Post #134 – Women’s Memoirs, Writing Prompt – Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler
Memoir Writing, Memory, and You
If you use these three writing tips, you will remember more and your writing will be more vivid.
Tip #1 Picture a story you want to write. It’s tempting to sit with your eyes half on the computer screen and half on your fingers as they hover over the keyboard, ready to tell your life story. You worry about the first word, the first sentence, the first paragraph. Stop. Don’t begin by thinking about the words. Start by seeing the story. Begin with a vignette or a story small enough that you can actually picture it. It seems that our brains remember images better than words so let’s rely on what our brain does better. If you need to close your eyes, that’s fine. Don’t worry about words. Just think images.
Tip #2 Make connections within and between scenes in the story you want to write. Ok. Now you have a visual image — more like a movie — running in your head. But don’t stop there and start to write. Instead, rely on your brain’s network of images and memories. Make a connection backward — what was happening just before the scene in your memoir movie? Is there an object in your movie that later became important to you? Is there reference to a person you hadn’t thought about in a long time? Rely on your brain’s network to retrieve even more of interest to your story.
Tip #3 Pay particular attention to what you’re seeing in your mind’s memoir movie. Stop. You’re still not ready to write. Look around the scene that you’re playing. What are the details? Did you forget that your kitten walked through the dining room during the story you’re telling? Try to recall what you ate for dinner that night. What was the weather like outside? Details. Details. Details. As soon as you start forcing yourself to look more closely at the memoir movie you’re playing , you’ll find that your mind cooperates, letting you add the richness of details that make a story compelling.
NOW, you can write. When you do, you’ll find that the story comes more easily and with more details because you’ve helped your brain recover information.
