Tickling Your Muse or How to Spark Ideas Using Glitter and Crayons

By Janie Reinart

People keep all kinds of specialized journals: travel journals, garden journals, dream journals, yarn journals, wine journals, recipe journals, Trench journals, birding journals, and prayer journals to name a few.

My grandson, Jack, in the fifth grade is keeping a weather journal. He just might be a meteorologist when he grows up. This is the intro to his journal.

Why all the talk about journals? I would like to invite you to start a sketch book journal. Drawing is the earliest form of storytelling. Imagine the story of the hunt painted on the walls in the Lascaux Caves in southern France. 

Come to think of it, that is what my drawings looks like. But don't let stick figures get in the way of your playing with images and using all the art supplies you can get your hands on. Pictures lead to words. 

Here is one of my journal pages from a poetry retreat in Canyon de Chelly, Arizona in the heart of the Navajo reservation there. The red canyons against the blue sky inspired me to use colored pencils and write this poem.

I say someday
I shall wander the canyons trails 
On sacred Navajo ground
Blessed by ancient spirits 
The beauty of the place 
Forever in my soul
Surrounded by peacefulness 
of Mother earth and Father sky
With the sun in my eyes 
On sacred Navajo ground
Blessed by ancient spirits
The beauty of the place
Forever in my soul

Try collage, thumb prints, glitter, crayons, paints or markers to get your ideas flowing. Catalogs are fun to tear and glue in your journal. Doodle. The key is to play with images and color. Tickle your muse's fancy. The words will come.