- Journaling
- Travelogues
- Postcards from the edge and beyond
- Life maps and storyboards
- Personal fairy tales
- Family post office
- Photo captions
- Bookjackets
The term "journaling" is used loosely to cover a number of different writing situations. We might think of a journal as being the same as a diary, and a "journalist" write news reports for the mass media. But a journal is more than a record of the day's activity as a diary is, and it is not written for public consumption as the journalist's work is. For the kind of family writing we are doing here, journaling means writing quickly, honestly, and deeply about a certain topic. It means sitting down with a journal and pen (or at the computer keyboard) with the desire to explore something about your life by writing about it.
Journaling is the most private form of writing, although you might choose to share some of your journal entries with others. In fact, your family will probably enjoy reading aloud from their journals occasionally. But never force anyone to read anything from a journal--that compromises the safety of writing for your own eyes only.
Here are some types of journaling that you might want to try:
Set aside some time each day or each week. Fifteen or twenty minutes is fine. Have a topic in mind, set a timer, and go. Be sure to keep your hand moving at all times. Otherwise, you might spend most of your time stalling and trying to think of just the right words. The goal is to capture any and all thoughts that fly through your mind as you think about your topic.
As you get started journaling, you might find it handy to have some topics to choose from. If so, try these. As you become more comfortable with your journal, though, you will find plenty of fascinating topics of your own.
One of the important goals of family writing is for parents to model the joy of writing for their children. If you enjoy journaling, why not share this pleasure with others in your family? Provide every family member with a journal and a good supply of writing instruments. Journals don't have to be expensive, fancy bound books--they can be legal pads, spiral notebooks, or even loose sheets of paper that can be gathered in a binder or file folder. Very young members of the family might want to illustrate their journals with crayons and markers.
Set aside a time when family members will journal together. You might find it interesting to "assign" a topic for everyone to write about, e.g., a favorite author, film, or television show, an embarrassing moment, a recurring dream, and so on. For a list of stories that children love to hear about their parents, check here. Give everyone a chance to read aloud, but allow those who don't want to read to pass.
This activity is quite different since family members will share the same journal, allowing them to carry on conversations (even when they are on wildly different schedules and rarely see each other), ask questions, solve problems, and express feelings.
Find a spot that is convenient to everyone in the family, and place a journal (notebook, legal pad, etc.) and a good supply of writing instruments there. Begin the journal by posting a comment or question at the top of the first page. For example, "if our family could design a robot to help us out, what would it look like and what would it be able to do?"
In the beginning, you might need to remind family members to check the journal and add to it, but it will probably become a very popular item as time goes by. These family journals also serve as wonderful records of family life in your house in years to come.
A special interest journal can be shared or individual. It differs from an ordinary journal in that it is devoted to a single area of interest. For example, a quilter might keep a journal of projects, ideas, supply lists, photographs of completed quilts, and so on. The journal could be used to record family history--who are the family quilters who have taught their skills to younger generations? what quilts are passed down through the family?--as well.
If your family shares an interest or hobby, then several family members might want to contribute to the same journal. Why not create a "baby book" for that new kitten with notes about cute things the kitten does, photos, suggestions for names, etc. As with other types of journals, the special interest journal will become a record and a source of family stories in the future.
If your family likes to travel, consider writing your own travelogues. Take a notebook or calendar pages along on your trip, and ask each family member to note especially memorable places and experiences at the end of each day. Perhaps you'll want to use these notes as captions in a family photo album where you display photos from the trip. Or you could create a collage of photos and comments from the trip.
There are many creative forms for travelogues. My family created a quilt to commemorate a trip to Ohio last summer. Before our trip, I sewed a number of Ohio Star quilt blocks with white stars. I took these and some special fabric pens on the trip, and each night we would decide together what places, experiences, and moments from the day we wanted to write on the quilt blocks. Each block was dated and contained messages from relatives and friends we visited. We now have a beautiful and permanent travelogue from that trip.
Postcards from the edge and beyond
Postcards are another excellent way to record the special moments from a trip, but we usually send them to other people. It's a great idea to encourage family members to collect and write postcards to friends and relatives to share their adventures, but why not write postcards to keep as souvenirs? You might want to send a daily postcard to the family pet who had to stay home for example. Then when you return you can relive your trip as you read the postcards. Be sure to keep them as a permanent record of your trip.
