Keeping Memory Alive Through Writing Whatever your life

Keeping Memory Alive Through Writing “Whatever your life, it is urging you to record it. ” --from Natalie Goldberg’s Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir v Writing about one’s life helps keep the mind alive and vibrant. v It helps one to process one’s life experiences and gain insight. v It gives one a sense that one’s life matters and gives one something one can share with family and friends.

Writing Memoir v Not a chronological recount of your life v It focuses on specific moments of your life v It focuses on a specific aspect v First time you realized something v Somebody you influenced you v A time your learned a lesson v A painful experience, a happy experience v Questions that nag at you, that are murky and troubling.

Purposes of Memoir v It is a way of making sense of your life and your experience v It is looking back with distance and wisdom v It can be a reconciliation and healing v We know the facts, but we are looking for the “emotional truths under the surface that drove our lives” (Natalie Goldberg)

v E. M. Forster Paraphrased “How can I know what I think about something until I write about it? ” v Writing is a quest for meaning v It is a journey toward realization

Importance of Memoir v “Writing is an act of reaching across the abyss of isolation to share and reflect. ” --Natalie Goldberg --from Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir v Writing gives you a second chance to understand your life and events that shaped it.

Forms v Memoir is not linear v Like our thoughts and memories, it jumps around v Memoir can be written as prose or poetry v It can be changed into fiction v It can be shared or not shared

Writing is Like Exercising v You have to train the muscles v The more you write, the stronger and more flexible the writing muscles v The more you write, the more you will remember v You have to practice it regularly v Twenty minutes a day