much. The next resource is a webpage with links to different topics. 'Creative Writing Now' (http://www.creative-writing-now.com/writing-journal.html) provides tips on how to write, what to write about, how to go about your daily life to soak in as much information as possible to help you with the content of your entries. In high school I took a creative writing class and loved it. At the beginning of the class we had to write for ten minutes and couldn't stop. He didn't care if half the page held the same sentence. It was a way to keep the mind thinking and to build up the wrist and forearm muscles. It was one of my favorite classes. The last resource is just a list of benefits to journaling (http://www.appleseeds.org/100_journaling.htm) things you may not think about. Stress relief, creative outlook, life outlook, etc.

Journaling isn't something I do often enough because life gets away from me and I stop for a few weeks but then start up again. But I plan on making it a daily thing from now on. I do have a work journal going right now and will pick up my creative writing journal again. It is a stress reliever; plus I always have all this stuff going on in my head that I might as well write it down!

If you want more about journaling all you have to do is Google it and you will be bombarded with more tips.