Explore The Intersection Between Writing and Art Through Various Kinds of Art Journals | 12 Art Journal Ideas for Writers

INTRODUCTION

Are you a multipassionate writer with a love for all things related to words, colors, art & notebooks?

 

Well, so am I, too!

 

In this video show, I explore the intersection between writing and visual art by sharing some ideas about combining the two mediums through the creative process of art journaling.

 

WHAT IS AN ART JOURNAL?

Also known by the terms ‘visual journal’ or ‘art diary’, an ‘art journal’ is a daily journal or notebook which often combines elements like words, sketches, drawings and other mixed media assortments such as collages, scraps, photographs, paintings and clippings!

 

From TikTok style asmr’s to throughly crafted chunky books, nowadays both the online as well as offline world is bubbling with a brobdingnagian amount of art journal ideas.

 

There are oodles of possibilities!

 

I’ll share twelve of these ideas with you from my knowledge and experience.

 

So, let’s breeze through!

 

12 TYPES & IDEAS FOR ART JOURNALS FOR WRITERS

#1 MAKE A QUOTES & SNIPPETS JOURNAL

- Record & collect your favourite quotes in a journal.

- Organize the snippets and clippings from articles, books, social media and elsewhere.

- Add your favourite reminders, affirmations and inspirational statements.

#2 CREATE A VISUAL WORDBOARD JOURNAL

- Create a journal dedicated to visual wordboards on various topics

- Visual wordboard is a writing tool comprising of words & phrases arranged in a board format on a page or a spread

- Watch this video to know more about visual wordboards

#3 CREATE A WORDBOOK/PHRASEBOOK JOURNAL

- Craft a journal on the theme of words and/or phrases

- This may include your favourite words or phrase collections for your writing practice

= Watch this video for more ideas related to a wordbooks/phrasebooks

#4 DRAFT A CHARACTER SKETCHBOOK

- Make a journal by assembling together the various character sketches for your writing

- Collect and keepsake your favourite characters from novels, movies, stories, plays & likewise.

- Compose your own characters by jotting down the bullet points and highlights about the characters with detailings of drawings, sketches, paintings, etc.

#5 BOOK JOURNAL 

- Record your book reading experience(s) and all things related to books in a journal

- Jot down your favourite quotes, lines, passages, dialogues, snippets and overall review in the journal

- Make a list of your favourite books, books you have read and books in your reading list

- Watch this detailed video on the topic of book journal

#6 POETRY JOURNAL 

- Also known typically as a ‘Poetry Diary’ or a ‘Poetic Journal’, a poetry journal is a journal dedicated to writing poetry

- There are zillions of creative ways to create a poetry journal

- Blend your poems with collages, craft papers, cuttings, artwork, decorative patterned tapes, stickers and mixed media.

- Write Blackout Poetry

- Illustrate Your Poems

#7 CREATE A COPYWRITING SWIPE FILE WITH AN ARTISTIC SPLASH! 

- Use elements of scrapbooking, collage and printmaking to add a creative touch to your swipe file!

#8 IDEABOOK JOURNAL FOR INSPIRATION

- Keeping an ideabook journal is a fantastic way to make sure that you never run out of inspiration and always have a supply of new ideas

- Create an ideabook journal with all the ideas you’d like to work on in the future, random ideas that pop up in your head, and ideas related to writing that you come across!

#9 FREE WRART JOURNAL

- Free Wrart Journal is a journal which combines Free ‘Writing + Art’ Technique.

- Creating this kind of a journal is a fabulous idea if you practice the ‘stream-of-consciousness’ writing technique on a regular basis

- Don’t think. Just let your creative energy unleash on the page spread!

#10 STORYBOARD JOURNAL 

- Create a journal for making storyboards for short stories, novel, or even ads.

#11 A JOURNAL OF WRITING PROMPTS

- Put together a journal with all the writing prompts you have or you come across.

#12 COMICS JOURNAL

- A Comics Journal is a stupendous form of creative journaling especially if you like to read and/or write comics

 

Thank you & Good day

Keep Writing, Keep Creating!

Subscribe to my channel & stay tuned for more exciting ideas related to writing, art and life!

