Post #48
Memoir Writing, Journaling
by Amber Lea Starfire
–
This is the first in a series of articles about how to use your journal for memoir writing.
–
In October of last year, I wrote in Making Meaning Through Journal Writing: Stories of Our Memories about how and why, at the beginning of each month, I read my journal entries for the same month of the previous year. There are many reasons to re-read old journal entries: for self-growth, such as recalling where you were and what you were doing a year ago, discovering progress made toward your dreams, and finding patterns in your life; and for memoir writing purposes, such as research into past events for scene details, characters, and emotions.
Another writing-related purpose for reviewing journal entries is to look for metaphors you incorporated into your writing. Metaphors are, essentially, the use of concrete, tangible objects and their characteristics to describe intangible, abstract ideas. Another way of explaining metaphor is the use of images to represent concepts. For example, when we say that “time is money,” we are using the image of the tangible, concrete object of money to help us understand the abstract concept of time. When we apply the characteristics of money to time, we understand that time is something we can spend, waste, save, trade for something else, and so on. [click to continue…]
{ 0 comments }
