It is a timely read for me. I started writing at the end of 2024 what will be a chronicle of memoirs. Starting was tough. I thought I had to know what the ending would be or what the story line of the chapter was beforehand. Now that I've been at it, I just go with the present thought that I recognize as a kind of sprout to something new in the chronology. It always brings me to a resolution of some kind that I didn’t foresee and I've been growing and healing because of it. This requires a lot of reflection and letting it settle over sleep and life's activities but it does seem to come quickly when I'm tugging on the right thread so to speak.
I keep my many sprouts on my Substack as drafts. Makes it easy to find and keep track of. It works for me because I have a point of view that I'm writing about discovering how being a mestiza influenced my life. When I have a new thought I consider where it fits in that story. Then it's added to that draft if one already exists that fits.
As always, I'm inspired by your words and how you help me understand the beauty and nuance of memoir.
Can I ask about your "creative toolbox" as you called it in your post? You saw the barking girl, and did you write about her and then tuck that file away? How do you organize this toolbox of yours? I have hundreds of "beginnings" and endless ideas I've written down, and tucked away in folders on my computer, so I'm honestly curious how other writers organize their ideas, and musings like this?
With this particular moment, I did write a few notes about it down that day or the next day because I knew I would return to it. But I didn’t really explore what about the image had affected me; I think I knew I would do that later, but I was sort of putting it somewhere I could find it for future writing.
In general if I have a thought or make a connection or see something that strikes me I might make a few notes in my phone or in a journal so I don’t forget. It could be the actual object/moment or with an additional sentence or two about what it makes me feel or think. That way I can go back to it later and at least understand what about it made me pause.
I, like you, have lots of these little snippets and ideas in different places and sometimes I go back to them to make them something else and other times I don’t.
I don’t think I’m too organized toolbox way, but I seem to be able to find the ones I want to expand on; the ones that seem to speak to me more.
I don’t know if that was helpful at all… but thank you for asking. It was fun to reflect on this a little bit!
That’s very insightful and I appreciate the response. I think I put a lot of pressure on myself to be organized, but writing is a messy (but fun) endeavor.
The blessing of the pandemic for me was relaxing into (and even enjoying the exciting potential of) uncertainty. I had just divorced, and the kids and I moved three times in three years. The moments of uncertainty held both terror and the promise that, while things might get worse, they could also get better—and I focused on that! Both Bob Stromberg’s G.I.T. technique (“grab, interrogate, transform) and Dani Shapiro’s technique from Still Writing (I saw / I heard / I did / Doodle) have helped me collect impressions I may develop later into stories. One problem I have is I write best by hand, and have filled dozens of notebooks… and I cannot digitally search them! 😖 I say when I’m rich, I’ll have someone digitize all my handwritten notebooks.
Oh yes, that certainly is a lot of work to turn those heaps of pages into docs. Maybe when you have time (which I know the lack of is one of the biggest hindrances to our writing lives) you can go through your journals and writing and put sticky tabs on the areas that have the most heft or resonance for you.
You could grab a paragraph here or there and use it as a prompt/free write for a writing session, and as you accumulate those different bits, you might see your larger project coming together in powerful ways. That way you could avoid typing out every page of your journal.
I’m sorry you went through so many appeals during the pandemic. I’m glad to know you are writing and sharing your words. ❤️
🙏🏼 Always gobsmacked by what we hold as witness. I was a speech pathologist when tragedy razed my life 23 years ago, never having conceived I’d become a writer. Because of my primal need of evidence for self-validation, I saved every document in plastic sleeved folios, thinking maybe this will make a coffee-table historical reference one day. When we were moving, I snapped photos of some of my kid’s artwork, preserving their imagery as they had witnessed. Two decades later it’s become poetry and the substaniating beats in my essays and the memoir I’m writing, the wind I’m barking into.
That is breathtaking Deborah. Thank you for sharing this. Love “the wind I’m barking into”. The image of that young girl I saw barking on the corner has become a potent reminder and touchstone for me. Let’s all of us keep barking into the wind!✨✨✨
I love this and agree so much! My favorite pieces I’ve written are ones where I allow exactly what you’ve described here rather than stated something that I just knew. This is what makes memoir so beautiful!
Yes, it’s been so freeing to discover. It took me a while to learn to trust this process. Now that I have worked this way a bit I don’t know that I’ll go back to my previous approach much anymore.
I love the image of the barking girl. I'm a painter, not a writer and it's the same for painting, these fragments of images that combine to make the painting, sometimes over years. But now I've written a memoir/art book about art and love. What a journey as I become more author and less painter—at least for a while! Thanks for your support of memoir especially for those of us who are not writers!
It is a timely read for me. I started writing at the end of 2024 what will be a chronicle of memoirs. Starting was tough. I thought I had to know what the ending would be or what the story line of the chapter was beforehand. Now that I've been at it, I just go with the present thought that I recognize as a kind of sprout to something new in the chronology. It always brings me to a resolution of some kind that I didn’t foresee and I've been growing and healing because of it. This requires a lot of reflection and letting it settle over sleep and life's activities but it does seem to come quickly when I'm tugging on the right thread so to speak.
