Explain, don't assume

Don’t assume that there will be understanding about the  time background.   If you are talking about how grandma made you baked apples the reader could think about them being plopped in an oven or microwave.  If they were put on top of wood burning and you watched them slowly sizzle  while you impatiently waited for the heat to filter up and cook them, an entirely different picture is left in the reader’s mind.  

The Things

 Explore the people, places, years and things in your life.  For example, explore this sentence and further develop the "thing" story line.   "I received this piece of jewelry from Grandma as a gift when I was eighteen and she was 80. She received it as a present when she was 18."   

What made it special?  What did I feel like when she gave it to me?  What did I feel like when I wore it?  Do I remember wearing it?  Where? Where did I keep it?  Did it have a special place? If it was kept in a certain place what did it look like, smell like?  Did the box have a velvety feel?  Where is it today and what is its significance?  Has the role it played in my life changed?  Has the item changed over the years?  Explore all the senses in your mind, feeling or touching, hearing, smelling, seeing, tasting.   

Who, What, Where, and the When of Chronology

Who, what, where and when is necessary to a good story, says Journalism 101. It can be incorporated into the story so it isn't apparent it is there. For example:

Mom and Dad were living in the second story rooms in her parent's home. There were two bedrooms with no plumbing or running water. Dad was working days as a carpenter apprentice and going to school at nights. He was hoping I would be born on a weekend. Money was tight, as tight as his daily schedule. Missing school would be difficult. Missing income would be monumental. Seems, I knew nothing of their plans. I did not wait for an invitation to enter the world on a Tuesday........

Sometimes Do What's Not Recommended

How often have you heard,"Don't write chronologically?" While that is mostly true, writing chronologically does have its place. Sometimes writing a chronological list helps spark ideas. With those ideas, a story can be developed. When I hear certain years mentioned, memories instantly begin. Most of us remember the year of a birth or death of someone dear to us or some other important event. With the mention or remembrance of that year, recessed stories emerge.

The significance of a date can bring back the story of an event, but if you don’t remember what was happening in the world at the time, look it up. That too, might spark ideas an provide needed details that will bring your story to a time and place that seems real to the reader.

Munching Memoirs

Today, I spent some time organizing recipes. I found one written in my late husband's handwriting. It was his mother's recipe for a New Year's Day pita that is traditionally made every year. Another recipe was written in faded handwriting that I assume was my great grandmother's recipe. It was filled with things rarely used today such as lard, and fillled with instructions such as "sift flour." Of course, there were recipes of mine that I wrote before the days of computer access and then there were some that were printed from the Internet. There were some recipes that instructed, "melt in the microwave." Notable in reviewing my recipes, was how they took less time to make than former generations.

Reviewing the recipes made me aware of not only the technology that has entered our lives in a few generations, but how our diets have changed as well as the amount of time that we spend preparing our diets. These recipes are a mini memoir. They produce a visual of the kitchens and people who enjoyed their favorite meals.

It is easy to ignore daily routines such as cooking, when writing a memoir. However, it is the attention to those details of daily life that a memoir can be written with feeling as well as accuracy.

Memoirs have Commonality

I find that Bible Verse, Romans 14:7, "None of us liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself," is helpful to keep in mind when writing a memoir. We all have an impact on each others' lives and we aren't always aware of the ways we have positively impacted someone. It is the same with our life stories. Famous or not, we all have the same basic life needs. When we share our joys and frustrations, our hopes and our failures, and our history in writings, others we don't know benefit from that commonality and knowledge

Write

Don't wait for the perfect words. Just put words down on paper or computer. Later, go back to what you wrote and look at the verbs, adverbs, and adjectives to see if there is repetition. Are they the best ones to describe what is happening? Perhaps, you didn't use any adverbs or adjectives, but just wrote down the bare essentials. Then, it is an opportunity to question what more is needed to make you or others feel the memory.

Don't wait for the opportunity to sit down and write perfectly. Just get the memory written and later work at perfecting what you have to say and save. If it never gets down, perfect or imperfect, it will never be a memoir. Too simple? It's true. We often spend too much time waiting for perfection and memoirs are lost.