Four Kinds of Journals I Keep

Hey everyone! Happy Wednesday once again!

This past week has been kind of difficult for me. My depression has been hitting me kind of hard. I've been lacking a lot of motivation to do anything and have just felt kind of tired and unhappy about most things. Not to mention I'm having some serious self-doubt about my writing and everything related to that and have just been feeling overwhelmed, even though I don't have a lot to do. So, I thought I'd go easy on myself and share something fun with all of you!

I love journals and notebooks and always have at least three or four of them on my bed next to my desk at all times. They all serve a different purpose and almost all of them have been super helpful in keeping myself organized as a writer. So here are the five kinds of journals I am always using.

• My idea/brainstorming/plotting journal. I've been using this kind for years and it's been super helpful in keeping me organized. I write everything in there. From plot bunnies to expanding upon ideas to plotting out current works in progress. Plus, it's sort of become the notebook I use a little bit of everything for. There are notes in there from the class I'm currently doing, lists of all kinds. It's the place where I dump the contents of my mind into.
  
  
  
  

• Prayer Journal. I started prayer journaling on and off a long time ago. I think I started it officially like in 2014 or 2015. Sometimes I'm super consistent and other times I go days or weeks without writing in it. I don't know how other people keep a prayer journal but I write my prayers in there, kind of like letters to God. My earlier ones were giant, messy letters full of rants about whatever I was having trouble with at the time.
  

• Story Bibles. I just recently got into this and so far it's been super helpful in keeping me organized. Before finishing the first draft of St. Croix Falls, I decided to devote a whole journal to the book and the series so I don't lose any facts. That has always been one of my huge struggles. When starting a series I always get so disorganized and end up scribbling little bits of plot here and there in different notebooks. Then when I need those details I have to go through all my recent journals to find what I was looking for. And a book that I've been working on for years? Yeah, those details and plot points are in a whole bunch of journals on my shelf that I would have to go through page by page to find what I'm looking for. It's a big mess and hassle. So far having it all in one spot has been super helpful and I plan to do this for Moon Hollow (my camp nanowrimo WIP) too. 
  

• Writer Journal. Another thing I just recently added. Like yesterday actually. Yesterday was a pretty hard day. I was feeling super low energy, super unmotivated and just blah all day. So maybe that's why I felt the need to do something productive like make a whole new journal to help organize my cluttered thoughts. So I now have a writer's journal where I have a section devoted to the different WIPs I'm working on, a weekly to-do list, word count tracker and a place for miscellaneous lists. 
  

So, yeah, those are the four kinds of journals I keep!

Do you enjoy journaling? What kind of journals do you use?