Post by Vicki Mayk on Feb 17, 2019 22:13:59 GMT
Hello, Everyone,
The theme for the first week of our memoir workshop is Tapping Memory. Memory is the source of where our writing comes from in memoir. The following is the introduction and assignment. I have also attached the assignment as a Word document because I suspect it will be easier to read if you download it
Best,
Vicki
Week 1 -- Tapping Memory
“If you have a bad memory, give it up. Many people ask me how to recall the past, and I say if they don’t, they’re lucky—get a real job.”
Mary Karr. The Art of Memoir (p. 28). Harper. Kindle Edition.
If you’ve never written memoir before, or this is your first memoir workshop, let me just review the fundamental difference between memoir and autobiography:
• Autobiography attempts to be a comprehensive recounting of your life usually told in chronological order – from birth to the present. There may be flashbacks and flashforwards, but for the most part, autobiography tries to tell a life story in its entirety.
• Memoir is a look at a defined time period of someone’s life (such as someone’s wartime experience or their childhood spent living in France) Or it may examine a recurring experience or theme over a number of years. For example, a memoir might explore a theme like abandonment by looking at episodes where the writer experienced abandonment at different times over the course of a life. It is built around a defined time period, common themes or related experiences.
But perhaps the most important thing about memoir is that it comes from the French word mémoire, which means “memory,” or “reminiscence.” When we set out to write memoir, we are writing our memory of events and experiences. I’m not going to write at length about truth in memoir here—except to say that our contract with our readers is that we will not make things up when we write memoir. That is fiction. We are trying to tell true stories in memoir. But memory is faulty. That’s why it’s important to remember that, in memoir, we are writing our version of something that happened, as best as our memories recall. It is our truth. If we tell a family story about Christmas in 1985, our sister might remember it a bit differently. As memoirists, it is all right to tell the story the way we remember it.
But how do we mine our memories for the best stories? The first assignment for this class is to try one of the following techniques for unearthing a memory – and then to write a scene about it. If you already have an idea of something you’d like to write about, use one of these techniques to help bring your memories into focus. If you aren’t sure what to write about, they can help you remember some important moments.
Assignment, Part I:
Explore memories you might want to write about using one of the following techniques. You can try more than one if you are so inclined – but for this assignment, you’re only required to try one. The act of writing actually helps us to remember – and that’s what these prompts are meant to do.
1. This is probably one of the simplest prompts for tapping memories. I first heard of it from the memoirist and novelist Dani Shapiro. Start with the words “I remember …..” and complete the sentence. Don’t think about it. Just write the first memory that comes into your head. As I’m writing this, the first words that came to me to finish the sentence were: “I remember… my mother’s two-toned Pontiac.” Do a whole series of those sentences, perhaps as many as 10 or 12, and see what you come up with.
2. Timeline: Pick six months or a year of your life. Maybe it’s your freshman year of college. Or the first year you were married. Or the six months you spent backpacking in Europe. Make a timeline of significant memories. You can do it visually if you like and draw a box for each month and place brief phrases that show approximately when certain things happened.
3. Scientists have found that our sense of smell brings with it the most powerful associations and memories. It’s why, when I smell anise, it conjures memories of my grandmother: she used it in baking my favorite cookies. I cannot smell it without thinking of her. List smells and the memories you associate with them. List smells that are both pleasant and unpleasant and write what memories they bring to mind.
4. Begin to make a list of “firsts” in your life: First day of school, first kiss, first trip to Europe, first time you road a motorcycle etc. Your list will be unique to you. Keep listing firsts until you feel you have a pretty robust list. Note which ones seem to bring up detailed memories.
After you’ve used one of these brainstorming techniques, look back over the list and choose one of the memories to write about. Don’t overthink it. Choose one that seems to have the strongest appeal to you. Or choose a memory that surprised you – one that you haven’t thought about for a long time. Mary Karr (one of my favorite memoirists) suggests choosing the memory that has the most concrete sensory details as you think about it. (Color of the room, whether the weather was hot or cold, time of day etc.) Karr says that f you remember details, chances are you remember enough to write about it.
Now you are ready to write.
Assignment, Part 2:
Scenemaking
When it’s time to write about one of memories – to turn memory into memoir – you will begin by writing a scene. Scenes are the building block for our stories. If we summarize (“My Dad bought an Edsel and my mother hated it. But he loved the car and polished it every Sunday….”) it is a flat narrative. Writing a scene makes it come to life. It is showing the reader what happened.
Here’s is how a scene about how Dad bought the car might begin:
I sat on the front steps of our house, watching the shadows lengthen on the lawn as the day transitioned to late afternoon. My Dad had promised he’d be bringing a surprise when he got home, and I had stationed myself on the steps, afraid I’d miss it. I sat picking apart dandelions and counting the ants on the sidewalk to pass the time. The honk of a car horn brought me to my feet. A big tan car – the biggest car I’d ever seen – was coming down the street. The sunlight reflected off of a chrome grill that topped the front bumper. The car approached with the slow deliberateness of an ocean liner and parked front of my house, the whitewalls lightly grazing the curb. Dad was at the wheel, grinning. I ran down the sidewalk as he got out.
“Wow, Dad,” I said. “Is this ours?”
“Yep,” he said. He looked over my head. I had been so excited, I never noticed that my mother had come out on the porch, wiping her hands on her apron.
“What happened to the station wagon? You were supposed to get another station wagon,” Mom said, lines appearing at the corners of her mouth. When she was unhappy, the lines were a dead giveaway.
Scenes put us in the picture. They are based in action. They have a beginning, middle and end. Several things can mark the end of one scene and the beginning of another. They include a change in location or a transition to a different time (later that day or the next day). For example, the previous scene about the car would end if the action moved inside the house. A new scene would begin.
Essays and book-length memoirs are made up of many scenes. When you write a scene, think of your memoir as if it’s a movie. You are the filmmaker, constructing the scenes that make up a story. Only your medium is words, not images on film.
Your assignment is to choose one of the memories suggested by one of the brainstorming techniques and to write a scene introducing it. You do not have to tell the whole story. Write one of the scenes that make up the longer story. The scene should be two to three pages. If you want to write more than one scene, that’s fine.
The assignment is due by midnight, Saturday, Feb. 23.