The Soul of our Art: Day 1

I wrote this tutorial on Heartfelt Journaling ages ago. It's high time I posted here.

Good design and beautiful color combinations are eye-candy; they immediately capture our attention. However, if you really want to move someone, journaling is the tool. Over the next 5 days, I’m to focus on the soul of our art: the words.

Good writers have the power to change lives. They can move us to tears or lead us to fits of laughter. They can stop us dead-in-our-tracks and persuade us to take a different life path. Although a few individuals are born with a certain penchant for writing, great journaling is a learned skill that can be honed with practice. In the next five days, I will lead you on a journaling journey that will end, hopefully in a piece that has a beating heart and not just a pretty countenance.

Day One: Choosing

Today, you need to decide on your subject. I want you to choose an emotional subject. (We’re going to work on really digging deep.) You can do this in a few ways.

1. Do you have a photo that has great significance? Go unearth it and study it. Figure out exactly what makes this photo special. Is it your only photo of your grandfather before he died? Does it show a certain personality trait in your son? Does it show the result of hard work?
2. Do you have an experience with great significance? If you do not have a photo from this experience, don’t fret. Just find a photo that ties loosely with what you want to say. For example, if you want to talk about your struggle with weight, you don’t need Before and After photos, you could use a photo of food, of your face, of clothing, of a restaurant, etc.
3. Do you have a feeling or thought that you want to express? For example, do you feel so overwhelmed by your life that you need an emotional purge? Do you feel a desire to express a life-altering thought that you’ve had recently?

Your assignment for day one is to choose a topic. Remember this must be an emotional topic that really moves you. We’re going to be working on this for five days so you want something that won’t pitter away after day two. This subject must have passion in order to give your page soul.