Neha

THE CONCEPTS OF “CHARACTER AND CHARACTERISTIC” IN WRITING & STORYTELLING

 

OVERVIEW

Characters!

We humans

are teeny-weeny characters

wobbling and steering

the craft of our lives

carrying within us

oodles of personalities

and medleys of emotions

each, featuring its own

set of characteristics…

 

But we humans aren’t just these character formations of life, but, astoundingly, we can also create our own characters too. We don’t just find characters in our real and everyday lives, but we can also discover new and interesting characters through our imagination, storytelling and writing.

 

All it takes is imagination, practice and understanding!

 

In this video show, you’re going to learn and understand what a character is; what is the meaning of a characteristic; and seven important points related to these concepts!

 

So, let’s go! 

WHAT IS A CHARACTER?

A character is any form or appearance;

alive or dead;

animate or inanimate;

living or non-living;

human or non-human,

existing in real life or only inside your head,

that takes the role of “experiencer”

in a story, plot, setting, scene or drama.

 

Characters are the foundation

of any creation based on the craft of storytelling...

 

In fiction, characters are based on imagination & memory…

whereas in non-fiction, the character is the main subject presented through the piece of writing, sometimes the writer herself.

 

WHAT IS A CHARACTERISTIC?

The word CHARACTERISTIC comes from the word CHARACTER.

 

Etymologically, the word CHARACTERISTIC has been derived from the Greek word kharaktēr which means ‘a stamping tool’.

 

DIFFERENCE AND RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN A CHARACTER & A CHARACTERISTIC 

Characteristic = “The stamping tool of a Character”

Character = “A set/group of two or more Characteristics”

 

SEVEN IMPORTANT POINTS ABOUT THE CONCEPTS OF CHARACTERS & CHARACTERISTICS

#1    A character can be any appearance as long as it is viewed from the point of view of “experiencer”.

#2   Each and every appearance, irrespective of whether it is human or not, can be looked at, as a character, as long as it is provided the role or the position of being the “experiencer” in a scene, story, setting, or novel. That is, while writing about a character, you take the role of the subject pertaining to this character.

#3   Each character has some characteristic(s).

a.      The more you focus on a particular character, the more characteristics you will be able to discover in it.

b.      Free writing is the key to unfolding the characteristic(s) pertaining to a character

#4   No two characters are the same. If they’d be the same, then they wouldn’t be two. Just the very fact that they are two, illustrates the evidence that they are two characters. Two different characters.

a.      Even if two characters are exactly the same, or the literal twins of each other, still and all, the very thing that they are two, makes them unique. One is number one. And second is number two.

b.      This quality or these labels Number One, or Number Two is their ‘characteristic’.

#5   All characters have one common and fundamental characteristic – their source of creation – that is the writer’s mind.

a.      Whether you’re creating a character by observation of real world or life, or whether you’re creating it from your memory or imagination, ultimately, its your mind that shapes and sculpts the character, that colours and paints it with a unique set of characteristics.

#6   Following the fundamental or the source characteristic, the characters have common characteristics – the characteristics that are common to two or more characters.

a.      These characteristics are driven by the characters’ unique line of experiences and consequent memory matrix – it is embedded in the character’s DNA

#7   The writer is the character she is writing about or creating.

a.      The depth of a character is determined by the scope of focus, exposition, magnification & clarity that you look through it within your own mind.

b.      If you’re writing as a villain character, you must become a villain in that moment.

c.       If you’re writing as a romantic character, you must feel the romance within yourself before it reflects in the character you’re creating.

d.      If you’re writing for children, then you must become a child yourself.

 

That’s the key!

#16 How To Create a Personal Wordbook or Phrasebook For Your Writing?

BULBUL'S CONFLICT
Bulbul is a writer.

On Day 1 she is working on a project in which she has to write a short article for a fashion magazine.

In addition to doing the relevant research required for the article, what she did was to browse through a wordboard she has created for fashion-related words she would use in the article.  

On Day 2 she is writing a children’s short story for an education brand.

Again she flips through her folders to take a sneak peak into a wordboard she has created for words related to ‘writing for children’…and another she created for words related to her short story’s setting.

On Day 3, however, she is beginning to work on a longform book on the topic of ‘botanicals’.

