Fun Daily Warm Ups: Write Letters to Yourself in Your Journal

http://copywriter.typepad.com/copywriter/2007/04/weekly_writers__1.html

Want a fun way to warm up your writing for the day?

Here is it: write a letter to yourself in your journal.

Each morning, I write my Morning Pages (more on those in a moment), then I write a letter. I begin with "Dear Journal..."

Then I write whatever comes to mind. More times than not, what comes to mind is very useful. I tell myself what’s most important to me on that day, and I think about strategies. If something’s not working, I give myself ideas to try, so that it may work for me. I inspire myself.

I also moan and groan. And whine. I recall the many hurtful things people have done and said in my life — the times I was called a whore and a slut by my soon-to-be-ex. That hurt, since he was the first and only person I’d ever had sex with. I recall the times I was betrayed.

So much negativity! At first, when this flood of negative material started pouring out, I was dismayed, and tried to rein myself in. Then I allowed it to flow, and something very strange happened: I felt lighter, and more relaxed.

Finally, I realized that my Dear Journal letters were performing a value task — they were clearing the junk out of my subconscious mind. I was being released from chains.

Everyone has limits on how much negativity they can put up with, and even survive. If you find that your letters are filled with negativity, that’s fine. However, the crap should make you feel better when you stop writing, not worse. If the out-pouring of misery makes you feel worse, talk to someone you trust about it.

There's no shame in seeking help.

My own experience is that it's better to let the crap out, if it wants to come out.

Writing letters works for fiction, too
Once I started writing letters in my journal, I tried using them for fiction. They were WONDERFUL. I found that I could write journals in a characters' voice, in the first person. Not only would that reveal much about the character, it made plotting easier, and my characters had more depth.

Most of my fiction in the past couple of years has been ghostwriting projects — which means that not only am I writing for someone else, but also that my name will never appear on the novels. I'm fine with that, because I've been ghostwriting for years. Many writers can't do this — they want their own name on their books. I just like to write.

One of the benefits of ghostwriting so many books is that I write books I'd never write for myself. I hate vampire novels, for example. Forcing myself to read them, and write them, hasn't been easy, but since I've been forced to pay close attention to what I'm reading, it's helped my writing in general.

Writing character letters, in first person, has helped me to write extremely difficult material — if you write what you don't like to read, it's not only hard, it risks coming across as fake. The letters helped immensely. If you write fiction, I encourage you to try this technique.

Exercise 15. Write a letter to yourself in your journal.

The letter can be as short, or as long, as you like. If this works for you, do it regularly. It's therapeutic, and will help all of your writing.