Blog Posts by Biographile

Biographile's From Journal to Memoir series

Editor's Note: In this multipart series, Biographile and Dr. Rita Jacobs, PhD, will walk you through finding the inspiration and motivation to start - and keep - a journal, and will later offer some approaches to transforming journal entries into memoir. In part eight of this series, Dr. Jacobs shares with us the importance of our dreams in writing. See earlier posts in the From Journal to Memoir series here.

Dreams have a prominent place in most cultures. In some they require exorcism by shamans, and in others, they are lionized in banal but heartfelt sentiments like Walt Disney's, "All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them."

But I'd like to focus not on the general but on the specific. While most of us dream, not all of us remember our dreams. Yet, the practice of keeping a dream journal can yield more dream recall than you would imagine.

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It is pretty much indisputable

Biographile's From Journal to Memoir Series

Editor's Note: In this multipart series, Biographile and Dr. Rita Jacobs, PhD, will walk you through finding the inspiration and motivation to start - and keep - a journal, and will later offer some approaches to transforming journal entries into memoir. In part seven of this series, Dr. Jacobs shares with us how to use list-making as a tool for discovery. See earlier posts in the From Journal to Memoir series here.

There are so many lists in our lives - shopping lists, to-do lists, birthday lists - that it might seem counterproductive to suggest you make yet another one. In fact, many people I speak with about lists confess to my own quirk: If I do something that is not on my "to-do" list, I add it just so that I can cross it off. Lists have come to mean accomplishment and the pleasure of making a checkmark or crossing something off is evidence of a job done, if not necessarily well, at least completed.

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Biographile

Editor's Note: In this multipart series, Biographile and Dr. Rita Jacobs, PhD, will walk you through finding the inspiration and motivation to start - and keep - a journal, and will later offer some approaches to transforming journal entries into memoir. In part five of this series, Dr. Jacobs moves on to the topic of getting unstuck in your writing in an unconventional way. See earlier posts in the From Journal to Memoir series here.

Last week's column dealt with dialogue so it makes sense to me to move to monologue this week. Of course, many of us see monologue as a standup routine, maybe a rant or a lecture or even a tirade. But given that you've warmed up with dialogue, I like to look at monologue in a journal as the classic letter not sent. Of course this could be a rant - like the letter you would write to the boss who has dressed you down or criticized you unfairly - or it could be a list of the hurt feelings you have after a friend has, you feel, mistreated you. And

Biographile

Editor's Note: In this multipart series, Biographile and Dr. Rita Jacobs, PhD, will walk you through finding the inspiration and motivation to start - and keep - a journal, and will later offer some approaches to transforming journal entries into memoir. In part five of this series, Dr. Jacobs moves on to the topic of getting unstuck in your writing in an unconventional way. See earlier posts in the From Journal to Memoir series here.

Sometimes it feels like I need to juice up my journal with more than just my own voice. This does not mean that I hand my journal around and ask other people to scribble in it, but it does mean that I call on the other people in my mind to contribute. No, I am not schizophrenic, even though E.L. Doctorow has famously said, "Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia."

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Biographile's From Journal to Memoir with Dr. Rita D. JacobsBy: Rita D. Jacobs, PhD

Editor's Note: In this multipart series, Biographile and Dr. Rita Jacobs, PhD, will walk you through finding the inspiration and motivation to start - and keep - a journal, and will later offer some approaches to transforming journal entries into memoir. In part three of this series, Dr. Jacobs moves on to the topic of getting unstuck in your writing in an unconventional way. See earlier posts in the From Journal to Memoir series here.

This week, I'd like to stay with the idea of breaking through any blocks you may have about writing. Very often we defeat ourselves before we begin by imagining what a finished product might look like or sound like and are frustrated from the outset by the sure knowledge that the words won't come out the right way, especially the first time 'round. Yes, the mantra is "writing is rewriting," and although we know that intellectually, it isn't always enticing to begin with the notion that we will have to redo.

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Biographile's From Journal to Memoir with Dr. Rita D. Jacobs

By: Rita D. Jacobs, PhD

Editor's Note: In this multipart series, Biographile and Dr. Rita Jacobs, PhD, will walk you through finding the inspiration and motivation to start - and keep - a journal, and will later offer some approaches to transforming journal entries into memoir. In part three of this series, Dr. Jacobs moves on to the topic of getting unstuck in your writing in an unconventional way. See earlier posts in the From Journal to Memoir series here.

Everyone who has ever tried to write knows that it is hard work and it's also no secret that most writers get stuck now and then. This is as true of journal writers as it is of essayists, novelists, technical writers, poets, and students who just can't get that term paper written. Since getting stuck is endemic, I'm going to devote several of the next posts to ways of getting unstuck by suggesting a variety of jumping off places for writing.

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Biographile's From Journal to Memoir with Dr. Rita D. Jacobs

By: Rita D. Jacobs, PhD

Editor's Note: In this multipart series, Biographile and Dr. Rita Jacobs, PhD will walk you through finding the inspiration and motivation to start - and keep - a journal, and will later offer some approaches to transforming journal entries into memoir. In part two of her journal-writing series, Dr. Jacobs outlines the differences between writing for yourself and writing for others. Part 1 is available here.

There's little doubt that we live in a world of self-advertisement. Screaming egos demanding attention emerge everywhere from "reality television" to blog posts to Facebook. That started my brain going on the difference between journal writing and blogging. After all, they are both forms of "personal" writing and many people seem to think they are the same. In fact, some of my students at the university equate putting their thoughts out there in cyberspace with journal writing. But I am certain that these are two very different endeavors - not