Making Meaning

A Week’s Worth of Journaling Prompts: Reflections for the Future

September 19, 2011

I have just been reading Writer Magazine’s June 2011 interview of Gail Godwin, regarding her recently released The Making of a Writer, Volume 2: Journals, 1963-1969. Godwin’s purpose in publishing her edited journal entries is to inspire other writers by sharing her journey and growth as a writer, as well as how she mines her [...]

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A Week’s Worth of Journaling Prompts: Using Your Journal for Memoir

September 12, 2011

Journal writing is good for so many things: emotional catharsis, sorting out problems, recording life events, self-reflection, and personal growth. It is also a writer’s tool, in which we write about our characters, explore possibilities, and practice writing dialog. Often, though, we don’t make use of previous entries. We mull over things in writing, and [...]

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Making Meaning Through Journal Writing: Our Shared Humanity

March 16, 2011

THIS week’s journaling prompts help us explore our responses to painful world events, as well as how we could, can, and do help others. The prompts are designed to help us understand, on a deeper level, what triggers our sense of empathy for other human beings. I’d like to continue this theme and talk about [...]

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Making Ourselves Understood

December 7, 2010

Did you know that journal writing, in addition to helping you make meaning of life’s events, can help improve your communication with others? Whether we’re writing or speaking, our goal is to communicate our thoughts and feelings. When journal writing, you have the freedom to bring up vague ideas and give them definition and form, to surface buried feelings and examine and nurture them into a shape that makes sense.

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Making Meaning Through Journal Writing: Stories of Our Memories

October 12, 2010

THIS YEAR I began the habit, at the beginning of each month, of reading my journal entries for the same month of the previous year. It’s so interesting to recall where I was a year ago at this time, to read about my hopes and dreams and fears. I always want to know: Have I made any progress? What was I working on? What was going on for me emotionally? Are there any patterns related to time of year?

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Why Write? Making Meaning of the Meaningless

September 28, 2010

SOMETIMES life just doesn’t seem to make sense. Bad things happen to good people and good things happen to people who don’t seem to deserve them. Creative acts, such as journal writing and art, can help us uncover the personal value of every experience.

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Making Meaning Through Journal Writing: Rewriting Our Stories

September 7, 2010

MOST PEOPLE carry some form of story around with then. When someone asks who we are, we recite what we do for a living, the roles we play (mother, daughter, husband, father, son, caregiver). And when we tell the stories of our lives, we repeat the things we’ve decided are our truths. Perhaps we were [...]

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