A step-by-step guide to turning everyday journals into content
Blogchatter is super busy during the month of February when the community is participating in #WriteAPageADay, generating fresh content daily! The simple task of writing 10,000 words in 28 days becomes adventurous when Twitter is booming with tweets declaring word counts every day. Some of us wrote blog posts, some wrote in their journals, and some outlined their next book, but overall, there was no shortage of content.
Our daily journals can be a wonderful treasure trove of thoughts and ideas. Maybe you wrote in your journal about a stressful situation and how you managed it. This can turn into an excellent blog post idea where you can share steps on beating stress.
Turning journal thoughts into content
- You can use the daily journals as a context for your next blog post topic.
- If you are registering for the #BlogchatterA2Z challenge then you can draft these journal entries into more meaningful blog posts. Or you could simply write 26 reasons why everyone should pick up the habit of daily journaling!
- You can turn your thoughts into motivational Reels or stories to inspire someone or tell them they’re not alone.
- If there is a theme emerging, you can turn your daily thoughts into an ebook and self-publish it.
- Your thoughts can also spark fiction writing which can then be submitted for Blogchatter Anthology.
Step-by-step guide
Now that you have a collection of journal entries, take a deep breath and browse through day 1 entries. Ask yourself these simple questions
- Is there any relatable theme? Can all the journal entries be clubbed under one umbrella?
- Which genre comes up first in your mind as you finish reading all of them?
- If all the stories are scattered then choose any of them you feel confident of.
Once you are clear about starting your story, see if it fits as an ebook of around 10000 words or more. There are many online portals that help you publish an ebook. However, if you are wondering how to start then check how to structure your ebook here. Structuring gives you a clean way to proceed further and gives a final check when all is in its correct place. Once structuring is done, editing is the most important aspect of your book because that’s the way the readers are going to read your story. Your language, grammar, punctuation and art of storytelling are going to leave an impression on your reader’s mind. It will help them turn into loyal readers. Grammarly is a great tool that helps in editing and proofreading your manuscript.
You can also browse through other ebooks to see different styles and if you want to use them for your own ebook.
Self-publishing is another great option whether hardcover or an ebook. Read this post to know the exact procedure. Amazon KDP is one of the most used platforms by the community. Do share if you find any other publishing platform that is simple to understand and use.
Now there may be a situation where your journals are scattered and you are not able to combine a proper story. So here, pick up your favourite piece from all the journals and weave it further to make it a small story. Blogchatter Anthology is something that will fit you the best. The visibility of your content is one of the best advantages of contributing to an anthology. You get a chance to share your name with so many other authors and it is a great learning experience too.
We are accepting entries for the Blogchatter anthology from 13 March 2023 to 14 April 2023. Check all the relevant details here.
If you don’t want to publish it anywhere and keep it safe yourself then you may turn them into resolutions. Some habits you want to continue with which you may have written in your journal can now be turned into actual resolutions.
Pick up each of the journals and read them aloud. Analyse if you can turn into meaningful resolutions that help you modify your life activities for good. On your own, you can turn your resolutions into targets and finally goals achieved. Don’t sing along to the world but in your heart, you may clap for yourself for these small victories.
Whichever option you choose, we always have something to help you. A community where there’s so much energy to try out new things and share successes and even failures is a community called Blogchatter.
