I keep a private, family-only blog about my daughter’s daily life. I began keeping it about a week after she was born. Unless we were out of town, I blogged each and every day of her life. By the end of 2011, I was getting pretty tired of blogging. In fact, I began to find writing the daily posts boring. I started thinking about updating her blog weekly, but couldn’t muster the nerve it would have taken to cut back. (Also, I didn’t want to break her grandparents’ hearts since they look forward to reading the posts and seeing the photos I take of her daily.) However, I knew something had to change since I wanted writing about my daughter’s daily slices of life to be pleasurable again.
On January 1st, I started writing the daily blog posts to my daughter, rather than about my daughter. At first I thought I’d give it a try for a week, but over two weeks later, I’m still doing it. I feel as though new life has been breathed into the moments I’m choosing to capture about her since I’m writing to her. (I excerpted yesterday’s post from her private blog here.) I envision me writing to an older Isabelle. I’m not sure if she’ll be eight, a teenager, or a mom herself when she chooses to sit down and read the private blog I keep about her life. However, knowing that I’m writing to her, rather than about her has helped to make her blog feel less like a chore and more like an interesting record of her days.
I’m sure some of your students are in writing ruts with regard to their writer’s notebooks. Try encouraging them to change their audience. Sometimes a small shift can help us find our voices (again) as writers.
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I wrote a journal to my daughter for the first two years of her life – then I guess life took over – as well as another child arrived. So even though it is too bad that I didn’t keep it up, it is one of her most treasured possessions.
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Stacey–just so you know–I don’t think it was a Stacey issue yesterday. There was a lot of google trouble yesterday afternoon, so I’m pretty sure that was the issue with commenting!
I think it’s wonderful that you are writing to a grown-up Isabella. I often create scrapbook pages like that about the grandkids. I think they’ll like it when they are older….
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@Stephanie: Thanks for sharing about the Newsweek essay. What dedication that father had to write to his son daily for 18 years (and then to craft out a new writing life for himself after his son went to college). I only hope I can be that dedicated.
Thanks for the dose of confidence!
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I love that you’ve found a new way to make your writing life match what’s going on in your new role as mom. I read a Newsweek My Turn essay several years ago (I think it was 2006) where a man had written a letter to his son every day since the son was born. He detailed things his son did that day and other things going on in their lives. The best part was that he’d kept all the journals, so he could go back and relive that written memory. The point of the essay, though, was since his son, now 18 and headed to college,would not be there, how was the father to write now? What to do with the journals? He ultimately decided to change his topic — what life is like with you (son) being an adult? — and he would keep the journals to give his son when he was older.
I started doing this periodically once I read that article (not every day though) — I added pictures as needed, and conversations, and read it to Lily at night. Then I started with with Jake (he was 14 at the time). My project didn’t last long (I think I only filled one journal for each of them); however, from these writings, I found a new “topic” — and my Proms & Potties subjects were born!! (One example: http://boxofchocolates29.wordpress.com/2011/07/12/quit-messing/)
I’ve tried for close to an hour to find that Newsweek article, but can’t seem to hit the right Google keywords. Good luck in your new writing endeavor. Both you and your daughter will appreciate it!!
🙂
Stephanie
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I can’t imagine doing it everyday! I post to my private blog several times a month, but only when there is something that I have to share or it is the end of the month and the grandparents are going to be hounding me for the most recent pictures to print for their calendar page. Every, single day. Can’t imagine. You have something I don’t. Discipline, that’s it! 🙂
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It’s wonderful that you’re doing this for Isabelle, & even more, that you figured out what works best for you & perhaps for her later in life. Writing this letter-like post is a gift of seeing her life as a toddler, a pre-schooler, a kindergartener, and on. I imagine she’ll love it as she grows older, perhaps as a mother of her own toddler. What a gift you are preparing! I know that my daughter listens carefully when I talk about her ‘stories’ when she was young. It’s still important. I also love that idea of changing audiences, I’ll keep it in mind for my students. Thanks, Stacey!
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First…Bravo that you are keeping a record of your days with Isabelle – I’m imagining the teenage Isabelle, ready to spread her wings and fly, will read these and know where her anchor is. I loved that you thought to change perspective to keep your writing fresh – Isabelle will thank you for that someday, too, it’s a peek into her mother’s heart.
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