Writing Notebook and Journaling

Writing Notebook and Journaling

2014-09-21 11:05:44, Sunday

It's been two days since I've done any writing. (Yikes.) No journaling. No writing. It's been a little bit crazy busy. Now, as of this moment, I have a couple of hours or so to rectify the situation. I am a couple of days ahead (or was, I should say), so I am okay as far as that goes, but I feel... What's the word... weird? Like I'm suffering from journaling and writing withdrawal. Never mind how I now need to go back and re-read what I've written so I can remember where I am in the story. 

The one thing I know for sure is I am thrilled to be telling this story. 

I'm writing a series and the first novel of the series. I'm still trying to find the correct titles/names for each. So, far the tentative titles are:

WASP Wings and Prayers in 1943
Book 1 of the American History Journaling and Letters Project

It's both a contemporary fiction book/novel and a historical fiction book/novel. After all, we learn the story of what happened in the past, through the letters and journaling of Connie and we learn about the life of Sara and how Sara's life, and the life of others, are changed through learning Connie's story. 

I've always thought the best way to learn history was to experience it in some way, whether it's going to the place it happened, doing an extensive study of an event or an individual or a time period, or learning through the firsthand or secondhand accounting of a personal story (letters, journals, orally, memoir, biography, etc.). This makes history real and personal. Everything that has happened in the past has some hand in our lives today. 

History is far more important than I often give it credit for and I realize that it's something I tend to take for granted and shouldn't. History has shaped our world.

I will be honest. History was one of my worst subjects in school. After all, every year, I learned about the explorers and rather got into the twentieth century. I wasn't taught by the schools I attended how history impacts my life today. It impacts politics, current events, law, etc. History has great implciations and ramifications we mostly take for granted. If history would be taught in a personal way, I would have gotten so much more out of it in school.

In the last two years, I've learned about my family tree. I learned how I have several historical figures, and several people like you and me--just trying to live the best life possible given where we are, doing what we're doing. My family tree has made history come alive. And, so has where I live, near the Historical Triangle of Jamestown, Yorktown, and Williamsburg, Virginia.

My family tree and location has made me realize how interesting history really is. Reading a textbook does not make it come alive for me. Seeing a historical site or reading a historical fiction or biography or memoir does. 

While the WASP isn't in my family tree, nor is there a historical site around where I live about the WASP, I find their stories fascinating and a pivotal part of the war. The fact of how so little is told about them or is known, makes me passionate to tell the stories of these heroes who helped World War II turn out the way it did. 

Do you know who the WASP are?

I didn't until a year ago. 

I'm writing to tell their stories--and to share how learning their stories can impact our lvies today and how every personal story has shaped our world today. History is more than the textbook facts. History is best understood through personal story of the everyday individual as well as the ones in textbooks. And, their stories have shaped our lives without us even realizing it--and our lives can be shaped all the more when we learn these stories. 

(Image credit: Stacy Duplease and Remembering Your Present, LLC 2008-2014.)