What is the difference between journal writing and diary writing or memoir writing?

Diaries are generally written for oneself and autobiography is written for others, but there is an even more essential difference between diary and memoir writing. The diarist writes within an ever moving present point in time. Autobiographic writing is about an earlier period of time from the perspective of a relatively fixed later point. Unlike diary writing which is unstructured, the autobiography seeks to find coherence in the past, to make of it a narrative with meaning.

You can learn much about journal writing that will help you to get the most benefit from the activity. The first thing to realize about journal writing, though, is: You cannot do it wrong. Anything goes. It's a place for spontaneity, experimentation, creative and emotional risks. The diary is the safe place where you develop your voice as a writer. It can be a sourcebook for other creative work, an emotional catharsis, an ongoing letter to oneself or to the world. Generally, diaries are difficult to publish unless you are famous or notorious and dead. Nevertheless, you can learn how to edit a diary so that it will be readable if you want to try to publish it.

Autobiographic writing requires more knowledge of craft than diary writing does. The new autobiographic writing employs the literary devices of the novel: structure, point of view, voice, character and story. Also, there are many forms of autobiographic writing from which to choose, many "genres of the self," among them the personal essay, the thematic memoir, the autobiographic novel, the autobiographic short story -- and many more which you will find listed with examples on our 'Resources" page. Once you have settled on the genre or genres of the self you wish to work in, you can learn the techniques appropriate to it.

Many people know they have a story within their life worth telling, but they think they don't have the self-discipline to write it. They get lost and frustrated in the process. The problem is not a lack of discipline, however; it's a lack of knowledge of craft. Fortunately, the craft of autobiographic writing can be learned, and we are here to help. With the correct tools you will be able to write about your life so that others will be riveted, enthralled, moved, even changed.

What Tristine Rainer terms "New Autobiography" is an activity available to anyone who can read and write. At the same time, it is currently the hottest event in publishing. In a feature article titled "The Age of the Literary Memoir is Now" in The New York Times Magazine, May 12, 1996 James Atlas wrote: "It began, like any revolution, almost imperceptibly. Could it have been the tremendous success of Darkness Visible, William Styron's memoir of his bout with suicidal depression, that opened the floodgates? Or was it Girl, Interrupted, Susanna Kaysen's best-selling memoir of life in a mental institution? Or maybe it wasn't until Mary Karr burst on the scene last year with The Liar's Club that the full force of this new trend started to make itself felt. But it the moment of inception is hard to locate, the triumph of memoir is now established fact."

What is the difference between diary and memoir groups?

In diary groups a leader suggests either an exercise or a diary device or a topic for everyone in the group to write, and after a period of silent writing, those who wish to may read aloud all or part of what they have written.. (Any member of the group may pass and remain silent, so that each person's sense of privacy and safety is preserved.)

In The New Diary you will find at least a year's worth of techniques and devices to try in your group. For those who have already worked their way through this comprehensive guide, we also recommend Christina Baldwin's Life's Companion, Journal Writing as a Spiritual Quest.

In Kathleen Adams' Journal to the Self, this book is more for the individual who is beginning to start journal wriing, although, I highly recommend Christina Baldwin's books. Adams' book and workbook, Journal to the Self will not overwhelm you.

In memoir groups each person brings in a piece of experiential writing worked on during the previous week or weeks. He or she then receives feedback from the other group members. (Virginia Woolf belonged to such a group in Bloomsbury. They called it their Memoir Club.) There are detailed instructions on how to conduct a memoir group within Your Life as Story. It is recommended that if you are just beginning such a group that you each obtain a copy of the book and together follow the guidelines within it chapter by chapter, discussing the chapters together and sharing the exercises, outlines and works that you write with each other. Please let us know here how you are progressing and if you encounter a question that you cannot solve collectively, don't hesitate to ask for help here.