In order to do some research for this writing project, she has to collect data from various places such as by visiting a botanicals lab, taking tour inside a botany museum, meeting a botany professor, chatting with some botanical farm owners, and making notes from some thick-rimmed encyclopedias and books in the city library. 

Now, unlike the fashion wordboards or the children’s writing wordboards, she can’t create or refer to, just one wordboard in this case.

Here there’s a large amount of data/words; which is too overwhelming to be organized into merely one or even two-three-four wordboards.

So, now Bulbul is sitting on her writing desk, wondering about how to resolve this critical issue.   

After breezing through a variety of layouts & pondering over several ideas, she comes across a solution.

That is, instead of just one wordboard, she would create something which she named as a ‘Wordbook’!

OVERVIEW

In the last video show, I discussed the idea of creating ‘Visual Wordboards’ as a functional and handy tool for your writing practice.

A ‘visual wordboard’ is literally ‘a board of words’.

While it is easier to create a wordboard for narrower topics, but for some other topics which are relatively broader, just one wordboard might turn out to be too overwhelming to decipher and to look back on, in the near future.

For example, if you’re creating a wordboard for a specific short story that you’re working on, then a wordboard might turn out to be a great tool in terms of jotting down the plotline or a setting or a character sketch. Or, obviously it is a great way to record an idea you have for a blog or article, in a snapshot.

However, if you’d like to create a wordboard for a series of short stories, or for a novel, or for the purpose of note-taking from your reading of a book, then it is quite probable that one wordboard might not be as effective a tool as it is, in case of a relatively narrower topic such as an article.

In such a case, creating a wordboard would be an ineffective way to arrange the words pertaining to your broad topic.

Rather, here, you may require to create a set of wordboards.

Or a Wordbook!

Henceforth, in this video show, you’ll learn about what a ‘Wordbook’ is; what are the various types & possibilities for a wordbook; and how to create one for your own writing practice.

Without further ado, let’s get straight into the topic!

WHAT IS A WORDBOOK?

A wordbook is a set of wordboards or a collection of word lists; arranged and organized in a mini-book or mini-journal format for all words/phrases related to a specific topic.

You may also like to look at a wordbook as a variation of the ‘swipe files’ used by copywriters, or the ‘language phrasebooks’ used by travellers, or all these ‘glossaries’ used by niche content writers.

The only difference here is that, firstly, a wordbook is more specific to containing short-form collections such as words and/or phrases; than other longform-style collections such as paragraphs, passages, blog posts or many books.

The second main thing about a wordbook is that, you can curate it in a very specific and personal style, as best suited to your writing practice.

SEVENTEEN MAJOR TYPES OF WORDBOOK EXAMPLES FOR WRITERS

There can be as many possibilities of a wordbook as your imagination can shape!

Here are the seventeen examples of the most common types of wordbooks that you can create for your writing practice!

#1   A General or Vocabulary Style Wordbook

All the new words jotted down plainly or with their meanings in a jotbook, notebook, listbook, file, document or folder.

#2  A Thesaurus–style Wordbook 

Containing Synonyms & Antonyms

#3  A Wordbook of Rhyming Words

#4  A Wordbook of Phrases, Idioms & Proverbs etc.

#5  A Wordbook of Palindrome Words

#6  A Wordbook of Adjectives & Descriptive Words/Phrases

Words to Use for some (topic)

#7   A List-style Wordbook

Based a list of words/phrases

#8  A Wordbook of a Niche-based Glossary of Words or a Topic-based Encyclopedia of Words

#9  A Wordbook of Names & Types of Things

#10                      Language Based Wordbook/Phrasebook

#11                       A Wordbook of Words & Phrases from Books, Songs, Movies & other snippets likewise.

#12                      A Wordbook containing a Collection of a Variety of Wordboards 

such as

- Wordboards from reading of books

- Wordboards from Stream of Consciousness Word Lists

- Wordboards from a list of something

[Read more about wordboards in this video]

#13                      A Wordbook of Writing Prompts

#14                      A Wordbook of Concepts, Devices, Tools & Ideas

Short Story Titles/Ideas that pop up in your head

Character names ideas you have

#15                      A Wordbook of Made-up Words

#16                      Wordbooks based on a Word Form or many of the Word Formations

Palindromes, nouns, pronouns, adverbs, interjections, etc.

