CW 109 W — Journaling Club: Writing as Reflection and Practice
Quarter: Spring
Instructor(s): Malena Watrous
Date(s): Apr 13—May 18
Class Recording Available: Yes
Class Meeting Day: Mondays
Grade Restriction: No letter grade
Class Meeting Time: 12:00—1:00 pm (PT)
Tuition: $470
Refund Deadline: Apr 15
Unit(s): 1
Enrollment Limit: 125
Status: Open
Quarter: Spring
Day: Mondays
Duration: 6 weeks
Time: 12:00—1:00 pm (PT)
Date(s): Apr 13—May 18
Unit(s): 1
Tuition: $470
Refund Deadline: Apr 15
Instructor(s): Malena Watrous
Grade Restriction: No letter grade
Enrollment Limit: 125
Recording Available: Yes
Status: Open
Journaling is a powerful practice. A journal offers space to chronicle daily life, reflect on challenges and celebrate small victories, or sketch ideas for stories, essays, or poems. Journals are loose and personal, a reminder that writing can be joyful, a refuge from perfectionism. Yet in a world full of distractions, even those who want to keep a regular journal often struggle to sustain the habit. That's where the Journaling Club comes in. Each day, you will receive a prompt designed to spark 1–3 pages of freewriting, about 15 minutes a day. Some prompts will invite contemplation, while others will sharpen your powers of observation or encourage playful experimentation. For accountability, students will be invited (though never required), to post a daily photo of their entry or type a favorite short passage. Once a week, we will gather online to journal together, with breakout groups for sharing or reflection.
This course is designed for experienced writers and complete beginners alike, and for anyone seeking a simple, sustaining practice of attention and self-expression.
MALENA WATROUS
Writing Certificate Lead and Creative Writing Coordinator, Stanford Continuing Studies
Malena Watrous is the author of the novel If You Follow Me and co-author of the novel Sparked and the cookbooks My Mexico City Kitchen and Scandinavian from Scratch. She has contributed to The New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle, among other publications. Watrous was a Stegner Fellow at Stanford and received an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was a Truman Capote Fellow. Textbooks for this course:
There are no required textbooks; however, some fee-based online readings may be assigned.