Keep Your Old Journals: Maybe Even Transcribe Them

By Nina Badzin

Almost 20 years ago, I gave my future writer-self a priceless gift. Pregnant with my first child and squeamish at the vision of future kids or babysitters finding my old notebooks, I spent every night after work transcribing many journals from my teen years and 20s into a password-protected Word document.

I was thinking more about privacy than searchability at the time of this carpal tunnel-inducing-project, but what I created became the research tool and inspiration...