Leaving a Trace: On Keeping a Journal (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "JOURNALS. THEY BECKON everywhere..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, Patricia Hampl, Gail Godwin (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Leather-bound five-year diaries were once popular gifts at children's birthday parties, sometimes providing the first taste of a lifelong pleasure. While an estimated 12 million journals are sold annually, Johnson, a teacher of creative nonfiction at Harvard and Wellesley, has found that people also record their lives on dinner napkins, menus, slips of paper and, increasingly, the computer. In her follow-up to The Hidden Writer, for which she won a PEN Award, she proffers advice for journal keepers who want to develop material for later books or who simply enjoy logging life's events. Commiserating on diaries abandoned as "joyless collections of grievances," she offers tips on how to "break the deadlock of introspective obsession." She advises perfectionists on how to silence their censorD"that dark, icy whisper of the confidence thief." Apt remarks by Virginia Woolf, Tobias Wolff, Annie Dillard and others add to her perceptive and often humorous insights on unearthing the interior life, improving observation skills and finding images that reveal significant motivations. The transformation of a factual log into a creative work requires investigating essential patterns: disclosing what has been left out of memory, charting periods of great intensity and connecting the dots between events and influences to develop a true narrative. Because a journal is usually a private affair that offers little opportunity for discussion, people seeking direction on keeping a successful one should welcome this thoughtful guidebook.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Highly personal (in fact, almost intimate), Johnson's long essay centers on the discipline of keeping a journal and the effect reading other journals has on a creative life. The essay is broken into chapters that provide some organizational structure; threaded throughout are exercises and activities to motivate, encourage, and inspire. Further, each chapter features stories and journal entries from well-known writers as well as everyday people. A gifted storyteller, Johnson provides examples on how the discipline of daily, reflective writing is crucial to nurturing creativity and skillfully weaves together the relationship between the creative process and the craft of writing. This tome is beautifully written, but as it focuses on transforming one's journal rather than getting published, its audience is rather limited. Johnson teaches memoir and creative nonfiction writing at Harvard and has published extensively in national newspapers and both scholarly and popular magazines. She won the PEN/Jerard Fund Award for The Hidden Writer: Diaries and the Creative Life. An optional purchase.ADenise S. Sticha, Seton Hill Coll., Greensburg, PA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown; 1st edition (January 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316120200
• ISBN-13: 978-0316120203
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #680,047 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

82 of 85 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Makes a great gift, December 21, 2000

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Most people starting a journal find after a relatively short period that the entries become a chore rather than a joy. LEAVING A TRACE provides individuals with tips as to how make the personal scroll more exciting, entertaining, and user friendly to the customer: the author of the tome.

Professor Alexandra Johnson provides practical advice including changing tone, length, schedule, and case, etc. to liven up the entries and keep the writer fresh. Thus, anyone thinking of starting a journal or already maintaining one will find this book quite useful. The book is well written and surprisingly interesting, but the reader need beware that it also tempts the audience into wanting to start a journal. My spouse had cardiac arrest when I suggested I do just that - not because of dark secrets, but because he insists my "journal" is already splashed all over the Net. This guidebook truly assists the person desiring a self-record and anyone buying a journal as a present for a loved one should include this as a companion piece.

Harriet Klausner

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Most Useful For Those Beyond The Basics, November 22, 2001

By	Ruth Edlund "dark goddess of replevin" (King County, Washington:) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

There are a lot of books out there on keeping journals, and all of them contain very similar, and sound, basic advice: use whatever format helps, just ignore the censorious voice, there are no rules, etc. This book covers those points adequately, to be sure.

Where this book excels, however, is in guiding the reader who is beyond the basics--the reader who has accumulated a pile of journals and is ready to take them as raw material and do something more with them, be it more journaling at a deeper level or extracting and preparing a work for publication. Professor Johnson presents a number of ideas along this line that I have not seen elsewhere.

This book lost a star in my view because, in addition to the lack of bibliography noted by other reviewers, the material about mining the journals is not presented in a well-organized fashion. For example: Johnson identifies ten categories of life patterns that one can perceive in journals past: longing; fear; mastery;(intentional) silences; key influences; hidden lessons; secret gifts; challenges; unfinished business; untapped potential. I found this to be a very helpful analysis, yet it is casually mentioned in the text in a way that is easy to miss and hard to locate again for reference.

