1) You're not doing it wrong. If that's how the light appears to you, go with it.

2) Journaling is also a good practice, but I recommend a daily discursive meditation as well as journaling. Of course you can read up on the subject beforehand -- better still, use the book you're reading on the subject as a source of meditation themes. You don't have to extract everything in your meditation from some inappropriate orifice or other... ;-)