#17                       A Longform-style Wordbook/Phrasebook of Writing Styles

Styles you like to note that you come across while reading something, anything

Narrative, descriptive, persuasive, etc.

HOW TO CREATE YOUR FIRST WORDBOOK AS A WRITER?

#1   Narrow down the topic for your first wordbook to as much precision and specificness as possible.

#2  Curate your collection of words/phrases that you’d like to include in your wordbook.

#3  Select an arrangement & layout for all the words/phrases in your collection. Whether you’d like to arrange the words in a random order, or category-wise. If you select the category-style layout, then jot down some categories for organizing the words/phrases.

#4  Start jotting down the words/phrases in your notebook, or arrange them in a visual book format using some or the other design tool available.

#5  Print out the wordbook or store it in your computer as a PDF.

#6  Create as many wordbooks as you like, on the topics you require and need.

#7 Take the wordbooks out and flip through them when writing on a particular topic!

Thank you, Good day & Keep Writing!

And, remember to subscribe to Neha's Notebook for more exciting videos!

Review: Veronika Decides to Die

Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho
My rating: 0 of 5 stars


All of us, in one way or the other, are mad.

Madness.

What exactly is this madness?

How can we differentiate people who are mad, from the ones who are not mad?

How can we endeavour to define who is crazier than whom?

And what fallacy is there, if at all, in being mad and in going crazy in our life?

And if there isn’t any, then why are we humans so afraid to be crazy and different?

Why are we so eager to lean upon the shoulders of security, relationships & things like that, in order to feel safe, secure and loved in life?

If you wouldn’t have to think about what other people will think of you, then would you still resist following the way of your true madness?

For, it is only when we eat the fruit of good and evil, is that we start hiding our own unique insanities, and craziness. But aren’t these also the very qualities that make us uniquely different from the rest of the people?

Perhaps, one word will sum it up.

Fear.

Fear is the root of all this.

Mari, a character in this novel, says that, we humans have turned almost every emotion we feel into one particular emotion. That is, fear.

This woman Mari is depicted in the novel as someone who, after losing everything in her life including her job as a lawyer, her husband, her children and her own will to participate in life, is now living in a mental hospital, but is shaken awake by the arrival of this young girl named Veronica.

And so are the other members of the hospital.

Veronica, who is the latest newcomer in the hospital, is a crazy woman who, despite her own wish to surmount into the lap of death, turns out to be a medium that reignites the will of these madmen to join the everyday life of the world outside the wall of the asylum. And just the same way as this young girl inspires these people to live again, this novel by Paulo Coelho too is an inspiration for anyone who wishes to unplug from sleepwalking in their life and, to sit back and rethink what they’re doing with this one precious life they have received.

Picturized in the setting of this mental hospital, aka asylum called ‘Villete’, this novel has been written in a way that will evoke all those buried dreams and desires for adventure that you may have within your heart…

As the title of the novel also suggests, the book is mostly about a girl named Veronica, who is keen to end her life because her mind tells her that her life is meaningless and that all her days are just the same and that, it is wise to die at this time when she is sane and healthy enough to do so. She doesn’t want the dangers of an adventurous life because she is too comfortable in her shell of security & everyday routine.

The storyline of this novel is centered around this character of Veronica, and her attempt to end her life. However, if you will read the book and look at it in another way, you’d see that the story is not really about her wish to die, but about her wish to go on an adventure of transformation. Its not only about endings but also about new beginnings.

As she thinks later on in the story, that if this Veronica hadn’t had the hopelessness and powerlessness to drive her to want to die, and thereupon, to be taken into this madmen’s place, then she wouldn’t have been able to get in touch with other Veronicas living inside her soul either.

“Veronica hated everything, but mainly she hated the way she had lived her life, never bothering to discover the hundreds of other Veronicas who lived inside her and who were interesting, crazy, curious, brave, bold.”

But overall, the story of this woman is a gateway into the garden of our own minds, where we keep staring at the garden wall and at the sunrises & sunsets emerging and settling like shadows in the backdrop of high-towering mountains; thinking sometimes that the wall is too high to escape, or that it is too early or too late to change; or that what will people think if only you do the things that bring you joy. And a thousand reasons like that. .

