There are two sides to every story, so why limit yourself to telling just one?
There is an Inc. Magazine article about a fun and fascinating new journal that plays with the concepts of time and perspective (it just might change your idea of how to journal):
At an event for the Book Packagers Association in 2007, an editor challenged the audience to develop a bookbinding technique that had not been seen. That inspired Ellen Dudley, a book packager who was developing a book about the space-time continuum, to create a journal that could be turned inside out and back again, symbolizing the endlessness of time. To turn the journal inside out, you open it, fold it back, split the spine, and fold it back again to reveal a different-color cover and new pages.
What a great idea! It shows that any object or a story or a situation can change completely with a simple turn. Even if you don’t have one of Ellen Dudley’s fancy new journals, this concept is great inspiration to try writing from a different point of view.
How to Journal From Another Perspective
1. Think of an important event or story in your past. It can be a happy memory –your wedding day or the time you adopted a stray dog who followed you home – or a serious one – the death of a family member or the experience of dealing with a serious illness.
2. Open your journal to a new page and write the story from your point of view, as if you were telling a close friend. Recount details about what happened, how you reacted and how it has had a lasting effect on your life.
3. Now imagine that your story is the plot of a book; select a different character and retell the story from his or her perspective. This character can be another person, but it could also be an animal or even something more abstract. For example, you could write the account of your dog’s adoption through his eyes or the story of your illness from the perspective of the disease itself. Give your character a voice and a personality.
4. Reread both versions of your story. How are they different? How are they similar? What did you learn from seeing it from a different point of view?
Learning how to journal in different ways can be a fun challenge; do you have any favorite tips for writing outside the box?
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