'Shh! Keep It to Yourself!' Meg Cabot Says about Journal Writing
This article originally appeared in SLJ’s Extra Helping. Sign up now!
Joan Oleck -- School Library Journal, 3/12/2008 2:10:00 PM
Author Meg Cabot not only keeps a journal herself; she features the practice in her teen fiction—a lot. Could there be any doubt considering the title of her popular series (and movie) "The Princess Diaries" (HarperCollins)? Now the author is taking her love of journal writing to the streets, so to speak, working with 140 libraries nationwide and the Young Adult Library Services Association on Journal Writing Workshops, being held through June. Cabot, at home in Key West, FL, spoke of how she threw her little brothers off the trail of her own journals—and more.
How has journal writing been valuable to you personally?
When I was about nine, my grandmother gave me my first diary—one of those little Holly Hobby ones with the little lock. Yeah! I've been keeping a diary since then, and I've never stopped. I was terrified my mom would read it! I actually have a couple of milk crates with all my diaries. What's great about [journal writing] is that as I started writing books for kids and teenagers, going back and reading the stuff I wrote when I was that age has been invaluable to me, because the voice of kids that age is right there! I look back at what I was preoccupied with when I was that age, and it's exactly that voice.
Have you ever regretted anything you've written?
Oh, God, yeah! It's so embarrassing! There's a lot of stuff I've destroyed; the stuff I wrote as a teenager was horrible. But that's part of what I talk about in the workshops. That's what a diary is. If you're writing about stuff you're feeling right at that moment, and you're venting your emotions, it's OK. You're saying it in your diary and it's safe and you're not saying it to the person's face. I mean, the stuff about ex-boyfriends!
Developing young writers is one workshop goal; but teaching online safety seems to be an even larger aim.
There have been so many problems—with a lot of girls, especially, blogging about each other and going online and talking about each other—in a way that [they feel comfortable with because they’re] removed from the idea that they're hurting one another; they're actually using real names!
 |
|
Photo: Ali Smith |
You can't just say, "Just ignore it." Because [those who are attacked] can't ignore it. What we're trying to say is, "You can vent about this stuff and each other, but do it privately—do it on paper." Don't put it up on the Internet. And some of [the workshop participants] say to me, "Wow! OK!"
At the workshops, you're providing free books and bookmarks, plus online materials to libraries nationwide to encourage them to help teenage girls and boys keep journals. What else is happening?
Some librarians are having the kids make their own journals; that's one of the things some have come up with. There are also little journal-making kits some people have donated. One of the things I always recommend is not having a journal that looks like a journal, because my little brothers used to sneak into my room and read mine. Yeah! I had to keep a fake journal to distract them. So I always say, "Write in a normal notebook." If it says "Algebra" on it, no one's going to read it.
Is there a difference between boys and girls at the workshops?
Very few boys show up! But the ones that do seem to be readers, and they tend to be the kind of boys who understand that if they hang around with the girls, they're going to find out cool girl stuff.
What about kids who panic when they have a close encounter with a blank page?
We're saying that you don't necessarily have to use words. If you're not comfortable with that, one of the things you can do is use pictures. One of my brothers loved cartoons. So he kept a weird cartoon journal where he would draw how he felt. I point out that the way I started writing The Princess Diaries is that I was upset with my mom because she started going out with one of my teachers…. I started writing a story… and it was really emotional for me. [Students] get really into that: "So you can take a diary entry and turn it into a book and it'll be made into a movie? You can become famous?" That seems to be a big motivation.
Your workshops offer diary/journal writing tips. The Los Angeles Public Library Teen Services also has offered tips. Could you give us a sampling?
I give five tips like "write what you want" and "you don't have to worry about spelling or grammar, because no one's going to be grading you on it." The other thing I talk about is venting. That's really what we say is the difference between writing a diary or journal, versus blogging, and why it's better. Because this is just for you and you're not going to be hurting anyone's feelings; and it really is an emotional release.
[I also tell kids] don't worry about journaling every day; just do it when you feel like it. And hang on to it! Never throw it away because it's really valuable, although you may not think it is. Not just because if you want to grow up to be a writer, but because it's a great tool. I found that [a journal] really helps you remember stuff that happened. So if you meet up with friends from that time, you have a much better idea of what went on in those days—if you want to reminisce.
