Reflections on Joan Didion's “On Keeping a Notebook” by Haley Fischer When I was younger I did not have a journal. I was an only child, so I did not feel the need to hide my personal belongings. As I grew older I was diagnosed with a severe form of anxiety. I did not know how to cope with my feelings. When I was told to visit a therapist, I had mixed emotions on attending the sessions, because I did not like the idea of opening up to a stranger. My therapist thought writing down my daily emotions in a journal would help me to learn how to process my thoughts. Joan also stated in her piece of work that she felt expressing her feelings through a journal is healthy. As time went on, and I became older I started to learn more about myself. Keeping a journal has helped me tremendously in my daily life. It has taught me what triggers my anxiety, allowed me to figure how to prevent it, but also gave me a time that I can call "me time”. + Having read Joan Didion’s “On Keeping a Notebook,” I am going to discuss the importance of …show more content…
Joan Didion stated in her essay “On Keeping a Notebook” her purpose for a notebook “has never been, nor is it now, to have an accurate factual record of what I have been doing or thinking.” She started to question her thinking “Why did I write it down?" She voiced that she clearly wanted to remember what she had written down, but what and how much exactly was that? Didion said, “Why do I keep a notebook at all?” Joan’s family members pointed out to her that her notebook contained lies, saying “Thats simply not true”. She knew her family was right, but she has trouble distinguishing between what she thought happened, and what solely happened. “The cracked crab I recall having for lunch the day my father came home from Detroit in 1945 must certainly be embroidery, worked into the day’s pattern to lend verisimilitude; I was ten years older would not now remember the cracked
I keep my journal hidden; the script, the drawings, the color, the weight of the paper, contents I hope never to be experienced by another. My journal is intensely personal, temporal and exposed. When opening the leather bound formality of Alice Williamson's journal a framework of meaning is presupposed by the reader's own feelings concerning the medium. Reading someone else's diary can be, and is for myself, an voyeuristic invasion of space. The act of reading makes the private and personal into public. Yet, for Alice Williamson and many other female journalists of the Civil War period, the journal was creating a public memory of the hardship that would be sustained when read by others. The knowledge of the outside reader reading of your life was as important as the exercise of recording for one's self; creating a sense of sentimentality connecting people through emotions. (Arnold)
We could all take advice from this teacher. I don't think that the professor's words are to be taken very literally, as I know some of the other close readings will discuss. I think that the reason this assignment was given was to allow the students, or Hughes himself, to recognize some of the things about himself that he had never known or faced before. Sometimes when we write for someone else or for a specific class, we focus solely on what we are writing about and we tend to block off any part of ourselves that would escape onto the pages. In contrast, when we write in a journal, or freewrite, we tend to let all of our emotions out, and it is a way for some of us to deal with issues that are facing us, on a day to day basis. This is a way to get to know yourself better, and a way to deal with anger and unsettled emotions.
Thus, from stress people tend to get anxiety, depression, and feel unhappy with whatever situation is causing them to be despondent. Due to this Cangialosi, in “Healing Through the Written Word”, provides a solution to aid any patients in distress. By writing down your thoughts, beliefs, and emotions; potential clients and other psychiatrists reading her article get a clear understanding of what her article is about. Cangialosi targeted potential clients in by making her informative article more of a brochure in order to promote her point of view that states writing can be a tool for healing as well. She intends to persuade this audience by insinuating facts and how this could treat them at a low cost. In Cangialosi article she states “Writing is not only a salve but often a tool that opens our minds and hearts to things that are deep inside us” (Cangialosi 425). Through this process, people recognize what it is they are experiencing regarding what happened throughout their day and how it is a similar to what we do when someone goes to a friend and vents about whatever might be causing stress. As human beings, we are very emotional people, bottling things up inside is proven to be detrimental to our health. So, by writing down our feelings, and communicating our problems we can improve our lives, be happier and healthier people. In “Healing Through the Written Word” Cangialosi utilizes methods of
Words are puzzle pieces, if you can fit them together correctly, just imagine the endless amount of possibilities. People have so much to say, yet they don’t put the puzzle pieces together, and we never get to read their master pieces. People encompass the ability to create the most beautiful and inspiring stories. We can’t let the writing be unwritten. Elie Wiesel’s, “Why I Write: Making No Become Yes” and Joan Didion’s, “Why I Write” showers readers two styles of writers who puzzle words together for a living. Why Britt and Didion write could be for many reasons. Their purpose could be to make sense of life’s big and little experiences, to express their emotions, to tell a tale of a journey, or to express themselves. Who really knows? I guarantee both writers themselves don’t have a yes or no answer for that question. Writing exists to fulfill all the reason above. Today the goal will be to decipher the thought processes’ and stylistic choices’ of Britt and Didion because these writers inspire me to write. (This isn’t something I say often) Both have a unique approach to putting together a puzzle.
