Note To Self: On Keeping a Journal and Other Dangerous Pursuits - Hardcover

O'Shea, Samara

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0061494151 ISBN 13: 9780061494154

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2008

Synopsis

A charming anecdotal guide to the joys of journal-writing, with exercises and tips to enhance the journaling experience.

Much like she did with correspondence in her first book, For the Love of Letters, in Note to Self Samara O'Shea shows why journal-writing is fun and effective. In a hip and accessible voice, O'Shea shows how the journal is a great tool to help readers learn and grow, uncover their motivations, and come face to face with their own realities.

Each chapter includes one of O'Shea's journal entries from throughout her life, which are alternately moving, edgy, and hilarious; suggestions on writing techniques (including blogging); exercises and tips on how to enrich the journal-writing experience, and the journal entry of a notorious diarist, including some from Tennessee Williams, Anaïs Nin, and model Gia Carangi, whose life was the inspiration for the HBO movie Gia starring Angelina Jolie.

About this title

About the Author

Samara O'Shea is the author of For the Love of Letters: A 21st-Century Guide to the Art of Letter Writing as well as a blogger for The Huffington Post.

From the Back Cover

Keeping a journal is easy. Keeping a life-altering, soul-enlightening journal, however, is not. At its best, journaling can be among the most transformative of experiences, but you can only get there by learning how to express yourself fully and openly. Enter Samara O'Shea.

O'Shea charmed readers with her elegant and witty For the Love of Letters. Now, in Note to Self, she's back to guide us through the fun, effective, and revelatory process of journaling. Along the way, selections from O'Shea's own journals demonstrate what a journal should be: a tool to access inner strengths, uncover unknown passions, face uncertain realities, and get to the center of self. To help create an effective journal, O'Shea provides multiple suggestions and exercises, including:

• Write in a stream of consciousness: Forget everything you ever learned about writing and just write. Let it all out: the good, bad, mad, angry, boring, and ugly.
• Ask yourself questions: What do I want to change about myself? What would I never change about myself?
• Copy quotes: Other people's words can help you figure out where you are in life, or where you'd like to be.
• It takes time: Don't lose faith if you don't imme-diately feel better after writing in your journal. Think of each entry as part of a collection that will eventually reveal its meaning to you.

O'Shea's own journal entries reveal alternately moving, edgy, and hilarious stories from throughout her life, as she hits the party scene in New York, poses naked as an aspiring model, stands by as her boyfriend discovers an infidelity by (you guessed it) reading her journal, and more. There are also fascinating journal entries of notorious diarists, such as John Wilkes Booth, Anaïs Nin, and Sylvia Plath.

A tribute to the healing and reflective power of the written word, Note to Self demonstrates that sometimes being completely honest with yourself is the most dangerous and rewarding pursuit of all.

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0061494151
• ISBN 13: 9780061494154
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192