As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I keep an idea journal where I write down ideas for future blog posts.
I keep my idea journal in a 120 page spiral notebook. Whenever I read something interesting, I jot down notes in my journal.
When I was reading about the difference between how Asians and Europeans deal with conflict, I decided to write about the different ways my relatives handle conflict vs how my American friends handle conflict--and this idea blossomed into a blog post.
For writing or literature teachers, you can have your students keep a Reader Response Journal where students write down what they think about the books they read in your literature class. They can then use these ideas for possible literature papers in your class.
I quickly fill up my idea journals because I read a lot. Sometimes I read several textbooks at a time on my computer. When I come across something interesting, which is often, I jot it down.
After a while, I find it quite addictive to write in my idea journal and so will your students. It becomes a fun way to relax and it encourages students to read so that they have ideas for their idea journal.
Students can react to every chapter of what they read in your class, or they react to something they see online or something they see on social media that amuses them. The point is the more students write, the less they experience writer's block because they get into the habit of constantly writing things down which for me, is relaxing and fun.
Sometimes when I see an unusual headline or read an unusual story, I make note of it and think about how I can apply that to my writing blog, or apply that to my creative writing class or how i can use that to inspire my students to write.
If you are an aspiring artist like me, you can also sketch and doodle in your journal for future ideas for sketches or paintings which is what I do for my art. Before I watercolor paint something, I usually do a quick pencil sketch in my idea journal. I keep my writing ideas and my sketching ideas in one place which teaches my brain to go to that idea journal for all inspirational ideas.
Over time, your brain learns to associate fun ideas with that journal making it even more fun to keep an idea journal.
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