Refreshing Experience With the Most Powerful of Writing Craft Tools

Emily Dickinson famously said we must “Tell all the truth but tell it slant—Success in Circuit lies.” Observation is the tool that enables the journal keeper to tell truth slant. Since experience comes in through the five senses, to reexperience it in writing, the journal keeper must bring sensory description into their writing. The end result will not only be realizing truths but also remaining excited about the work and the art of journaling. In this chapter, Sheila Bender, memoirist, poet, and writing-instructional-book author, offers exercises that can be used again and again for helping journal keepers evoke experience through sensory observation to facilitate finding the truths they seek.