Customer Reviews

The Journal Wheel Guide Book

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This is a Journal wheel with accompanying book to explain how to use the wheel. I usually don't need help finding things to write about, but I bought the wheel to show my journaling class. Then I started using it.

You place the wheel on the date and dial your mood. When you turn the wheel over, it gives you a topic such as work, travel, weather. It also suggests a technique such as listing, dialog, free writing. All the techniques are describe in the book along with suggestions for what to write about when you get certain combinations.

I had a really sad day last week, since my cat of 16 years died. The wheel told me to write dialog about transportation. That seemed weird, but I ended up writing about conversation I had with my daughter while we were driving around looking for him under bushes. I don't think I would have otherwise recorded that conversation.

This wheel and book could be helpful to non-experienced journalers as well. It would help them become familiar with different types of writing.

This is not a book- it's really a booklet that accompanies the wheel. I like to think of it as a "color wheel" for the journaler. Just match up the date with your mood, and the wheel will point you to a page in the booklet that will give you a writing prompt.

It's extrememly helpful to have on days when you just don't know what to write. The topics tend to give you direction instead of asking specific questions. If you are looking for specific, detailed writing prompts, this may not be for you. But if you need inspiration, turn to the wheel. It's a great tool.

Congrats to the author! This book has it all. Hundreds of ideas for jump starting your brain. If you want to write, yet find yourself staring at a blank piece of paper not knowing what to write, this is the book for you. You cannot fail to find a process or a subject that will appeal to you. You line up the wheel with the date, month and your mood for an idea and a technique to attempt. Clear and concise descriptions of the many processes common to journal keepers. The endless potential combinations are fun and wonderfully random! It's a great way to coax from yourself the words which will tell your unique story. This journaling tool has all the necessary elements to help you to write all those thoughts, ideas and dreams that float around in your head.

Let's face it. No matter how exciting, busy, and fulfilled our lives are, not every day is a day to be recorded for posterity. Some days the most exciting thing that happens to me is that I get out bed. For those of us who like to record our daily adventures or just like to take a moment to regroup, journaling is one of the best ways to keep it all together. Not since scrapbooking replaced journaling as America's favorite activity has there been a better how-to guide on journaling. The Journal Wheel Guide Book is a handy-dandy little guide (50 pages) that is a useful tool for both the beginning journal writer and the old pro who wants to liven up his/her normal entries.

The Guide Book is broken into two sections. First there is the "wheel." Writers match the month and date along with his/her mood to get a technique number. The 13 techniques give the writer a particular style to establish their style. For example, today's month and date, along with an apathetic mood, matched technique number 11 "unsent letters." The writer writes a letter that may be express anger, unrequited love, or any other myriad of feelings, but is never sent because it stays neatly on the pages of the journal.

The second section of The Journal Wheel Guide Book, Thirty-One Topics, is designed to use the techniques with prompts or suggestions---ideas to help you get the words on paper. I've found that the Thirty-One Topics is an excellent source for me to sharpen my fiction writing skills, especially if I'm not having a "good" writing day. I can take a character or a situation, add one of the topics---chosen strictly by closing my eyes and pointing--and move into uncharted territory or bring them/it more clearly into focus.

The Journal Wheel Guide Book is a wonderful asset to a writer's library.

This is a unique tool for all diarists-- from those who have never written, novices, and those of us who can't not write. It offers a combination of techniques and topics that seems endless. It can be used simply-- as explained, by just combining the day with your mood but with a bit of creative imagination it can be customized and the possibilities *are* endless.

This little work (wheel, about 6" in diameter, and 6" x 9" pamphlet with 46 pages of content) looks best suited for the experienced journaler who has found the well of inspiration run dry.

Line up the month and day with your mood, and the wheel assigns you one of thirty-one topics _and_ one of twelve techniques to use. There are explanations for reference in the pamphlet, as well as an invitation to develop new ways of using the wheel. Several pages of additional prompts are thrown in as a bonus at the end. The wheel is well-made, with a place for owner's name, and looks like it will age well, but I have only had mine for a few months as of this writing so cannot say for sure.

The element of the random involved with spinning the wheel helps contribute to a sense of spontaneity welcome to any writer gone stale. Having a different technique assigned also nudges the user out of his/her comfort zone. Worth the money if you like to use prompts in journal-writing.

I use the Journal Wheel when the best I can come up with to write in my journal is "mowed the lawn" or "took a walk." (I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.) The Journal Wheel gives me the jump start I need. Plus it's fun and easy-to-use. This is a great tool for writers AND teachers.

I have never read this book, but Mrs. Bouziden is my writing teacher and she always demands my class write in our journals every day, taking only small breaks for holidays. She says we will be glad we wrote in our journals later on, but so far it's only been a chore. :-)