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Get out your Memoir notebooks. and a pen. And your book club text. Memoir-- retrospective. Looking backwards in time Almost always a now and then . Sense in text, being written by someone older and wiser, looking backwards Making sense of prior experiences Re-experiencing memories
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Get out your Memoir notebooks. and a pen. And your book club text.
Memoir-- retrospective • Looking backwards in time • Almost always a now and then. • Sense in text, being written by someone older and wiser, looking backwards • Making sense of prior experiences • Re-experiencing memories • Bringing meaning to memoires • Trying to find truth and significance of your own experiences.
Life Topics “Mostly we writers repeat ourselves– that’s the truth. We have two or three great moving experiences in our lives– experiences so great and moving that it doesn’t seem at the time that anyone has been caught up and pounded and dazzled and astonished and beaten and broken and rescued and illuminated and humbled in just that way ever before.” We continually mine these experiences. - F. Scott Fitzgerald
What three life topics does my writing continually address? • Identity/Finding my fit? • Pressure? • Judgments– judging others/people judging me?
Structures • Narrative - Serves as a window to a life • Hybrid Text - Some exposition (essay like structure-- telling) - Anecdotes/small moments/ related stories • Snapshots (pearls on a string) • String = common theme • Pearls = snapshots, small moments, narrative, etc.
People-- Starting points… • Why is – so important to me? • What is the unique role – plays in my life? • Why does my – mean so much more to me, than she does to --? • Have I always cherished – as much as I do now? Has this changed over time? • What do I want to say to – that I haven’t said yet? • How does my – fit into my identity?
I gazed out at the azure ocean. I could feel the salt spray on my fingertips. The coarse grains of wet, yellow sand oozed between my toes.