Tools for (Personal) and other Writing

Whether you’re writing letters to friends, creating a remembrance book, or writing a longer work, you need certain tools nearby to enable your process. Consider these ideas:

1.Start with a notebook and pen or pencil. Handwritten ideas come from a different place in the brain than ideas composed on a computer. Consider writing your thoughts long-hand first. Then transpose them onto the card, journal. or computer for your finished piece. I think you’ll find the exercise enlightening.

2. Gather your resources: a thesaurus, dictionary and one of my favorites, The Synonym Dictionary by J.I Rodale (Rodale Press). That way you can locate the perfect word, color, etc.

3. Look up quotations online to personalize/embellish your writing. On the search bar type in “quotations about….” Several sites will pop up. Enjoy finding just the right quotation to encourage or beef-up you writing.

                I must write it all out, at any cost. Writing is thinking. It is more than

               living, for it is being conscious of living.  (Anna Morrow Lindberg)

5. 4. Add flourishes with colored pens, borders, interesting paper and/or interesting fonts and colors. Make the writing POP by making the edges and words jump off the page.
6. 5. Package your writing so the intended receiver or end result will show who you are and why you took the tie to write your thoughts.