Life writing. I came across this new-to-me term recently, and I instantly realized that so much of what we do and talk about inside Joybook falls under this heading.
But there are journaling-adjacent writing forms and practices that we haven’t explored much as a community…
So this month, I’m inviting us to broaden our lens a bit and look at some of those together.
But wait. What is life writing?
It’s essentially the many different ways we document our lives, tell our stories, and give voice to our experiences as human beings.
It encompasses…
- Journals, diaries
- Bullet journals, planners, personal logs
- Memoirs, autobiographies, biographies, bio-fiction
- Letters, blogs, social media posts
- Obituaries, scandal sheets, gossip columns
- Scrapbooks, commonplace books
- And more!
Much of what humans write and record is, in fact, life writing.
As we Joybookers have experienced with our journaling, the practice of putting things in writing can offer us such gifts — of clarity, insight, perspective, and a deeper connection with ourselves and our lives.
That’s true of many forms of life writing.
And when we widen the lens a bit to experiment with new types of writing — or to consume life writing by others — we just may experience more gifts…
We can connect with other people across times and places — and even our own past and future selves as we look back at our own writing or tell our stories in new ways.
We can learn vicariously from others. Or learn more about ourselves by looking through new lenses.
And we can discover new ways to give voice to our inner and outer lives — even if we eventually bring those methods back to the familiar pages of our journals. 🙂
I look forward to playing, experimenting, and exploring together this month as we dive in with this topic.