Why Bother With Journaling?

These 7 hints are for anyone's info... why you can benefit from keeping a bound book of notes that you carry with you. A future blog will show how to use your journal to efficiently write dozens of songs, if you want :)

JOURNAL DETAILS: Size and style depends on your special needs. I use an 8x10 fake-leather bound lined journal with 400 pages... The first and last 25 are for organizing NOTES and QUOTES. I fill up about 350 pages every 2-1/2 months.

There are currently about 190 original songs written and performed by me on DiDoReflections.com (last update: 12/31/2011) and I have journal notes WITH sketched out music for another 100 or so, written in only 3 years. I could not write so many songs if I didn't keep my journal WITH me almost always, and record ideas immediately. (I'm forgetful... as we all are when "Life happens.") If there are songs in you that you yearn to write, you can easily do the same!

REASONS TO JOURNAL
1. To feel better. Writing helps us to “work out” why we feel as we do, helps us learn who we really are. Seeing the causes for why we feel as we do often helps us to control our emotions and to see that feelings aren’t always logical – or, sometimes, even based on truth.
2. To learn from mistakes. When we record our mistakes, we’re more likely to remember them and learn....
3. To provide a place to record our insights. One day these might make great songs... like the humor of noticing a giant tail on a tiny squirrel, which led to my complete song WONDER.
4. For just plain fun sometimes, to go back and see how we thought or what we did years ago. (It’s good to be able to laugh at yourself:)
5. As a comfort to remember as you read about the bad things that happened to you that you pushed out of your memory, that you survived them... even if not in the ways that you wanted at the time. A cool Bible verse is 2nd Corinthians 1:4 observes that we can comfort other people with the comfort that helped us in the past. There's joy in helping other people. And we can see a bit of good come from whatever happened to us.
6. Journaling provides a data source - important for songwriters. We can record facts and ideas that we can later come back to. It’s especially useful to use margin symbols (like a moon for dreams and music note for song idea). These can help us teaching, recording songs or inventions or magazine article ideas, etc. Example: I recorded in my journal cool research on migratory studies; later I used them to write WHO TAUGHT BUTTERFLIES as a song full of both humor and actual scientific information.
7. Journals provide a good location for records. I jot down info from notes I send friends, and even staple or tape things like cards from people in mine for future enjoyment. And a journal makes a safe place for your Christmas Gift list:)
Much joy to you in preparing your resource journals for future songwriting!
©2011 DianaDee Osborne