Prompt #4 - Memory Brainstorming

This week's prompt is simple, but will hopefully lead you to a lot of more complex writing and reflection.

This week I want you to simply brainstorm. I want you to get out a notepad, or some loose paper in a 3-ring binder, and I want you to simply write down a bulleted list of all the memories you can think of that you would like to record in more detail down the road.

I want you to do this for two reasons:
1) It helps to draw out the stories that are just aching to be told.
2) Having even a short phrase about a memory can help to ensure it isn't forgotten later.

Okay, three reasons:
3) Having this list means you'll always have something you can write about, and when you (miraculously) have a few minutes to write, you won't have to spend all of that time thinking about what you want to write about.


Here are just a few from my 5 minute (if that) brainstorming session:
• Wonder Woman undies and my big wheel
• Chickens in the back yard
• Jerry the scary hunter
• The first time I ever saw someone’s mom force them to blow their nose (Matthew)
• Playing Contra at Jim and Liz’s
• Buying my first house
• Chicago with Hap
• Nauvoo with the whole awkward crew
• Thomy and his “harem”
• Being so proud when I had the fastest “fun run” time in P.E., and then the next week when someone ran it faster, acting nonchalant so her win would seem kind of anticlimactic
• Sister Eyre
• Baking pies
• Discovering different ethnic foods
• Playing soccer
• Clogging. Dear me.
• Loving art. Always loving it, since I was little.

This list could keep me writing for weeks and weeks. And the best part is, once I get writing, I know these memories will spark others.

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Thanks for joining me in my journey to write my personal history! If you participated in this prompt and would like to share your memory, email me!

Organization of Memories

One thing that has been eluding me since I started thinking about my personal history is how to organize it (and what to call it, but that is something I'll talk about later).

If you are already in the middle of writing your personal history, how have you organized it? Are you going in chronological order? Or by the type of memory?

I know that as far as I'm concerned, I would have to enlist the help of my parents to get certain memories categorized into the right time frame. So for me chronological order only partly makes sense.

Maybe a rough chronological order, like Early Childhood, Late Childhood, Adolescence, College Years, Young Adulthood, and so on and so forth as I reach different stages would work well. Factoring in some latitude for my horrible memory only makes sense, since it's not likely to improve between now and death. Right?

I'll have to keep thinking on this.

In the meantime, get ready for the next prompt. It will be posted in just a few minutes.

Prompt #3 - Memorable Meals

For this prompt, I expect many of us will be able to think of more than one thing to write about. This prompt centers around meals that you have retained in your memory for one reason or another. Maybe it was simply a new recipe you tried. Or maybe it made you sick. Maybe it was the first time you tried food that wasn't cooked by your mother. Or the first time you discovered that new favorite food of yours.

Maybe it wasn't the food that made the meal memorable--maybe it was the topic of conversation, or where you ate, or who you were with.

Think about the meals you have enjoyed (or not) alone or with company. Help the rest of us relive it with you.

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Thanks for joining me in my journey to write my personal history! If you participated in this prompt and would like to share your memory, email me!

Prompt 2 - Favorite Place(s)

For this prompt, I want you to think about your favorite place(s). They don't have to be current favorites, but they can be. You can write about past favorites, current favorites, future favorites (i.e., a dream vacation spot you're dying to go to, or that house you've been wanting to build for the last 10 years), or all of the above. They don't have to be restricted to geographic locations, either.

To help you get started, here is a list of places I'll be choosing from (I definitely won't be writing about more than one or two of them, though):
-the mountains
-Paris
-Florence
-Arches National Park
-the front of a classroom
-Chicago
-Orem High School
-New York
-my car (not about how great a car it is... but about how much I enjoy driving in my car and what that time means to me)
-the Atari room in Grandpa Knight's house
-bundled up in front of the fireplace or hogging a heating vent
-Goblin Valley
-Alaska

Think about why this place is so meaningful to you or comes to mind as something to share. Describe it in as much detail as you can. What memories do you associate with this location? Is this a favorite place because of certain memories? Did certain events or moments become more meaningful to you because they took place here?

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If you're participating in this prompt and want to share, email me.