I keep my many sprouts on my Substack as drafts. Makes it easy to find and keep track of. It works for me because I have a point of view that I'm writing about discovering how being a mestiza influenced my life. When I have a new thought I consider where it fits in that story. Then it's added to that draft if one already exists that fits.
As always, I'm inspired by your words and how you help me understand the beauty and nuance of memoir.
Can I ask about your "creative toolbox" as you called it in your post? You saw the barking girl, and did you write about her and then tuck that file away? How do you organize this toolbox of yours? I have hundreds of "beginnings" and endless ideas I've written down, and tucked away in folders on my computer, so I'm honestly curious how other writers organize their ideas, and musings like this?
Oh yes, so messy!
Thank you for this message, Alyse. ❤️
With this particular moment, I did write a few notes about it down that day or the next day because I knew I would return to it. But I didn’t really explore what about the image had affected me; I think I knew I would do that later, but I was sort of putting it somewhere I could find it for future writing.
In general if I have a thought or make a connection or see something that strikes me I might make a few notes in my phone or in a journal so I don’t forget. It could be the actual object/moment or with an additional sentence or two about what it makes me feel or think. That way I can go back to it later and at least understand what about it made me pause.
I, like you, have lots of these little snippets and ideas in different places and sometimes I go back to them to make them something else and other times I don’t.
I don’t think I’m too organized toolbox way, but I seem to be able to find the ones I want to expand on; the ones that seem to speak to me more.
I don’t know if that was helpful at all… but thank you for asking. It was fun to reflect on this a little bit!
That’s very insightful and I appreciate the response. I think I put a lot of pressure on myself to be organized, but writing is a messy (but fun) endeavor.
The blessing of the pandemic for me was relaxing into (and even enjoying the exciting potential of) uncertainty. I had just divorced, and the kids and I moved three times in three years. The moments of uncertainty held both terror and the promise that, while things might get worse, they could also get better—and I focused on that! Both Bob Stromberg’s G.I.T. technique (“grab, interrogate, transform) and Dani Shapiro’s technique from Still Writing (I saw / I heard / I did / Doodle) have helped me collect impressions I may develop later into stories. One problem I have is I write best by hand, and have filled dozens of notebooks… and I cannot digitally search them! 😖 I say when I’m rich, I’ll have someone digitize all my handwritten notebooks.
Oh yes, that certainly is a lot of work to turn those heaps of pages into docs. Maybe when you have time (which I know the lack of is one of the biggest hindrances to our writing lives) you can go through your journals and writing and put sticky tabs on the areas that have the most heft or resonance for you.
You could grab a paragraph here or there and use it as a prompt/free write for a writing session, and as you accumulate those different bits, you might see your larger project coming together in powerful ways. That way you could avoid typing out every page of your journal.
I’m sorry you went through so many appeals during the pandemic. I’m glad to know you are writing and sharing your words. ❤️
🙏🏼 Always gobsmacked by what we hold as witness. I was a speech pathologist when tragedy razed my life 23 years ago, never having conceived I’d become a writer. Because of my primal need of evidence for self-validation, I saved every document in plastic sleeved folios, thinking maybe this will make a coffee-table historical reference one day. When we were moving, I snapped photos of some of my kid’s artwork, preserving their imagery as they had witnessed. Two decades later it’s become poetry and the substaniating beats in my essays and the memoir I’m writing, the wind I’m barking into.
That is breathtaking Deborah. Thank you for sharing this. Love “the wind I’m barking into”. The image of that young girl I saw barking on the corner has become a potent reminder and touchstone for me. Let’s all of us keep barking into the wind!✨✨✨
I love this and agree so much! My favorite pieces I’ve written are ones where I allow exactly what you’ve described here rather than stated something that I just knew. This is what makes memoir so beautiful!
Yes, it’s been so freeing to discover. It took me a while to learn to trust this process. Now that I have worked this way a bit I don’t know that I’ll go back to my previous approach much anymore.
Thank you for sharing your experience here. ❤️
I needed this today. Thank you!
I’m so glad this was useful, Jennifer! Thank you for your note. ❤️
Thank you, Ronit. I am leaning so much from you. I LOVE MEMOIR!!
Thank you so much, Kristina! ❤️
I love it too and am happy you’re enjoying these resources.
I love the image of the barking girl. I'm a painter, not a writer and it's the same for painting, these fragments of images that combine to make the painting, sometimes over years. But now I've written a memoir/art book about art and love. What a journey as I become more author and less painter—at least for a while! Thanks for your support of memoir especially for those of us who are not writers!
Thank you for sharing this, Lora. ❤️
I’m struck by your experience of moving into “more author and less painter”.
So long ago I was all about singing and acting, and then I moved to writing, and now I do so little performing in that traditional way.
I like thinking about how our various arts overlap and help us in our new genres.
So much this. You have to write your way into it and through it to find your story.