Despite gaining back her will to survive and desire to live again, Veronica finds herself in an utter conflict on how to spend these last few days of her life, because, apparently, the doctor tells her that the pills she took to end her life has damaged her heart to an irreversible extent. And so, while she has gained her soul, she is now at the edge of losing this human life. So, she vows to herself to allow herself to let go of all pretense, and to be as bad as she could be.

She slaps a man inside the hospital. She connects with her long-buried passion for playing piano. She ends up falling in love with a boy who is a schizophrenic and hence, is another member staying in Villete. Every day, she plays piano for this boy who appears to enjoy it immensely, but owing to his schizophrenia, he doesn’t react or talk to her. She also dances unclothed with this boy present as her statuesque witness. Then she allows herself to feel the intense hatred repressed inside her towards everybody she had ever loved. On the estimated day of her predicted death, she flees from the hospital, screams & laughs in a restaurant to the top of her voice, getting thrown out of there by the restaurant’s manager. She drinks bottle after bottle of wine and lands in the valley of a ruined castle flaked with snow.

Meanwhile, the doctor heading the hospital is depicted to be a psychiatrist who, in addition to treating the hospital’s members, is also carrying out a research on something called as ‘Vitriol’, which is kind of a bitterness or a poison that seeps inside a human organism once it grows into an adult member of the society. The arrival of Veronica doesn’t only act as a medium of rekindling other madmen’s hearts, but also turns out to be an instrument giving his research an interesting dimension. Veronica’s case offers him the evidence that the only cure which can totally remove this poison called “Vitriol” or “bitterness” from a human organism, is, an awareness of life.

Awareness of life, which also marks the central theme of this novel, overall.

As for the girl Veronica, well, whether she died in the end or not, is not the main thing, but till the time she lived, she was alive, that is!

To wrap it up, I like to say that I immensely enjoyed reading the novel. As always, the writing of Paulo Coelho reflects a refreshing & inspirational feel. The moment you read it, it causes you to pause, take a deep breath and do some self-reflections.

This novel is a masterpiece of creative writing, which, pats on your shoulder and asks you, hey, so, are you going to allow yourself to be mad and crazy, or are you going to remain afraid of what people will think about you and pretend that you’re not mad?

And all things non compos mentis in a human life!

View all my reviews

#15 VISUAL WORDBOARDS - AN INCREDIBLE TOOL FOR WRITERS!

Introduction

Words are the pearls, beads & trinkets

with which we can craft jeweled ornaments and build towering castles; putting together the pieces of our fragmented human selves;

and carving a rich spectrum of all those tunes and rhythms

which cause our heart to pulsate into a feeling - deep, intense and alive.

 

Though vocabulary is not the first of things that makes one a good writer,

but it is a decoration that surely embellishes the tapestry of one’s writing, whether it is poetry or short story or novel or even a basic article.

 

Famous writers speak of words

as being those little gifts that we not only enjoy & relish,

but also reproduce & share in ways

which make millions of humans to think, feel and wonder.

 

So, in this video show, you’re going to know and learn about an incredible tool related to all things words; a tool that you’ll find to be utterly useful and interesting in your own writing practice.

 

This tool is called as

‘Visual Wordboard’!

 

Overview: What is a Visual Wordboard? 

As its name suggests, a ‘Visual Wordboard’ is a visual style word-based board created specifically for the purpose of learning, storing, collecting & applying new words in one’s writing.

 

Purpose & 5 utilities of creating a Visual Wordboard

Typically, a wordboard turns out to be a close variation of a moodboard,

a tool which is mostly employed for design & art.

But when coming to it in the scope of writing too,

a wordboard is a tool of utter significance.

 

Here are five exciting ways in which a wordboard turns to be a tool of function & utility.

#1   A wordboard enables the visual presentation of an idea, story or concept that you are writing about.

#2  A wordboard is useful to present the “feel” or the “essence” of an idea, whether it is a story, a topic or a book that you’re writing.

#3  A wordboard acts as a visual depiction to explain the details of a story, scene, film, play, character or idea in a snapshot or in a flash.