As stated by Anaïs Nin, “We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.” Writing is a beautiful way to express how we feel, to make experiences memorable and to also be whoever we want to be. Writing is not easy for me. I always feel anxious before I begin to write, and this is because I’m always telling myself that “I don’t like to write.” In order to get rid of the nervousness, I start reading about whatever I have to write about so I can enrich my mind about that particular topic. Most of the times this does not work out, therefore I go to sleep and recharge my brain. As soon as I get back up I’m ready to write. My room is an ideal environment for me to write. Nobody’s there to distract me, so I put my headphones on because
I began journaling on Wednesday, November 26th. The first week or so of my journaling was characterized by spiritual exploration and even little leaps of faith, while I was trying to keep focused on my academics in spite of an indistinguishable illness that, even today, has my doctors confounded. My first experience sets the mood for my thoughts about the importance of how to shine in many different settings, and challenges me to this day. For the sake of authenticity, I didn't correct my English errors in my journaling, and I think it makes it a little more real. I write exactly how I would talk.
Joan Didion in her essay, “On Keeping a Notebook”, stresses that keeping a notebook is not like keeping a journal. Didion supports her claim by describing entries that are in her notebook. The author’s purpose is to enlighten the reader as to what a notebook is. The author writes in a nostalgic tone for those who are reading the essay, so that they can relate to her. She uses rhetorical appeals; such as flashback, pathos, and imagery to name a few. By using these devices she helps capture the reader’s attention.
I was taught that there is only one way of good writing. But as years pass by, I soon realized that there is more than one way to create an excellent piece of writing. I recognized that all famous authors have their own style of writing. Orwell, in my opinion, is an author who writes abstractly, whereas Didion is an author who writes tangibly. In his book Spanish Civil War, he states that he likes to keep his writings political and rigorous; “But among other things it contains a long chapter, full of newspaper quotations and the like, defending the Trotskyists who were accused of plotting with Franco” (4). Orwell mentions that he subsumed a whole chapter of newspaper quotations into his writing, which later on lead to a lot of bad criticism and caused him to regret his choice. From the example Orwell presented, his style of writing is illustrated as political and adamant. On the other hand, Didion’s writing is tangible. She likes to consolidate things she sees in the real world in her writings, in other words, combining reality into fiction. Didion describes herself using pictures in her mind to write, which the reader can see in many of her writings, “About the picture: the first was of white space. Empty space…This second picture was of something actually witnessed”. Didion once wrote a story about a lady in an airport, which is something that anyone could write about. But Didion made it remarkable by using
The author states, that by journaling an individual can begin to express the activities of the heart and start the process of becoming informed by what is known as the imaginal method in psychology circles. This method is a form of emotional exploration of interactions, relationships, and ideas. The ultimate goal of the imaginal method is to become aware of those inner suppressed emotions that affect relationships and perception. Utilizing this process, an individual would then reflect on ideas and thoughts that have been captured during the free-write period of journaling. Quite often what is revealed can be quite surprising and transforming at the same
