Inspire Creative Writing by Creating Art

by

Shelbey Collins

INTRODUCTORY NOTE: IWC thanks Professor Janine Harrison and the students in her Editing class at Calumet College of St. Joseph in Whiting, Indiana, for providing the posts to round out the final year of the IWC blog. Here is the first one.

Writing ideas can be sparked by almost anything, but working in an illustrated journal is my favorite way to get my creative juices flowing. An illustrated journal is the art of daily life, a workshop for ideas, and a practice of attention and creativity. Creating a journal can help you balance self-reflection, creation, an exercise for the mind. Just like a normal notebook or journal, an illustrated journal is a great way to write down ideas, feelings, and stories. However, an illustrated journal takes your creativity a little further. Every journal is unique; some journalists draw with markers or pencils, some paint with watercolors and acrylics, some even make collages out of scraps of newspaper articles or old photos. Some of my favorite ways to get an idea for the next page in my journal is by listening to music or taking a walk outside. Anything can be turned into art, and the act of creating it will help spark even more ideas; some that might even aid in your writing. It doesn’t matter how you artistically depict your thoughts, just the act of expanding your mind and looking at ideas in a different way can help spark a new creative side to yourself that you can implement in your writing.

The thing is, as writers we sit and ponder, racking our brains for something new and inspiring to write. But this can put us all in what many people call “a writer's block.”  Starting a journal filled with colors, ideas and photos is a way to let your creative side prosper. According to “Artist network,” “Art journals open doors to our unique brands of creativity as places to plan, dream, respond to something that catches our eye and process the events in our lives.” This is a way to “Trace your creative path.”

You don’t have to be an amazing artist. Heck, you can be terrible! This illustrated journal is for you, and you alone. Hear a poem you like, draw the picture you see in your mind when reading it. Find a news article, cut it out and paste it in! There are no limits to an illustrated journal, and that is exactly why it the perfect way for creative writers to expand and see their thoughts on paper but in the form of art!

I have included some of my own journal pages. Most of these were illustrated after I had read a poem or seen a piece of artwork that I loved.

Inspired by Fiddler Jones excerpt from Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology.

"Whatever it was I lost, whatever I wept for

Was a wild, gentle thing, the small dark eyes

Loving me in secret" -- "Milkweed" by James Wright

Drawn after an English professor referred me to the poem 

"Not Waving but Drowning" by Stevie Smith because he noticed 

that I always seemed panicked whenever I raised my hand for a question.

A rendition of Monet's Water Lily series 1897-1899.

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Shelbey Collins is a junior English major specializing in both creative writing and communications. Shelbey enjoys dancing, journaling and spending time with family and friends. Shelbey hopes her love of writing, travel and art can lead her down a path to a future career in travel journalism.