Even if you don't travel very often, you can still have fun with postcards. Cut card stock into postcards, and give each family member a supply of pens, pencils, crayons, markers, stickers, and so on. Encourage them to think of a place they would like to visit--either a real place or an imaginary one--and then create their own postcards from that place. You can also create postcards from favorite book or film characters. Wouldn't you like to receive a postcard from Tom and Huck as they float down the Mississippi?
When we begin to think about writing stories from our lives to pass on to other generations, it can be hard to know where to begin and we can be overwhelmed by the number of stories we have to share. On the other hand, we might think we have nothing of interest to share. Here are two activities to help you visualize and identify the most important stories of your life.
Life map. Visualize your life to date as if it were a roadmap. Begin with your birthplace, and then draw or jot down places and events that have been crucial in shaping your life. You can use photos or symbols if you like. Your life map can be as ornate or as plain as you choose. The goal is to capture images that represent stories that you might want to write about later. As you begin to picture places and events, you will be amazed by the number of sensory details that return to you. If you capture these details in your writing, your stories will come alive for your readers.
Storyboard. Take a large piece of posterboard, and divide it into four equal areas. Now think about the incidents, experiences, or stages that have been most important to your personal development. You might want to brainstorm a list of crucial moments and turning points in your life. Now--and this is the hard part--narrow down your list to the four most important events you have experienced. Think of images that represent these events, and put these images on your storyboard. You can draw pictures, cut images from magazines and newspapers, use photos--anything that will symbolize the events you have chosen as the most important to you. Drawing the images is particularly helpful because you will begin to recall details you thought you had forgotten. Use these details when you write your life stories.
Think about the traditional form of fairy tales. There is usually a hero or heroine who has a problem of some sort and goes on a quest or journey in order to solve the problem. Now try writing your own personal fairy tale beginning exactly like this:
"Once upon a time, there was a woman/man/girl/boy who . . ."
After you have completed the story, go back and replace "woman/man/girl/boy" with your own name. Does the fairy tale actually tell an important story from your own life (perhaps in symbolic terms), or does it reveal something about your values or philosophy of life? Once you have put yourself into the story, do you want to change the story in any way? Go ahead and do it.
If you have read Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, you might recall that the four March sisters have a tiny outdoor niche that they use as a "post office" with their neighbor Laurie. They leave notes, letters, newspapers, treats, and bouquets of flowers for each other in this "post office."
Try starting a family post office. Children might enjoy decorating a cardboard box to resemble a real mailbox, but you can use any sort of container. Make a habit of leaving notes, jokes, puzzles, special treats, invitations (real or silly), postcards from the edge, books to share, or anything else you want in the post office for family members to find. Request an answer to your note or an RSVP to your invitation. This will encourage family members to write to each other, and it's a lot of fun to check the post office for a daily delivery.
Most of us have boxes and boxes of photos we plan to organize and label one of these days. What better time than now? Ask family members to help fill in the important details on the back of each photo, and try to add a little of the story behind each photo. Take time to tell the stories of the photos that children have not seen before or events that took place before the children were born.
If you are lucky enough to have a family photo so old that no one remembers who the people are or what is happening in the photo, use this to inspire family members to make up their own versions of the history of the photo. The taller the tale, the better and more fun. Read these stories aloud.
How can we begin to think of ourselves as writers? An important stage in learning to do anything is to be able to envision ourselves performing successfully. But in the arena of writing, many people have had such dismal experiences that they cannot think of themselves as writers. This activity is designed to encourage family members to imagine themselves as writers.
Gather a supply of paper or card stock, crayons, markers, old magazines, glue, etc. Ask family members to imagine that they have traveled five or ten years into the future and they are preparing to publish their first book. Have them design the cover or dustjacket. (It's a good idea to have some nice examples on hand so that family members can see what kinds of information the bookjacket contains: graphics, title, author's name, a synopsis of the book, critics' comments, publishing information, biographical information about the author, etc.)
Remind these new authors to think in terms of the future. The sky is the limit when they write their author's notes, for example. These should reflect what they hope to acoomplish in the future. Encourage them to think about the kinds of books they like to read because these are the kinds of books they would be likely to write.
Keep the finished bookjackets as treasures for the future. In ten years, it will be fun to look back and see which life goals have been met and which have been abandoned.
This
site is part of a sabbatical project created by Linda Evans, English Department,
Mesa Community College, and funded by the Maricopa County Community College
District. Please send comments, suggestions, and ideas to Linda Evans,
English Department, Mesa Community College, 1833 W. Southern Ave., Mesa,
AZ, 85202 or email evans_l@mc.maricopa.edu.