Post #36 – Women’s Memoirs, Writing Prompt – Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler
By Promptly Portland
A Writer’s Use of Hangers
I read recently that more than 3.5 million wire hangers are thrown away each year. They can’t be recycled because they jam the equipment and so most companies refuse to even accept them. That means wire hangers end up in landfill where they spend the next 100 years decomposing.
No, this isn’t a post about reusing, repurposing, or recycling. But when reading the article, I had wonderful images of wire hangers holding our stories and realized, “What a great way to think about organizing memoir vignettes.”
I hope you’ll indulge me this time. This is not really a writing prompt. But perhaps you will find it an interesting exercise for writing organization.
500 Words (or more): Memoir Writing Prompt
1. Grab a handful of wire hangers and an equal number of clothespins, which we’ll rename story-pins. Then pull out 20 or so vignettes that you’ve written over the past few months. If you don’t have these printed, now is the time to do that. Read through the stories and jot down a few ideas at the top of each: Date when story took place; theme of story; mood; people in the story; importance to you; etc.
2. Try sorting the stories into different piles–piles that can be hung on your wire hangers. After all, we’re trying to organize your story closet. The most obvious organization is chronological. It sounds boring, but sometimes is the best. Don’t ignore it until you have tried it. Maybe you want to begin with the conclusion of your story and then through a series of flashbacks bring out the details in the vignettes.
Perhaps you have a series of vignettes that focus on your mother, others about your father or grandmother. What do these stories look like if you organize them by people?
Have there been periods if your life that have been especially happy and others filled with sadness or depression. Consider your stories when organized by mood. Are there some themes within the moods?
Well, you get the idea.
3. Once you have an organization that interests you, hang the stories on your wire hangers, keeping them in place with your story pins.
Sometimes using an exercise such as this will help you see stories you have left out. Your memory will be jogged and new details within existing stories will occur to you.
4. Have fun with this. Let your creativity flow. How about painting the story-pins blue that will hold your sad stories?
My Personal Organizing Caper
About ten years ago, I got involved in rearranging my grandmother’s closet. She had turned 89 and was in the hospital for a hip replacement operation. Well, actually we celebrated her birthday in the hospital. My mother thought this was the perfect time to take all of Gram’s stained clothes to the dry cleaners. Then, she’d remove the plastic bags and simply hang the clothes back in the closet.
My grandmother was mentally sharp even if her body was failing her. I knew she’d immediately spot the change since we didn’t remember the location of each item. I finally came up with the idea that I’d officially “reorganize her closet for her.” I organized them by color starting with white dresses, skirts, and blouses on the left (she loved wearing white) and ending with the black items on the right of the closet. This would account for why everything had been moved.
When she came home, she immediately asked why her clothes had been moved. I kept a straight face and told her I thought she’d find the new organization easy to use. Over time, she put everything back the way she had it before. Did she notice everything had been cleaned? I’ll never know for sure although there was a rumor that she told a close friend how strange it was for me to reorganize her clothes. I’m guessing that she figured it out.
Now that I reflect on my caper, I realize there are other ways I could have organized the items — by type of clothing (shirts, skirts, dress), by season (summer, winter), by use (formal, casual). Similarly, there are many ways you can organize your memoir vignettes. Maybe hanging your stories will help you sort your story closet.
Until next time,
Promptly Portland
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