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Publication
Back Bay Books (2002), Paperback, 272 pages
Genres
Description
An inspirational, practical and literate guide to starting and keeping a journal - and transforming it into something permanent like a memoir or a novel. Leaving A Trace is a practical guide to keeping a journal successfully and transforming it into future projects. Each chapter features both narrative and tailored exercises for beginning and committed diarists. Beginners will turn first to quick ways to overcome inhibitions, get started and stay on course. Seasoned chroniclers will start diaries with a new slant: they will learn how to trigger inspiration with creative brainstorming exercises; how to note patterns in diaries they already have and how to shape their material.
User reviews
LibraryThing member patl
I suppose I started reading this expecting that I would learn better how to tell stories in my own journal, which for the past few years I've kept more frequently than ever before. That is not this book's goal. Instead, think of it as a writer's resource: How can you plumb the depths of your own
I will say that this is one of the most unique books-about-writing that I've read. It's also the one that has unblocked my own journaling, helping me to see beyond the factual record and whining about the things I desire but am not near, helping me to see the self that's under those themes and living more than those limitations might suggest.
The other curiosity here reminds me of a short story. Friends of mine are in a local indie band. One of their housemates has a habit of going to second hand stores and looking at the tape recorders and answering machines, and stealing the tapes from them. Those tapes he then either publishes to a blog, or snippets find their way into recorded music as 'found audio'. This book and that odd story have me curious to discover old journals at garage sales. And it has me asking around my family to see where my grandparents' journals have gone to after their deaths. I think they only recorded weather details, but what if there's more? What if my grandma secretly wrote about the challenge of keeping a marriage together through my grandpa's alcoholism and my dad and uncle's teenage rebellions? Or did either of them write about those horrible years when my dad - their youngest son - was diagnosed with the cancer that killed him before he turned fifty? Dad journaled some of that time. Did anybody else?
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(or others') journals for writing fragments, sources, memories, senses? And how can those things find their way into your writing, whether as memoir, poetry, short stories, creative nonfiction? Where are there connections and themes in your life? How can you discover yourself in a way that can best be written about?I will say that this is one of the most unique books-about-writing that I've read. It's also the one that has unblocked my own journaling, helping me to see beyond the factual record and whining about the things I desire but am not near, helping me to see the self that's under those themes and living more than those limitations might suggest.
The other curiosity here reminds me of a short story. Friends of mine are in a local indie band. One of their housemates has a habit of going to second hand stores and looking at the tape recorders and answering machines, and stealing the tapes from them. Those tapes he then either publishes to a blog, or snippets find their way into recorded music as 'found audio'. This book and that odd story have me curious to discover old journals at garage sales. And it has me asking around my family to see where my grandparents' journals have gone to after their deaths. I think they only recorded weather details, but what if there's more? What if my grandma secretly wrote about the challenge of keeping a marriage together through my grandpa's alcoholism and my dad and uncle's teenage rebellions? Or did either of them write about those horrible years when my dad - their youngest son - was diagnosed with the cancer that killed him before he turned fifty? Dad journaled some of that time. Did anybody else?
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Physical description
272 p.; 5 inches