Post #70 – Women’s Memoirs, Writing Prompt – Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler
Memoir Writing Prompt to Close out 2010
We celebrated the holidays in Oregon for the first time as residents. Soon I’ll post my next journaling blog about the final stage of finding a home. But today, I want to share with you how one of my presents inspired today’s writing prompt.
On Christmas morning, three of us awoke in our temporary home. Our Portland son, Will, had driven down on Christmas Eve for a family gathering in the new house. Our Eugene family had driven up to this central location we chose. We had agreed to all convene in Eugene on the afternoon of the 25th, giving our grandsons plenty of time to open presents on Christmas morning. This means that just three of us opened our presents together.
Will gave me the necklace you see above. Last year, he had found an artist in Salem who will take a quote of your choosing and pound it into a spiral inside a small silver disk. He thought this would be a great gift for me but by the time he located the artist it was already past both Christmas and my birthday. So he had saved the idea for this year.
Will chose one of Eleanor Roosevelt’s quotes: It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.
He explained that he has a number of favorite Eleanor Roosevelt statements, but thought most of them wouldn’t mean as much to me as this one. And he was right. As a memoir writer, teacher and coach, I identify with the statement. I’ve seen memoir writing be the light that lets a woman move past the darkness in her life. I’ve seen how writing brings light to a situation or relationship or time in one’s life that has been buried in darkness. And at the other end, I’ve seen how reading a memoirist’s life story can help another person shine a light on her own experiences.
Memoir Writing Prompt, Your Turn
Let Eleanor Roosevelt’s statement cause you to reflect on dark periods in your life. Write for 10 minutes about one time when you realized you had to be the one to take action, to light the candle so that you could find your way out of the darkness. Did you react out of frustration? Did you methodically develop and execute a plan? Looking for and finding the light creates a turning point in life.
When you write, tell both what you did and the impact or change it created in your life.
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Be sure to join us beginning January 1 for 11 days of lists for writers, each with 11 tips for 2011.
