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