Found an interesting intersection between journaling and storytelling at a site called New Life Stories.
The gist of the process is to use journaling to work through loss, fear, and uncertainty. Writes the site's author (presumably Ellen Moore, PhD, whose name appears at the bottom of the page): "In a very real sense, we are the stories we tell ourselves. The stories we create will impact the way we experience the world. As we continue to outgrow our old lives, often through loss and tragedy, we need larger, deeper, more compassionate stories to deal with new and unfamiliar contexts. This is just such a time in history.
Moore shares my feeling that 9-11 heightened our need to tell our stories: "Our new life stories may be darker since the world changed forever on September 11, 2001. By including awareness of the more tragic aspects of life, however, our stories may be richer, fuller, more profound."
Moore offers a journaling newsletter and other resources, including a solid FAQ list about how to journal.
Hi, Katherine:
I saw your blog info on the TUI learner’s site and, because I’m starting an urban ecology blog in January 2006, thought I would pen a quick reply to this comment on people reading newspapers.
I have long been a fan of reading newspapers, and as a published poet and educator over the years have used feature stories to teach students how to write a poem. The gist: I tell them to pick a human interest story, read it aloud, then we go through lines that sound poetic and write them on paper. This technique is a kind of “found” poetry, similar to art objects foraged on my walks and made into collages.
The results are spectacular, as the students begin to see how stories in poem form, are lifted from the words of an ordinary newspaper article.
I wish I could say it was my idea, but alas, I garnered it from an old literature professor in my post-bachelor’s writing course.
Ventra Asana