This time last Saturday I was getting ready to take a Journal and Life Writing Workshop here at our local library in Whangaparaoa.
The room could accommodate up to 20 people and the Workshop was booked out. There was such interest from our local community in telling life story through journal writing that I have the potential to fill two more workshops with those who missed out on last Saturday's programme. If you're interested in attending a workshop, please contact me and I'll keep in touch about upcoming dates.
This tells us something very important. People are keen to record their lives, either through daily journal keeping, life writing, or both. The advent of blogging has seen millions of people writing about every day life in full public view, but the process of journal writing and life writing can be intensely personal, private, and is often done just for the writer, or for sharing with immediate family and future generations. Of course the simplest journal entry can also become a full length, published book or memoir too, and we talked about this process in the Workshop.
Journal writing can be 'good therapy', helping us through times of challenge and difficulty. It can help us sort out problems, make sense of our world, and help us express feelings, thoughts and emotions. It is also a wonderful source of material for life writing and many of the class participants found some inspiration from the day to start on memoir or story telling.
I enjoyed the day so much. We had such a good time together, some amazing writing came out and I thank all of those who shared their stories and thoughts so generously. It was a jolly good day.
I'd like to thank the team at Whangaparaoa Library for their support and of course the Auckland Council Creative Communities scheme for their funding.