My first diary was a 6×6 inch leather bound book with a lock and key. I only wrote brief code-like entries. The rules in my house were that I could have no privacy, so I played it safe and didn’t record my truths, but sentences and phrases that reminded me of my memories. Years later, diary and journal writers like Virginia Woolf, Anais Nin, and May Sarton showed me that writing personal stories could invite the reader into musings and intimacies that helped me learn about my own life and showed me new ways to live.
Do you keep a journal? What do you write in it? Is it a place to download your memories, or try out writing ideas? Do you draw, doodle, or vent? Is it a legacy keeper or a way to gather ideas for your memoir?
I got over my shyness with journals, and I, like many people, have dusty boxes filled with journals. For years, I didn’t look at them, but sometimes I do, which is a mixed blessing when I see the same themes over and over again! But I also see that the basic bones of my memoir appear again and again in my journals. The first drafts of every chapter in my memoir were born in my journals. The pages are torn and stained, a testimony to my efforts to write my memoir over the years.
Writing in a journal means that we can freely write, we have invited our writing to flow without thinking of the critics whispering in our ears because we’re not “really writing.” We are journaling, spending time in the private creative space of our minds, weaving imagination and memory.
I’m looking forward to my monthly teleseminar at the National Association of Memoir Writers on May 18th with journaling expert and writer Amber Lea Starfire. Her book Week by Week—A Year’s Worth of Journaling Prompts and Meditations is a wonderful collection of ideas, themes, and writing prompts that will chase away any writer’s block—and inspire a new relationship with your journal. The book will inspire you to investigate memories that you may have forgotten, and lead you to new ways to make the connections in your heart and mind to write more–and better.
We are going to talk about the many ways you can use your journal to enhance your memoir writing—and help you get to “The End” sooner! We all know what a journey it is to write a memoir.
Where are you on your memoir journey?
What books have inspired you the most as you continue to write?
Tell us about your journaling history–do you have boxes and stack of journals?
Hi Linda and Amber,
I’m taking this opportunity to put a simple fact in writing: I have oodles of journals. I need to take some time and read everything I’ve written since last June. In other words I need to stop and read a year’s worth of journals. They will fuel the memoir that’s evolving in my head.
Just thought I’d put that in writing. BTW, everyone, Linda Joy Myers’ book The Power of Memoir is excellent and so is Amber Starfire’s new book on journaling.
Take care,
B. Lynn Goodwin
http://www.writeradvice.com
Author of You Want Me to Do WHAT? Journaling for Caregivers
Thanks Lynn! Wow, you have quite a project ahead of you–reading all those journals, but I’m sure they will fuel your creativity and lead you onward to the core of your memoir and the meaning you have gleaned from your experiences. Thanks for stopping by and your comments about my book!
In answer to this week’s email I want to add I have boxes full of journals. I discovered it as a way of processing the painful journey away from my mother, a mother who could not mother. In time I discovered she has Narcissistic Personality Disorder and so I wrote it, talked about it too.
It seems I have been writing my memoir forever. All about my life with mother, my stolen identity, all aimed at trying to recover and recover me.
I find it difficult to deal with the concept of publishing all of this. There is not a lot of acceptance of NPD and daughters often are “blamed” for the problem as they are usually the scapegoats. I feel there is a need to publish my story, just as Linda has done. How good it was to read of others’ problems with their mothers Linda !
However I am such a private person I have a deep fear of publishing this work and seem to make no progress on the memoir for this very reason. Do I fear family backlash ? Probably because I have fought long and hard to make progress on separation from them.
I do believe I can write and would love to do so, but the pain and fear is getting in my way.
Any comments would be welcome
Hi Linda,
I am so grateful to find your web site and podcast series on women writing memoirs. I LOVE YOUR SITE! It is a true blessing. I am going to order you book The Power of Memoir today. I think your web site, blog, and podcast series will be a great support for me over the next 13 weeks as I wrap up my second memoir, Digital Sisterhood: Fierce Living Online for 25 years.
I have journaled since I was a teenager. As an adult, I have kept many of my journals and used them to help me write my first memoir, That Which Awakens Me: A Creative Woman’s Poetic Memoir of Self Discovery.
I am using my journal now to write each morning and afternoon about my memoir. Some of the thoughts that I share will be incorporated into the book. The daily journal writing helps me clear my mind and also surrender to the process. It helps me learn more about myself as I write the book.
Best wishes to everyone in their journaling and memoir writing,
Ananda Leeke
PS: I am a member of SheWrites.com too. What a great resource!
Thank you Ananda, It’s great to hear that what we are doing is helping and inspiring you! Keep writing, getting input, listening, and writing some more. Congratulations on your memoir! It’s true that journaling feeds the creative flow, and you are a testimony to that.
I love SheWrites too!!