A memoir can be about your whole life or any part of it you want to write about. Let’s look at a few starting points.
1. Start with a date. In 1975 a friend and I bought an abandoned white clapboard prairie church in a tiny village in Saskatchewan for $300. I’ve got a lot to say about that. It is a good starting point for the memoir of a 23 year period of my life. What is your most significant date?
2. Start with an experience. Is there an experience in your life that you continue to tell stories about, that draws you to look at it from many different angles? I had a friend who spent time in northern Ontario as a guard in a detention camp for Germans during the World War II and he told many, many stories about it. That would have been a good starting point for his memoir.
3. Start with an event. Where were you and what were you doing the day JFK was shot? What impact did Neil Armstrong’s space walk have on you–did you watch it on TV, with whom? What other major historical event became a marker in your life story? Start with that.
4. Start with a significant person, or mentor. We’ve all had people in our lives who made a huge difference. Was yours a high school teacher, a family friend, someone you met in odd circumstances you will never forget and that forever changed you? Start with that.
5. Start with a photograph. When I wrote my first memoir I used a collection of photographs I had which recorded aspects of my childhood. I sorted them by first collecting them in one place, then putting aside anything that caused an emotional response or ripple. That was a great starting point.
6. Start with a significant and persistent memory. Certain memories haunt us, because they are turning points in our development or a crossroads we have never forgotten. They make a good starting point, even if they aren’t all that positive, on the principle that it isn’t the cards you are dealt that are important, but what you do with them, and even more important, what you learn.
7. Start anywhere. Start with a conversation, an image from a magazine, anything that sets off a memory chain you can follow, or just start noodling in a notebook to see what comes to the surface. The critical thing is to Start!
What method works for you?