I'm starting a weather journal. In it, I daily (or thereabouts) jot down quick notes on the weather that day. Dumb? Not for a writer. It's amazing how the weather can affect us. For example, yesterday was warm for September, with a lazy, hazy feel to the slanted sunlight. The air was humid, mind-drugging, yet the wind was strong, and it was slightly cool. I found myself daydreaming about similar days--I could remember lying on the raft in the lake after school, probably the last swimming day of the year. I recalled similar afternoons when we went outside for marching band practice, and I could feel the slight trickle of sweat between my breasts under the starched cotton of my Peter-Pan-collared blouse (yes, I'm old).

Such sensations are mere stepping stones to deeper human emotions, triggers to half-forgotten events that could be distorted and reused in my writing. By writing such clues and cues down, I will have a source to check when trying to evoke a sense of environment in a story or novel. And who knows? A weather-related memory might even spark a whole new story.

This is just one way you might use a journal. For a writer, it can be an invaluable asset.