Writing a memoir is first a self reflection exercise and only second, a distant second at that, something you may want to circulate to family and friends or publish. There’s nothing that requires you to publish something just because you wrote it. Memoir writing is a process, and you can stop once the process is [...]
It’s winter, the days are short and often cold. It’s difficult to get going at anything as we focus instead on staying warm and eating comfort food. Motivation is in a definite slump. Winter is also a perfect season for self reflection, musing on our lives and indulging in our memories. This is the important [...]
Life writing is an opportunity to enjoy all the events and people of your life in a new and likely even more interesting way. Why? Now you have something delicious called perspective, and a wealth of experience that enables you to fully grasp the significance of what you’ve been through, you’ll see what you learned [...]
There are times in life when the only way to find clarity is to write the hard stuff. We all have some of that, and fortunate the folks who don’t have very much. No matter whether it is a little or a lot, its tough and sorrowful. Clarity is not the only thing to be [...]
As you spend time reflecting on your life for your life writing or memoir project, you will encounter regrets. Roads not taken, friendships not maintained, doubts about your responses to difficulties or opportunities. It goes with the territory. No life lived fully can be entirely without regrets. What do we do with or about such [...]
I have stash of photographs from my childhood years, a few from the years I was married and progressively fewer as I get older. There were years in my 30′s and 40′s when I wish I’d taken more photos and had more taken of me to record what I was doing, and how I looked. [...]
There are two sorts of people that I know, those who think about their lives and situations and those who would rather do almost anything so that they don’t have to spend a single second in self reflection. Self reflection for the latter group is apparently self indulgent, selfish, stupid and a waste of time. [...]
When first sitting down to write a memoir you may have only a couple of events that really stand out, so that’s where you will logically begin. Then what? Here’s something to try to bring more of your stories to the surface. Take at least three sheets of 8.5 x 11 inch paper and tape [...]
A memoir can be anything that records your life. A written memoir is just one of many options. Photographs, if you have a lot of them, supplemented by written stories is another method to capture your life memories. You can use your photos in an album with pages of text to accompany them or build [...]
Sooner or later when writing a memoir, or even notes for a memoir, you’ll get to some tough bits. There are sorrows, hurtful experiences, damaging relationships and many other things that give pain in most lives. How are you going to deal with that? You could of course choose to ignore these hurts and sorrows [...]