This book must be mined for insights in just the same way that one mines a journal. It's not a fatal flaw, but I think I expected more in a published work. Nonetheless, it is worth the effort for long-time journal-keepers.

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good for all Journal Writers, July 12, 2001

By	Rundy "rundy" (NY United States) - See all my reviews

Do you keep a journal? Have you kept one in the past? Do you wish something would inspire you to keep a journal? Have you tried and failed, and wished there were some way you could try again and succeed? Or have you never kept a journal, never plan to, and wonder why other people do? If you answer yes to any of these questions, then you will find Leaving A Trace by Alexandra Johnson an informative and inspiring book to read.

I was, at first, suspicious of Johnson's book. There is plenty of tripe out there on the subject of journaling and Leaving A Trace sounded like some pap trash writing; the type that would list ten ways to complete happiness in journal writing in twenty-four easy steps. With eight years of journal writing behind me, journal writing is something I do, like, and have opinions about. I am ever on the lookout for intelligent writing with which I can interact. I was suspicious, but when I cracked the book open I found it was not what I thought, and I was intrigued enough to read on.

The most striking feature of Leaving A Trace is Johnson's ability to weave together the stories of both famous and unknown journal writers with her own observations and experiences. She writes with the clean and sure prose of someone who knows her subject well. The book is crafted in a relaxed and familiar manner that makes for easy and enjoyable reading. The book is not a voluminous tome of intimidation, but a concise handbook that does not neglect any aspects of journaling.

As an experienced journal writer I found myself enjoying Johnson's skill in describing why we write journals, and what journals mean, both to the writer and others at a later time. It wasn't that Johnson said anything I didn't already know, but she wrote in a way that clearly said my own thoughts, freeing them from that distant place in the back of my mind so they could be looked upon openly. Johnson's writing provoked me to examine and consider my own journal writing. Time and again I would come across a passage that would make me think "Yes, I agree with that. And the reason why is . . ." Many times I had to restrain myself from underlining passages and scribbling notes in the margins. When I finished the book the reasons why I keep a journal were refreshed in my mind, encouraging me to continue and perhaps even experiment with new and different methods.

I found Leaving A Trace helpful in my writing experience, but the book is good for people of all levels of experience. Beginners as well as advanced writers can see their own goals in Johnson's writing and be spurred on. Especially helpful are the passages where Johnson touches on the many different varieties of journals a person can keep, including non-traditional forms. People who think they could never write a journal might find that they are actually keeping one through means they never would have guessed. Other writers who are struggling with one type of journaling might discover a different type that works better for them. And for those beginning writers looking for something to get them started Johnson has exercises listed at the end of each chapter.

Leaving A Trace is a well written book on journaling, but there were two flaws with it. One was a minor defect--the lack of bibliography. While most casual readers will not notice the absence, those interested in reading the published journals that Johnson references will miss the convenient listing. The second problem is Johnson's focus on good journal writing. There are several places where Johnson makes allusions to the great journals of famous writers. With journaling as the focus of her career it is not surprising that Johnson would have opinions as to what good journaling is and to have a desire to see others excel in those ways. But it is unfortunate this comes out so strongly in a book aimed to encourage the beginning journaler. She gives much advice on how to conquer the inner Censor, only to turn around and talk about how the good journal writers move beyond weepy writing. How many people have not written a journal because they were sure it would be nothing but a list of complaints? There are journals that are better than others, but critiqueing should be saved for a book written to the veteran journaler who will not be easily discouraged. Aspirations of becoming like Virginia Wolfe will only extinguish many a beginner's flame.

Though there are some contradictory messages in Leaving A Trace, they do not outweigh the good done in this coherent perusal of journaling. For those with many years of journaling already under their belt it will remind them again why they are writing. For those who have tried and failed, or who wish to start a journal, Leaving A Trace will inspire them to begin the journey. And for those people who don't understand the desire to journal, Johnson does an excellent job of explaining the love for, need for, and worth of, that act.