FROM JOURNAL TO MEMOIR

“When you write, you lay out a line of words…soon you find yourself deep in new territory.”

Annie Dillard, The Writing Life

     Journaling is one of the best - if not the best - method to start writing. It works for all genres - fiction, memoir, poetry, drama. You need a place to spill your thoughts, ideas, feelings, emotions, in order to see them clearly and put them to use in your creations. How to start if you've never done it before? Here are some tips to get you started:

1. Start writing in a stream-of-consciousness mode. Don't stop, don't edit, don't censor. Just keep pen to paper. 

2. Start writing about where you are in your life at this moment. Spend ten minutes just writing. 

3.  Keep a nature diary to connect with the natural world. Describe what you see outside your window. Take a walk in a park or the beach and write using only descriptive words. No adjectives. Just verbs and nouns.

4.  Start a journal of self-portraits. You are many things at once and different things at different moments. Your morning self. Your friendly self. Your angry self. And so on.

5.  If there is something you are struggling with or something that disturbs you,

     write about it in the third person.

6.  Don’t censor yourself.  No one will read your journal.

Register now for FROM JOURNAL TO MEMOIR

Starts September 21st - every other Monday - six sessions

From 6:30 to 8:30 pm - $300.00

Lincoln Park location: plenty of free parking and CTA accessible by Brown and Red lines

Send an email to bgartler@yahoo.com