A Legacy Project

We have national novel writing month, NaNoWriMo. Why not national memoir writing month? NaMemWriMo.

The idea here is to write a short memoir in a month, thirty days of gentle writing. Write twice a day for 10 minutes. Morning, evening. Or morning, then after lunch; whatever works for you. If possible, same time every day. Just ten minutes twice a day. This is memoir as photo album, containing snapshots of your life.

Hemingway said writing was easy, he just opened a vein and bled. That’s not what we’ll do here. We’re not Hemingway. Thank God! This is pour a cup of coffee and remember. And smile. And capture some details from your life. This is writing worth doing. This is a legacy project: you’re creating a document for your kids, for their kids. Who knows, maybe you’ll be read even after that.

You can do this on your own. But it might be fun–if you’re in a book club, for example, if you have a close friends who might be interested–to make this a group project. You write and share notes for a month.

I’ll provide some structure, 30-40 writing prompts, invitations to write. And I’ll provide a few illustrations. Got doubts? That’s natural. Set them aside. Relax and give it a try. You’ll establish a rhythm. You’ll start to trust yourself. And you’ll remember stuff you haven’t thought about in a while, some of it trivial, some of it important. Don’t worry about making big statements, about saying everything. Think small. Think snapshots.

As you work, you will collect your writing all in one place. When you’re not writing, you’ll be thinking about it! I can tell about Dad’s socks. That’s a story. Or: Remember when mom bought me that umbrella? It was so ugly!That could be a snapshot. Or, I wish I’d learned to play the piano. Flesh that thought out with a few specific details.

At the end of a month, you’ll be surprised how it all adds up. At the end of a month, you have 50-60 reflections/memories, snapshots of your life. And then?

And then, if you want to go to the next step, edit and publish your writing, I’ll help with that. You can publish a book almost for free on Amazon.

Here’s a list of topics. Those that are highlighted give you illustrations. Pick one out and write for 10 minutes (on the computer). Share it with the people you’re writing with. If you don’t have a small group, share it with me.

Got questions? Send them here.

Some topics:

Accomplishment
Art—what you learned
Car
Challenge
Children
College—the social context
College—what you learned
Competition
Craft—what you acquired
Disappointment
Divorce
Doubt
Fads—one you didn’t like
Fads—one you liked
Family—a funny thing happened
Family—difficult lesson
Fear
Food
Friends—bad influence
Friends—good influence
Games
Health
Hobbies—alone
Hobbies—with others
Home
Home
House
Loss
Love—false starts
Love—the real thing
Marriage
Money–managed
Money—wasted
Music
Parents
Progress
Religion—a holiday
School—what you were bad at
School—what you were good at
Sickness
Space
Sport—not on a team
Sport—on a team
Technology
The opposite sex
Travel
Trips
Vacation
Win
Work