So, to cut this as short as I can. My character is a journalist student, and from being a young child she has always documented her life events in a journal. I've been writing the story so far with 'snippets' (of no more than 200/300 words.) of the entries my character has been writing. As they play a major, (if not the biggest role in the story) but I'm worried I'm just regurgitating what the reader has already seen happen. I know I'm describing her feelings about the events in more detail as she recalls them with a fresh perspective. I feel like it's very important for the reader to know what she's written for later on in the story, but at the same time no reader wants to have the plot reiterated back to them. I wonder if it would be better just to simply imply what she's written down than actually writing the key segments out? Thanks
When I journal I'll often write a little chunk at the top that just states what happened, and then a line, and under the line my thoughts about it and anything it might remind me of. I would recommend you just insert her 'under the line' thoughts about each event, assuming the event itself has already been shown in a straightforward way in the narration.
I would have to read the story to see how this actually works. Because sometimes, depending on the theme or the tone of the book, that could work really well and sometimes not. If you have a character who interprets events differently than a normal person, it might be kind of interesting. But if it's just a rehash in your character's own words, not so much.
Then, I suppose, there's also the option of using her journal entries as more major narration. Even if you stop short of writing the whole story just as journal entries, could you consider using journal entries to convey some of the action? That is, not including both narrative prose and journal entries describing the same scene, but just journal entries?