I, for one, am currently going through one. Buying a notebook is easy, but making the effort to write in one everyday is not. Didion also expressed that she had has struggled writing in her notebook. She states “At no point have I ever been able successfully to keep a diary; my approach to daily life ranges from the grossly negligent to the merely absent, and on these few occasions when I have tried dutifully to record a day’s events, boredom has so overcome me that the results are mysterious at best”(76). I see that I am not the only one that has reached this problem numerous times. My first time owning a notebook was when I was in middle school. I wrote it in at least once a day. I tried very hard to, but then I lost the notebook for a while. I eventually found the notebook and threw it out because I did not like what I had written. I wanted to not remember the middle school me and forget about her and my mindset because life was troublesome for me at that time. Moving along to the end of senior year in high school and I decide to buy a new notebook. I was excited about it, writing in it, detailing my life. After the first two weeks, the thirteen year old me visited me and I lost all types of interest to write in my notebook. I went from writing in it everyday to writing it in once every three weeks. It was quite dreadful. That was when I accepted the fact that I cannot run from who I
I have chosen expressive writing therapy as my area of interest. Throughout my teenage years, I enjoyed writing in my journal, but I wanted to know the difference between journal writing and expressive writing. For thousands of years, writing has been a practice of communication throughout the world. Many people have been journaling their thoughts and opinions to sort through their daily life situation. Unlike traditional journal writing, where most people record daily events and happenings from an exterior standpoint; on the other hand, expressive writing focuses on the writer’s internal reactions, perceptions and experiences which assist the individual to overcome many obstacles. Writing therapy suggests that writing one's feelings will slowly but surely ease feelings of emotional trauma and this healing technique is offered by a licensed therapist. There are several types of integrating counseling practice. Over thousands of years, Greece and Rome have integrated a variety of creative arts into their healing practices. Degges-White and Davis (2011) explained the different characters of art therapy such as visual art, music, dance/movement, dramatic play, and expressive writing is the primary expressive arts modalities used in counseling (p. 2). After my research, I have discovered that expressive writing therapy is a therapeutic tool which allows the client to participate in writing exercises to address emotional issues. Each client works under the direction of a therapist or counselor, or can write independently. In most cases, the therapist will provide therapeutic writing activities for the client. The client writes down their thoughts, emotions, narratives, and other experiences. Each client writing is confidential and i...
If you tend to "hold things inside," you may want to try journaling as a way to express yourself, your thoughts, and your feelings. It can provide a creative release of your interior life that can lead to great...
Writing has always been one of the things that I’m passionate about. Whenever I have something on my mind, I would jot it down or type it in my notes. No matter how small or pathetic it seems, I would always write it down, because you never know when you’re going to go back to it and create something grand, out of inspiration. People would think that a person like me would write down poems or novel ideas. That’s completely true, but I also write down recipes, grocery lists, hate lists and literally anything that comes to my mind. I’m the type of person that does not like to miss anything, forget anything and likes to include everything. People would say I’m a perfectionist or a control freak and as much as I would hate to admit that, it is true. While these traits of mine might hinder my writing process, during this school year I learned how to embrace them.
I don’t consider myself a very good writer. I write when I am made to or when I have something that I need to say that I can’t just tell someone. I keep a diary. Usually my diary is just a record of what I have done that day. It’s not so much about my feelings. I don’t really like talking about my feelings, usually because most of the time I am confused about what exactly I am feeling. I tend to keep the feelings that I do have to myself, to protect myself from getting hurt.
You can also use your journal to write down your goals, the brilliant ideas you have for projects, to-do lists, done lists, plans for the future, poems, stories and study notes. You can also keep collections such as leaves or flowers (see the bottom of this post for links to make a leaf or flower collection). A journal can be so much more than writing down your thoughts. It is multi functional. Who does not love