Ilan Bouchard

I've been considering turning a diary I had when I was 13 into a book. It shows the transformation of my impressionable mind as it ventured into religion, questioned common values and ethics, and confined myself to "finding" myself amid all the chaos of being a teenager.

Is this a good idea? Also, I didn't introduce characters or explain their background, I would just start writing about them, so I was thinking of perhaps putting an intro before turning points. Also, should I edit any of the posts, or take liberties and change some parts of the diary?

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JulieJordanScott

Dear Ilan,

I think it is a really good idea. My almost-thirteen-year-old daughter loves reading those historical-style-fictional diaries... I can't remember exactly what they are called....

I love reading diaries, too, the most notable for me is "Diaries of a Young Poet" by Rainer Maria Rilke. Have you read it?

I like the idea of keeping the diary as true to form as possible, although I also appreciate the idea of minor editing, as long as it doesn't change the truth within your pages.

With Passionate Gratitude,

Julie

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nostalgicdemise

Authenticity is probably best. Having author's notes on every page to give better ideas of what's actually being talked about would be useful, but would likely ruin the flow of things. I think, like you said, that an intro before strings of related entries would be the best route to go.

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Ilan Bouchard

Ok, thanks. Those were quick responses, I only posted this about ten minutes ago.
What about entries in hindsight? Like, an important even that happened, but that I never wrote down. How could I incorporate it back into the "story"?

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Ralizah

It sounds interesting. With diary entries in published format, you don't want to ramble on about something meaningless in it that has no application to the themes of the work. What you could do is include a section after the actual work saying what you cut out, why, and where it fits in.

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Nazareth

Wassn't the book "Go Ask Alice" in diary format?

Can't remember, but maybe something along that line with a story to go along with it might be a cool idea- might wanna come up with ideas that show character conflict & overcomming those conflicts & growth to give it some pizzaz

nostalgicdemise

^
What Ralizah said.

Also, on the hindsight issue, a short narration before each introduced theme seems like it would suffice. They could include some present-tense foreshadowing towards what the reader is about to learn of your past experiences, and how they would affect your life at the time.

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swing_it_away

I'm agreeing with everyone here and saying it sounds like a great idea.

If I were you, I would go back and edit/compress/expand/add to the enrties. It sounds like a fantastic basis (and no one will be able to say you didn't develope the main character enough), but I would just use everything in the dairy as a first draft, and revamp from there.

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Ilan Bouchard

I was also considering just writing an autobiography and starting each chapter with an entry, or something.

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enjahova

What if you kept the diary original, but opposite each page you had notes/explanations.

This even/odd page system is a cool way to handle things that dont communicate themselves completely, yet are to valuable to translate directly.
Isnt this done with more difficult works like Dante or some publications of Shakespeare?

Just throwin the idea out there,
and yes, I aswell think you should go ahead with it

-Ian

lisajane

Yes, I find that's done with some of Shakespeare's work. We used such books to study his work in high school.

I think the idea itself is fantastic

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kerpoe

I think this is a wonderful idea!

Although it really does depend on how interesting the contents of your journal are in relationship to popular marketalbe trends

So maybe you could coneive a basic storyline out of your journal highlights or whatever and then post it up here and then ask our opinions... but so far very original and keep working with it

KERpoe

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Kimba

I'd say "go for it".

Just remember, though, that if it has names of real people in it, ask their permission for their names to be in the book. Otherwise, they might not appreciate it if you ever got it published. It's a breach of confidentiality.

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