PREVIEW OF TUESDAY'S MEMOIR/PERSONAL ESSAY WORKSHOP

You can start today to write your memoir - be it short like a personal essay or long like a book. Here are some guidelines and exercises to get you going:

                                                   

      1.  Basic writing exercises:

I remember/I don’t remember

I’m looking at/I’m not looking at

I’m thinking of/I’m not thinking of

Keep the pen moving.  Don’t cross out anything.

2.      Life is not linear; reflect and sort through the layers.

3.     Find a theme and focus on that alone.

4.     Do some research.

5.     The past can only be found in the present.  Muse, ponder, reflect about the past in the present.

PERSONAL ESSAY/MEMOIR WORKSHOP

TUESDAY JULY 1 - 7 to 9 pm

CULTURA IN PILSEN, 1900 S. CARPENTER

TO REGISTER GO TO: CHICAGO LATINO WRITERS INITIATIVE

WORKSHOP OFFERED IN ENGLISH

SOME IDEAS FOR IGNITING YOUR PERSONAL ESSAY WRITING

We all have families.  We all have stories from our families.  Here are some ideas to get you started on that essay or memoir:

1.  Think of a family story you have told or you have heard and decide what the THEME of the story is.  Make some notes. 

2.  Write the story briefly without straying from the theme or explaining who the people are nor giving any background information.

3. Now while you imagine you are talking to a close friend, write your thoughts about the story assuming your friend knows the story already. 

4. Now write the story again incorporating those thoughts or allowing the insights made change the way you tell the story.

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1.  Make a list of your family's or close-knit group's classic stories, the ones you repeat all the time. 

2. Next to each story write what myths it fosters about the group or what purpose it serves.

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1. Make a list of the ways you could focus a memoir with a certain defined period, for example, "The year I got married,"  "The year I went to first grade."  You can also use a shorter period or a longer one but they may be more difficult to work with.

2. Make a list of topics you feel passionate about. 

3. Topics you argue about.

4. Write about the process of learning something over a period of time.  What did it feel like at different stages?

And don't forget to register for:

PERSONAL ESSAY/MEMOIR WORKSHOP

Only $20.00

TUESDAY, JULY 1 - 7 to 9 pm

CULTURA IN PILSEN, 1900 S. Carpenter

TO REGISTER GO TO: 

http://www.eventbrite.com/e/chicago-latino-writers-personal-essaymemoir-workshop-tickets-12011762505

THE PERSONAL ESSAY/SHORT MEMOIR

     We all carry stories within us from our earliest years to the present.  We like to tell them to friends and family.  Now it is time to put them down on paper and enjoy the process.  

SOME GUIDELINES FOR MEMOIR WRITING                                                   

      1.  Basic writing exercises:

I remember/I don’t remember

I’m looking at/I’m not looking at

I’m thinking of/I’m not thinking of

Keep the pen moving.  Don’t cross out anything.  JUST WRITE.

2. Life is not linear; reflect and sort through the layers.

3. Find a theme and focus on that alone.

4. Do some research.

5. The past can only be found in the present.  Muse, ponder, reflect about the past in the present.

6. Be consistent with your tone.

7. Discover your own organic structure.

8. Write economically.

9. Stay detailed.

10. Use lots of active verbs.

11. Use your five senses.

12. SHOW; DON’T TELL.

PERSONAL ESSAY/MEMOIR WORKSHOP

TUESDAY JULY 1 - 7 to 9 pm

CHICAGO LATINO WRITERS INITIATIVE

CULTURA IN PILSEN, 1900 S. CARPENTER

 TO REGISTER GO TO: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/chicago-latino-writers-personal-essaymemoir-workshop-tickets-12011762505

Workshop is in English.

A FEW QUOTES FROM FAMOUS JOURNAL KEEPERS (and two days left to register)

Here are some quotes to inspire you and motivate you to add journaling to your life:

"Journal writing is not about 'getting the job done'. It's not about writing more elegantly. It is about understanding better your own precious and complex existence as well as the world around you." - Stephanie Dowrick, Creative Journal Writing

"It takes courage to do what you want. Other people have a lot of plans for you." 
- Joseph Campbell

"We do not write in order to be understood. We write in order to understand."
-Cecil Day-Lewis

"The journal...gives me the illusion that I can keep from losing each day. I can catch little bits of evidence on a page...a person, a marriage, well, at least a flower. Here's a petal, a kind of shorthand for the magnificence of the rose..." - Susan Woldridge, Fool's Gold

"I'm awfully scared that everyone who knows me as I always am will discover that I have another side, a finer and better side. I'm afraid they'll laugh at me, think I'm ridiculous and sentimental, not take me seriously." - Anne Frank

"All that energy we expend trying to keep things running right is not what's keeping things running right...your unconscious can't work when you're breathing down its neck." 
- Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

"For many days I lived without my drug, my secret vice, my diary. And then I found this: I could not bear the loneliness...joy was not necessarily in the south of France, mystery in Morocco, art of storytelling in Haiti only...but might spring from one's own self. I shall have to create it from within." - Anais Nin

"I love the outsets, despite the fear and uncertainty that attach to all beginnings...I have already begun a thousand lives this way." - Rainer Maria Rilke, Dairies of a Young Poet

"...my ghosts like to travel..." - Peter Gabriel

THE INNER JOURNEY: JOURNALING IN THE MODERN AGE
SATURDAY JUNE 14 from 1 to 5 pm
THE NEWBERRY LIBRARY, 60 W. WALTON, CHICAGO
TO REGISTER GO TO http://www.newberry.org

SNEAK PREVIEW OF SATURDAY'S WORKSHOP

Sneak preview of some of the points that will be made this Saturday at the workshop on journaling:

Most important guideline:

RELAX:  don't fret over what you're writing or drawing or doodling.  The point is to let your mind go and your hand move; the rest will happen if you allow yourself to let it happen.  The best ideas come when you least expect it.  And remember that it doesn't matter what you write, no one has to see it.  It's just for you.  You can keep it or not.  Just do it (pardon the cliche).

