Have you ever read a quotation and thought, “Man, those are words to live by!” You don’t have to be a quote fanatic (like me) to appreciate someone else’s pithy insights. Whether you smile, groan, nod your head or shake it, the good ones resonate. Whether they’re funny or simply speak to our own life experiences, they can brighten our day.
When you run across one of those gems, run-don’t-walk to your journal and write it down. If we immediately react to it, chances are it will grow on us, especially if we can read back over each one in our journals.
Here are a few of my favorites:
a Someday we’ll look back on this moment and plow into a parked car. ~ Evan Davis
a The heroic life is living the individual adventure. ~ Joseph Campbell
a Sometimes the secret of happiness involves breaking things. ~ Venus Veritas from
The Divorce Recovery Journal
a Did you ever consider – maybe the glass isn’t half empty or half full. Maybe it’s just twice
as big as it needs to be. ~ George Carlin (loosely quoted)
Happy journaling!
Linda
Monday, July 28, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
New Book Now on Web Site
Hurray! The Many Faces of Journaling, 2nd edition is now available on my web site, PenCentralOnline.com/. When you order a copy from there, I'll be happy to autograph it with whatever brief message you request. Just include that on your order form under "Special Instructions." You can even order it for gift giving, and I'll sign it to the recipient!
Happy reading ~
Linda
Happy reading ~
Linda
Outside Help for Memoir Journaling
You've set your mind to regular journaling, perhaps as a "Year-in-the-Life" memoir, when splat! Life hits you in the face, then the kneecap, then the foot - then you get sick. The best of intentions can leap just so many hurdles at once. That's exactly the point at which so many journaling projects come to a screeching, permanent halt. And really, what's the point? This writing interruptus stuff will just keep popping up over and over.
But wait! There's at least one effective way to deal with project paralysis. Bring in outside help.
#1 ~ World News. If you regularly comment in your writing on news about war, food shortages, financial markets and health breakthroughs, you can copy and paste the hard-hitting breaking news stores about those topics. If you had time, you wouldn't have written your own treatise on the global economy. But in lieu of that, why not let the Associated Press do it for you?
Scan the top news on MSNBC.com and CNN.com for those special stories that seem to make your point. It doesn't make sense to you that the U.S. economy is going to turn around in the next couple of months. And right there is the article is a long quote from a high ranking financial guru on just why the turn around will take far longer - just as you've been saying. Copy a lead paragraph or two to your computer journal or memoir along with the headline and date. Always include author attribution, just in case you want to quote from the material in the future If you have time in a few days or weeks, you can add your own comments.
#2 ~ Personal Updates. Even when we can’t journal, we usually find time to email our friends about the high and low points of our daily lives. Again, copy and paste the account of personal news from your emails to the journaling file.
And Walla! You've had no time to write, but your memoir or journal has continued to blossom. And who knows? Maybe those inserts will add real spice to the final writing.
Happy journaling ~
Linda
But wait! There's at least one effective way to deal with project paralysis. Bring in outside help.
#1 ~ World News. If you regularly comment in your writing on news about war, food shortages, financial markets and health breakthroughs, you can copy and paste the hard-hitting breaking news stores about those topics. If you had time, you wouldn't have written your own treatise on the global economy. But in lieu of that, why not let the Associated Press do it for you?
Scan the top news on MSNBC.com and CNN.com for those special stories that seem to make your point. It doesn't make sense to you that the U.S. economy is going to turn around in the next couple of months. And right there is the article is a long quote from a high ranking financial guru on just why the turn around will take far longer - just as you've been saying. Copy a lead paragraph or two to your computer journal or memoir along with the headline and date. Always include author attribution, just in case you want to quote from the material in the future If you have time in a few days or weeks, you can add your own comments.
#2 ~ Personal Updates. Even when we can’t journal, we usually find time to email our friends about the high and low points of our daily lives. Again, copy and paste the account of personal news from your emails to the journaling file.
And Walla! You've had no time to write, but your memoir or journal has continued to blossom. And who knows? Maybe those inserts will add real spice to the final writing.
Happy journaling ~
Linda
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
"Year-in-the-Life" Memoir Journal
On February 21st, I wrote about the "Year-in-the-Life" memoir journal I'd started the previous month. It was personally fulfilling and enlightening, and well worth the effort. That is, it was until the big finish-the-book crunch time arrived. Then there was hardly anything else in my world beyond completing The Many Faces of Journaling 2nd edition on schedule.
After that I turned to the avalanche of work, writing and otherwise, that waited impatiently for my attention. Then my family life entered an interesting period, which will reach it's crescendo the end of this week when my newest grandbaby is born.
Which is all to say, I haven't written a word in my memoir journal since sometime in April. Life does happen, just as all those pontificators have claimed.
The plan now is, after I return to town from the birthing of that little crescendo, I'll resume a normal (but not frantic) work schedule and restart my journaling. I'm looking forward to that. There are so many fascinating, terrifying and thoroughly puzzling things going on around us these days, and pondering some of them on the keyboard sounds inviting.
So the journaling lesson here is this: When you take a break, even a very long one, from your journal writing, view that as just one of the droller certainties of life. Don't embark on a guilt trip. It's your journal - write in it "when the time is right" for you.
Happy writing whenever you get around to it!
Linda
After that I turned to the avalanche of work, writing and otherwise, that waited impatiently for my attention. Then my family life entered an interesting period, which will reach it's crescendo the end of this week when my newest grandbaby is born.
Which is all to say, I haven't written a word in my memoir journal since sometime in April. Life does happen, just as all those pontificators have claimed.
The plan now is, after I return to town from the birthing of that little crescendo, I'll resume a normal (but not frantic) work schedule and restart my journaling. I'm looking forward to that. There are so many fascinating, terrifying and thoroughly puzzling things going on around us these days, and pondering some of them on the keyboard sounds inviting.
So the journaling lesson here is this: When you take a break, even a very long one, from your journal writing, view that as just one of the droller certainties of life. Don't embark on a guilt trip. It's your journal - write in it "when the time is right" for you.
Happy writing whenever you get around to it!
Linda
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