Phyllis Theroux - The Journal Keeper: Journal Keeping Seminar

Wednesday, March 10, 5 p.m.
followed by an author talk and booksigning

The session should take about an hour, which includes two brief periods of writing.  People should have a notebook of some kind that is easy to balance on their laps when they write.

I will begin by addressing the difference between a diary and a journal.  One records, the other reflects.  Traditionally, writers tend towards the latter.  I'll have some printed samples of journal entries to show people how different writers or thinkers have expressed themselves on the page.  Then, a question: how many in the room have ever tried to keep a journal?  (Usually, that's just about everybody, and the majority wind up defeated by the form.  In my experience this is because they view journals as places to complain.  After a while, it becomes too depressing.)

The next segment of the session will involve some writing.  I will pass out a photograph which I will ask everyone to spend a full two minutes meditating upon.  Then I will ask them to open up their notebooks and reflect upon what they saw.  There are no guidelines or rules, other than to write in a way that the reader knows what you are thinking or feeling as well as seeing.  Those who want to share their jottings can do so after the time for writing is up.

Then I will ask a question:  "How do you feed yourself?"  (emotionally, spiritually).  This nearly always widens the aperture, allowing people to think specifically about what it is they do for themselves that gives them a greater sense of well-being.  Everyone is different, One man's walk along the beach is another man's Bach B Minor Mass, but if the setting permits, I will offer something that nourishes me - a few minutes of sacred Russian choral music.  After we have listened to it together, I will ask them to write down any thoughts or ideas that the music forced to the surface.  Again, we will share what we've written.

Finally, I'll share with them the quiet astonishment I felt when, upon editing six years of my journals, I detected a profound intelligence and order about my life that surpassed my own ability to provide.  I have always believed that my life was not solely my own hands, but I'd never thought to look to my journals for proof of it.  But there it was - and I believe, there it is, for anyone who keeps a journal.