The Journal Keeper and Phyllis Theroux

This morning I went to a reading and workshop given by Phyllis Theroux, focusing on her book, "The Journal Keeper" a memoir of six years of her life.

I enjoyed her selections from the book and the discussion that followed. After the workshop, I purchased her book and she inscribed it to me. I'm now looking forward to reading it.

Funny, I never thought of myself as particularly interested in memoir--until I learned a memoir does not have to be a complete timeline of life. I took memoir workshops at a Mercy Center writing retreat and at New Canaan Library (which led to a publication of our selections.)

Phyllis discussed a keeping a journal that you want to keep--reflecting on your feelings, being careful not to include raw emotions that could hurt a reader. I asked her opinion of morning pages, as developed by Julia Cameron. In my 15 second description, I might not have given morning pages their due. I said roughly--they were the mundane from which deep thoughts could arise. (Damn, roughly--I don't remember exactly what I said. I'm sure I said mundane, but doubt I said deep thoughts--where did my exact words go?)

Anyway, Phyllis completely disagrees with the idea of morning pages. I've been writing morning pages for over 12 years. While I haven't had an epiphany when writing them or had them lead me to the writing life I desire, I find that writing morning pages is a grounding exercise for me. I feel better for writing them.

It can be easy to say well, I wrote morning pages, so at least I did some writing, and let it go--forget about other writing. But Julia says morning pages are a tool--they aren't necessarily real writing--they help you get rid of distractions so you can concentrate on your art.

On the other hand, if you approach your writing with the idea that you have to reflect on your actions and emotions, and have something to say, as Phyllis suggests, you might never feel secure enough that you have something good enough, to actually commit your thoughts to paper.

As usual, I don't have clear answers. To me, asking and pondering the questions is what is important.