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.