Can you remember your first day of kindergarten? First grade? Seventh grade? Chances are that you can’t, but you can reconstruct a scene that “rings true” to what your life was like at that time. Here’s an example from my own life (writing about seventh grade):
“Today was going to be the first day of school at rural Enon Junior High in rural Ohio. I would be in the seventh grade, and attending this school for the very first time. That’s because I had attended elementary school at a town in the other direction. Now, I was in effect switching towns. My mother had taken me shopping for two new dresses. This first day of school I was going to be wearing a deep turquoise blue dress with a sort of brown vest attached. I loved this dress, and it took some of the fear out of going to a school where I knew no one. I stood at the door of our house, watching for the school bus. I was clutching my new zip-up notebook. Inside, there was notebook paper as well as new pencils, pens, erasers, and a little container of Kleenex. As I saw the bus rounding the curve, I caught my breath. “It’s coming!” I shouted. My dog, Mikey, sitting beside me, gave a little bark of concern. My mother ran toward me from the kitchen. “Go, go, go!” she said, as she held the door open. As if seeing the anxiety that suddenly filled my eyes, she added, “Have a great time. Don’t worry, you’ll do fine.”
This walk down memory lane is not award-winning prose. I include it here simply to give you an idea of how you can work with your memory to produce a scene. This scene represents that first day of seventh grade. I don’t actually remember that morning, but I do remember the dress, the dog, and the place inside the door where I would watch for the school bus.
The point is to illustrate how we all have plenty of material stored away in our minds. We may be surprised to remember the picture on our lunchbox or the house key in our pocket. And, of course, butterflies in the stomach! In writing memoir, time is well-spent in brainstorming with ourselves so that we can bring these memories to the forefront of our minds. Then, when we start to write, the words will just flow! And we’ll have a story whose unique details will enchant us as well as our readers!
Hope you will give this a try! The preliminary time you spend in brainstorming or “freewriting” (just writing what comes to mind) is bound to pay off in a rich list of “ingredients” you can stir into your memoir essay or chapter.
Please submit what you come up with!
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Photos of people at work or play are redolent with emotions and artifacts of the past. Candid shots include everyday surroundings — scenes and objects that elicit memories. A kitchen shot may include, for example, not only the expression on your aunt’s face, but the clock that fascinated you as a child — the one with dog paws for hands and a dog tail for the pendulum.
Poignant moments are abundant in our lives, and writing gives us a way to preserve them. Often we rely on photographs to preserve such moments, but most of the time we do not have a camera on hand when such moments occur. After all, they almost by definition occur by surprise, and it is often the element of surprise that adds to the poignancy.
January is a time for resolutions and fresh starts. Yet, I also find that some writers lose a bit of energy at this time of year. The holidays take their toll on us. Plus, let’s face it: It’s hard to get up early and write when the skies are still dark, the floors are cold, and we just want to hibernate a bit longer under our warm winter quilt.
I’ve learned some helpful tips from Martha Stewart. For example, I learned that I don’t need to go out and buy fall and winter foliage for my Thanksgiving and Christmas table centerpieces. Instead, I can just go in my backyard and pick out a few ferns, some small branches, and maybe a spray or two of berries. Pine cones can be found on the trail where I walk my dog. I can cluster these on the table and perhaps add a candle or two. Voila! And, I learned that it is fine to add one “misfit” flower or plant to an arrangement. Not everything has to match.
Holiday memories can bring a special joy to the writer and the reader. Often we take comfort in common traditions while at the same time appreciating how each person’s memories are unique. Memoirs such as Dylan Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales come in the form of a composite, capturing highlights of Christmases (in Wales) in general.
One powerful way to elicit memories is to sketch a simple map of a home or neighborhood you once lived in. This seems to access memories stored in the right brain. So, for example, you could sketch a floor plan of a childhood home, or a simple map of your immediate neighborhood. If you spent a lot of time outdoors, a diagram of your yard can also be fun to draw and think about. You might also enjoy drawing a floor plan of your school, your public library, or any place that was significant to you at some time during your life.
As children, we experienced the end of summer along with the excitement of returning to school. In most cases, we had a mix of emotions … joyful anticipation of seeing our friends, but also a bit of anxiety about the work, and perhaps some sadness about returning to confinement!
Almost everyone has memories about being on a porch … either a front porch or a back porch. In earlier times, front porches were more common than they are now. And they often served to unite families with their communities. As Tyrone Beason put it in a recent article in Pacific NW, “The front porch is safe harbor and common ground, gallery and center stage.” He goes on to say, “They do more than protect you from the weather and buffer your from the world outside the door. There are intangibles to consider how they make us feel.” He adds that “Good porches make good neighbors,” and quotes Tom Glos who says, “They’re the opposite of fences.”