From Here To There
09/18/2018
Making an Essay Out of a Journal Entry...
When I sit down to write a book, I do not say to myself, ‘I am going to produce a work of art.’ I write it because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing.
—George Orwell
Somebody once told me that you can't make chicken salad out of chicken manure. I agree, but not wholeheartedly, for many times I find myself crafting essays out of even my most pitiful journal entries--probably because my journal is like a messy bedroom: I know what's in there, but sometimes it is hard-to-find what I need when I need it. My thoughts are scattered like dirty socks. My best ideas are somewhere under the bed, and that nifty scene about courage in the face of adversity is probably in the wash already.
But no worries, for like my bedroom--my journal is mine. Somehow I will find my best ideas, my way-cool phrasings--and even whole paragraphs that I can wear to school and call my essay.
An essay is like going a wedding. It’s just a thing that is more formal than going to MacDonalds. You care more about how you look. You make more of an effort to be friendly and interested; you make more of an effort to be polite, engaging and charming because you certainly don’t want to do something stupid that all the guests will chatter about for weeks, months and years later.
I had you write about your class trip as a journal entry because I hoped that out of the swirl of words in your journal you might be able to sift out some good ideas, examples, scenes and themes that just might work on your essay about your class trip. The trick is in finding them.
Here is what I do:
- I quickly scan through my journal entry and highlight what “feels” like powerful themes--themes that other people can relate to in a natural and connected way.
- Then I search for scenes--images and actions--that I can connected to my themes.
- Then I look for my best thoughts--thoughts that are connected to my best scenes and my most powerful themes.
Slowly, but sometimes suddenly, a pattern emerges and I am like, “Oh, yeah, this will work--and over the course of several hours [yes, several hours] and essay is born--a batch of words fit for a wedding feast, a way for you to be remembered, and a gift to the bride and groom of humanity.
And to think it all started in a lousy journal entry...