Post #43 – Women’s Memoirs, Writing Prompt – Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler
By Promptly Portland
Your Life Story as Wikipedia Entry
Like many others, I often turn to Wikipedia when I’m curious about something. I know it contains some errors, but its comprehensiveness means I almost always find something there.
This morning, I once again found myself on the Wikipedia site. As you know, I teach English at various community colleges in Portland. So you won’t be surprised that I typed into Google, Joyce Carol Oates. The first entry Google returned was for Wikipedia. I clicked on it and found some details I needed. I soon was thinking it would be fantastic if someone wrote a memoir entitled My Wikipedia Page. The beginning of the memoir would obviously be a concise wiki entry followed by a long narrative history of how those events came to transpire.
Of course, those thoughts, while fun, aren’t completely relevant to a short writing prompt for this week. I decided to go back to Joyce Carol Oates wiki entry to see if I could get an idea that would work as a prompt. I have three suggestions to share with you. I hope one or more will get you writing today.
500 Words (or more): Memoir Writing Prompt
1. Wikipedia’s entry for Joyce Carol Oates lists a handful of quotes. Here are two of them:
a. “Revenge is living well, without you.”
b. “I’m drawn to failure. I feel that I’m contending with it constantly in my own life.”
Write 5 of your own quotes that best exemplify your feelings or attitudes toward your life.
2. Wikipedia’s entry for Joyce Carol Oates lists her accomplishments, her many published works. When brought together into a single list, it is impressive. The list as a whole is composed of individual items that had to be written one at a time, some taking multiple years to complete.
Write your list of accomplishments. Don’t be shy. You don’t have to show this list to anyone. Think of all the things you are proud of. Remember, Wikipedia didn’t list the manuscripts that Joyce Carol Oates has never published or mention the published ones that were rejected multiple times. Create your own brag list covering as many aspects of your life as you like. You don’t have to list the failures. Everyone has those.
3. Go to Wikipedia and find an entry about a person who interests you. Look at the major categories.
Write the categories you want included in your Wikipedia entry. Consider how this might become a device or structure for your own writing.
Have fun. Hope this gets you writing this week. Wiki, by the way, means “fast” or “quick.” So don’t get bogged down thinking too much about this exercise. Just let it start you writing and see where you go from there.
Until next time,
Promptly Portland
memoir writing prompt
writing tips
craft of memoir
memoir writing
writing