#4  A wordboard is advantageous for brainstorming ideas, such as, a setting for a scene, a character in the story, poetry on a topic or theme, a blog post series etc.

#5   A wordboard is a handy tool to capture the words, phrases & shortform notes summarized from a book or articles you read; a lecture you heard; an audiobook or a podcast you listened to; a film or a video you watched.

 

7 Ideas on How to create a visual wordboard

#1   Select a Medium For Creating A Wordboard

📚 Start by selecting the medium best-suited to you for creating a wordboard.

📚You can create wordboards either in a physical format (using a notebook, a set of prints, or a repurposed old book); or in a digital format (docs, sheets, pdfs, images, or apps)

#2  Create a Wordboard Journal!

📚 You can also dedicate an entire notebook or a series of notebooks to create your own wordboard journals!

📚 You may also like to call it as your Personal Wordbook, a term that is commonly used in the writers’ community!

#3  Select a Theme for Your Wordboard

📚 You can create a wordboard in almost any theme you want.

📚 Create a wordboard in your notebook or computer by randomly jotting down all the words you like or you come across or all the new words that you are learning or all the words that appear to catch your interest while reading books, articles or while browsing anything on the web.

📚Arrange the words in your wordboard according to alphabets.

📚 If you are working on a writing project, then you can create a wordboard specifically for the purpose of this project; that is, by creating a wordboard of all the words that you’d like to use or consider using in this project such as in a short story, in a novel or in a longform guide.

📚 Create a wordboard based on the theme of a particular form or style of writing. For example, “A wordboard for blog writing” or “A wordboard for writing product descriptions” or “A wordboard for Copywriting”.

📚 Create a wordboard on a theme based on a niche or a genre. Such as, “A Wordboard for Fiction - Fantasy” or “A Wordboard for Fiction - Romance” or “A Wordboard for Travel Writing” or “A Wordboard for Web Content Writing” etc.

📚 Create a wordboard with ideas for all the words to use while writing on a specific topic, which can be anything from a blog title to a book, a movie, a writing prompt etc.

#4  Create a List or a Glossary With Wordboards

📚 Writers very well understand the significance of writing/having lists and glossaries.

📚 Write your lists and glossaries in a wordboard style with words/phrases arranged in a board style instead of a tabular fashion.

📚 Imagine the notes pintucked in the notice boards of your school, college or office.

📚 You can also create wordboards for catalogs, & encyclopedic glossaries such as rhyming words, special dictionaries, thesaurus, word groups etc.

#5   Create a ‘Words+Visuals’ Style Wordboard

📚 A Wordboard doesn’t have to be limited to only words.

📚 Accompany your wordboards with pictures, doodles, graphics, photographs, illustrations & other assortment of visual elements to accompany the words in your wordboard

#6  Select a Design For Your Wordboard

📚 Design your wordboard in a Kindergarten-style Word Wall

📚 Design your wordboard like a Word Family Wall, that is, words grouped/bunched together into categories and pasted/tucked into your notebook in bundles

📚 Create a Color-coded wordbook

Select a colour theme or a colour palette to create your wordboard. 

You may like to use Sticky Notes for offering the colourful feel to your wordboard

📚 Create a wordboard with Flash Cards & Journal Pockets

Design a wordboard by making word flashcards, and by inserting them into little journal pockets in your notebook

📚 Design a wordboard in digital style

Digitally design your wordboard with the help of any design tool of your choice

📚 Design a Wordboard in a Word Cloud Style

      Word clouds are literally clickable wordboards on the web. Design a wordboard in the style of a web-based word clouds.

You will find word clouds in tons of websites & blogs that usually displaying keywords and tags

#7   Create a Moodboard-style Wordboard

📚Write down words in a stream-of-consciousness writing manner and when you’re done, create a wordboard out of it!

📚 A great way to curate, keepsake & browse through your daily writing in a compact & picturesque manner!

 

other names/variations of a wordboard

• Wordboard
• Wordboard Journal
• Word Palette
• Word Wall
• Word Family
• Word Flash Cards/Word Cards
• Wordbook
• Word Cloud

 Thank you, Good day & Keep Writing!

And remember to subscribe to Neha's Notebook for more exciting videos!