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Journal Writing IdeasIncorporating Old Letters into Your Journal Writing Idea Arsenal | ||||
 The
other day I started a
project that I have been meaning to do for a very long time. I have several shoe boxes of old hand-written letters that I wrote and received nearly 24 years ago. I had just moved away from home. This was the early eighties so there wasn't any e-mail yet. The letters consist of those written to me and also the ones that I sent home. My parents kept those letters and later gave them back to me. I have undertaken the project of typing these old letters into my computer journaling program. | Quick Links! | |||
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SIDE NOTE: The great thing about using journaling software has been that it gives me the ability to categorize all of the letters and journal entries by the original date that the letter or entry was written. Yes I type very fast, but It will take me a very long time to type the 200 or more letters, but it will be worth it! Then I Added Journal-Like Commentary...One of the best ideas that I came up with was to make present-day comments about what I wrote in my letters back then. As
I type, I recall (relive) clearly the events that
surrounded me at the time of originally writing those letters.
Thoughts come to mind that I hadn't included in the original
letter.I type my added comments throughout the letter, but in a different font and/or font color. The screen shot to the left is a sample of what I've been doing, however there are no additional comments in this particular entry. Click the screen shot to enlarge! Another example was how I tried to sound brave and not let on that I really missed home. Truth was that I was so homesick that I couldn't hardly stand it! So I type my old letters pretty much word for word in a regular font. Then as needed, I add my present-day comments. I've had a lot of fun with this. I look at it kind of like a VH1 pop up version of my journal! It's Been a Blast From The PastI also have several old hand-written journals that I plan to type up. These are journals that I kept as a teenager. Additionally I have some that I keptmuch later while I was traveling to places such as Turkey and Egypt. I wanted to do this for the following reason:
Additionally, saved e-mails and instant messages could be used as journal entries that could use the benefit of additional commentary. So, if you have any old letters sitting around in old boxes somewhere, it's time to get them out and start doing something with them! You'll be happy you did! Have A Great Story or Comment About This Topic?We'd all love to hear what you have to say. Share it! | ||||
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