Nature Journaling Tip #12: Use Nature Journals to Inspire Writing

The following exercise will give you practice in using the field journal to enhance the writing process. The exercise employs clustering, a non-linear brain-storming process that allows greater access to your creativity during the prewriting stage, and eases the entire writing process. For more about clustering and other techniques for "natural writing," read Writing the Natural Way by Gabriele Lusser Rico.

1. Go into a natural area and let yourself be drawn to some aspect to observe: a particular animal or plant, geologic feature, or landscape. Enter date, time of day, location, weather notes, and any other pertinent information in your journal.

2. After about 15 minutes of observation, sketching and note-taking, jot down several associations that come to mind -- words or phrases -- that connect with your subject. Don't be concerned here with writing complete sentences, with grammar or spelling.

3. Once you are satisfied with the thoughts you have written down, go back and choose one that you would like to use as a topic for a piece of writing. Write that word or phrase in the center of a journal page.

4. Now allow yourself to think freely about the topic and write your thoughts surrounding the nucleus word or phrase. Do not restrict your thinking in any way during this process; simply jot down your associations randomly, connecting them to each other or to the central topic with lines or with arrows as you see fit. Do this for several minutes.

5. Now, look over the cluster you have created for connected ideas to incorporate into the first draft of a short poem or narrative description about the topic you have chosen. When you have finished writing, allow some one else to look at the journal page upon which your piece of writing is based, then read your piece aloud to that person.

Image by botanical artist and international art instructor Cynthia Padilla. Visit Cynthia's blog.

Mark Baldwin is the Director of Education at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History (RTPI), a proud partner in National Environmental Education Week. Each year RTPI offers online workshops for educators interested in bringing nature journaling into the classroom. For more information visit www.rtpi.org.