Unleash your creativity with these quirky journals
Whether you’re a full-time writer or you’re trying to tap into your imagination, creative journals have a lot of benefits. Not only can creative writing help reduce stress, it also helps to hone your skills as a writer and come up with ideas you didn’t even know you had.
As a full-time writer, I find creative journals and notebooks useful because they allow me to unwind, relieve writer’s block and write freely without feeling the pressure of deadlines or whether it’s good enough.
It’s fair to say I’ve spent a fair few quid on these over the years, so here are a few of my favourites.
1. 642 Tiny Things to Write About (San Francisco Writers' Grotto)
This little gem is jam-packed packed with short creative writing exercises. They’re designed to make you think on the spot without over-thinking, which is why it’s ideal for perfectionists.
With everything from summarising the plot of Hamlet in 140 characters to writing from the perspective of a pathological liar, there’s a variety of exercises to keep your mind on its toes.
2. The Art of Getting Started (Lee Crutchley)
Prone to procrastination? This is a particularly handy journal to have lying around. It has a different creative task for every day of the year and and there are some motivational quotes thrown in for good measure.
Working through this book helps you to spend 5-10 minutes working on something different, knowing that it’s not going to be judged or critiqued.
It just encourages you to do something. There are writing and drawing exercises, some of which require getting on your feet and changing your surroundings.
3. Creative Writing: A Journal With Art to Kickstart Your Writing (Eva Glettner)
Each page has a prompt with an original illustration on which the exercise is based. Full of weird and wonderful creative tasks, it encourages you to write haikus, speeches and conversations from perspectives of animals and humans.
4. Start Now: The Creativity Journal (Kate Neckel)
If your perfectionism is your own worst enemy, I’d recommend investing in this journal.
Not only does it give you a kick up the arse with its fun, quirky writing, drawing and thinking exercises, it helps you loosen up and put pen to paper without criticising yourself.
5. Strange Dreams: A Journal (Andy J. Miller)
Sometimes the best ideas can be lurking in our subconscious, just waiting to be teased out. This dream journal allows you to capture the bonkers stuff that goes on in our dreams and even rank them on a Strangeness Metre.