How to get started:

WRITE ABOUT WHERE YOU ARE IN YOUR LIFE AT THIS MOMENT:  describe in a stream-of-consciousness mode your living situation, your work, your relationships, your dreams, your fears.  Don't stop to correct or edit.  Don't censor your thoughts.

Benefits of journal writing:

MENTAL HEALTH BENEFITS (and physical too):  regular journal writing offers you a cathartic release for the stresses of daily life.  And you know how stress is one of the key causes of illness and disease.  It is important to write not only what you feel about a stressful event but also what you think, telling your personal story.  Don't dwell on the emotions; use them as a springboard to the narrative of the event.

Visual journaling:

WORKING WITH A CIRCLE:  trace or draw a circle on the page of your journal and create images within the circle and outside.  These can be representational or abstract or both.  If you are journaling in the morning, recall a dream and draw the main elements.  If you prefer to journal in the evening, draw the best part of that day in the circle.  You can also write on the side about the experience.


THE INNER JOURNEY: JOURNALING IN THE MODERN AGE
SATURDAY JUNE 14 from 1 to 5 pm
THE NEWBERRY LIBRARY, 60 West Walton, Chicago

TO REGISTER GO TO: http://www.newberry.org

VISUAL JOURNALING - PART II

If you're feeling blue, if you're out of ideas to get you started, or if you're just in the mood for some art, here are some prompts to help you with your visual journaling:

1. Take a magazine and find an image that grabs you.  Cut it, paste it on your notebook and write about it.  Let yourself go.  Practice free-writing as I've explained in earlier posts.

2. Doodling is one of the best ways to let go, to relax, to find inspiration.  Fill a page or two of your notebook with doodles: anything, everything goes.  Abstract art is the best.  You can even color it.

3. Take the notebook and go outside. Sit on your stoop, or a cafe, or a park.  Draw what you see, then write about it.

4. Write about your favorite meal. Then draw it.  

5. Write about your favorite moment of last week.  Then illustrate your entry with drawings or cutouts from magazines or just doodle.  Color is always good.

AND REMEMBER: 

THE NEWBERRY LIBRARY, 60 W. WALTON

SATURDAY JUNE 14 FROM 1 TO 5 PM

THE INNER JOURNEY: JOURNALING IN THE MODERN AGE

To register go to: http://www.newberry.org

WRITING PRACTICE THIS MORNING

If you need an idea to start writing today take a look at these collages.  Use them as prompts. Write what you see, describe colors, images; write what they remind you of or just let your imagination fly.











For more images, go to Collages.

DESCRIPTIVE JOURNALING

   

Sometimes we don't know what to write, we just jot down a few facts about our day and close the notebook.  Descriptive writing is not easy.  But - when you read it later - what a marvelous experience!  

Here are a few tips to help you make your journal useful and interesting: 

• Careful observation:  reality is often different from what we assume or think we know.  Look closely around you or dig deeper into yesterday's incidents.  Take a chance and let go when you're writing.  See what comes out of your own mind and imagination.
• The right details:   a few well-chosen details are worth a thousand words.  Describe your surroundings, your friends, yourself with just two or three terms born out of your five senses. Remember that our senses are all we have to apprehend the world around us.  Use them. Use them a lot. And use them creatively. Don't dwell on the visual; write about what you hear or how an object feels to the touch or the smell of the your childhood home.  
• The right words:  words have denotations and connotations.  Be aware of both when using them in your journaling.  If you're stuck, find synonyms.  It's easy.  Go for the unusual. 

And now - let's practice!  Here are a few prompts to get you started:

1. The street where you live: go out for a 15-minute walk and come back and write.
2. The view out the window: describe the colors, the sky, the light and shadows, the trees or their absence, rooftops, what's out there.
3. Your house: take each room at a time and go for it. 
4. The weather: is it windy? is it warm or cold? what do you smell? how do things change? 

THE INNER JOURNEY: JOURNALING IN THE MODERN AGE

SATURDAY, JUNE 14 - 1 TO 5 PM

THE NEWBERRY LIBRARY, 60 WEST WALTON, CHICAGO

TO REGISTER: http://www.newberry.org

ANOTHER INSTALLMENT ON SOME FAMOUS JOURNAL KEEPERS

Franz Kafka

“One advantage in keeping a diary is that you become aware with reassuring clarity of the changes which you constantly suffer and which in a general way are naturally believed, surmised, and admitted by you, but which you’ll unconsciously deny when it comes to the point of gaining hope or peace from such an admission. In the diary you find proof that in situations which today would seem unbearable, you lived, looked around and wrote down observations, that this right hand moved then as it does today, when we may be wiser because we are able to look back upon our former condition, and for that very reason have got to admit the courage of our earlier striving in which we persisted even in sheer ignorance.”

Kafka used his journal to see the changes he suffered.  You can see the progress you've made from adolescence to adulthood or from last year to this year.  When I read my journal from years past I am often surprised by my own life.  Did I really think that? I say to myself.  How I've changed.  And sometimes, I realize I am still the same.  

In our journals we find proof that - what seemed unbearable yesterday - may be overcome.  We write our present.  We learn from our past.

COMING UP SOON: 

THE INNER JOURNEY: JOURNALING IN THE MODERN AGE

SATURDAY JUNE 14 - 1 TO 5 PM

THE NEWBERRY LIBRARY, 60 WEST WALTON, CHICAGO

To register online go to:
HTTP://WWW.NEWBERRY.ORG