How does a non-writer write a book?
October 21, 2022 6:59 PM Subscribe
My father died a few years ago and I’d like to remember him by writing a memoir about a specific 4-year period of my childhood when he played a significant role. How do I start, having little creative writing experience?
My father died a few years ago. Since his passing, I continually return to a specific period of my childhood when I was between the ages of 8 to 12 which had a significant impact on the trajectory of my life.
I’d like to write a memoir about these years. I have no illusions about this being published, this exercise is entirely for my own satisfaction, yet I want to do the story justice.
I’m have little experience with creative writing and have certainly never written a memoir before. Where do it start? Take a class? Is there a text about creative or autobiographical writing which you’ve found useful?
Right now, I have a great deal of notes but have hesitated in going further than that because I feel it might be better to get some guidance before diving in and starting the writing process. But I don’t know where to look for that guidance. I’m fortunate that, since this is a personal project, I have the luxury of no timeline. My budget is fairly generous as well.
Any advice from the writers here as to what my next steps should be is welcome.
My father died a few years ago. Since his passing, I continually return to a specific period of my childhood when I was between the ages of 8 to 12 which had a significant impact on the trajectory of my life.
I’d like to write a memoir about these years. I have no illusions about this being published, this exercise is entirely for my own satisfaction, yet I want to do the story justice.
I’m have little experience with creative writing and have certainly never written a memoir before. Where do it start? Take a class? Is there a text about creative or autobiographical writing which you’ve found useful?
Right now, I have a great deal of notes but have hesitated in going further than that because I feel it might be better to get some guidance before diving in and starting the writing process. But I don’t know where to look for that guidance. I’m fortunate that, since this is a personal project, I have the luxury of no timeline. My budget is fairly generous as well.
Any advice from the writers here as to what my next steps should be is welcome.
Molly Wizenberg teaches a class that sounds like it might be for you: From Memory to Story. It’s billed as no-experience-necessary.
I haven’t taken the class, but she writes well and is an engaging speaker.
posted by fruitslinger at 7:29 PM on October 21, 2022 [4 favorites]
I haven’t taken the class, but she writes well and is an engaging speaker.
posted by fruitslinger at 7:29 PM on October 21, 2022 [4 favorites]
First, I'm want to say that I'm sorry for your loss. Having lost my father recently, please accept a virtual gesture of sympathy.
For the writing portion, my first suggestion would be to write an outline of the story you want to tell in order to capture a narrative structure. You aren't going to forget the emotions, so starting to structure the beats of the story you want to convey helps guide your later on. From there, you can weave in the commentary and color the story needs.
If you want to bulk out the story, thinking about the historical context, either your family's or general history, may add depth to the story as well. Finding common elements a reader may have helps ground their perspective and then let's you play against that if needed. It also helps you stake events in time in order to pace a narrative.
Even if you have no intention of publishing this, I would also consider finding someone with no connection to the story to act as an editor. This is probably the most risky recommendation because you're essentially asking someone to comment or revise your experience. Even if these editors do have a connection (family, friends, etc), it can be contentious or painful. But, they may have perspectives you hadn't considered or facts you didn't have.
Whatever you choose to do, be honest, be critical of your perspective, and be true to yourself in your goals with setting down words that are highly personal.
posted by youknowwhatpart at 7:33 PM on October 21, 2022 [4 favorites]
For the writing portion, my first suggestion would be to write an outline of the story you want to tell in order to capture a narrative structure. You aren't going to forget the emotions, so starting to structure the beats of the story you want to convey helps guide your later on. From there, you can weave in the commentary and color the story needs.
If you want to bulk out the story, thinking about the historical context, either your family's or general history, may add depth to the story as well. Finding common elements a reader may have helps ground their perspective and then let's you play against that if needed. It also helps you stake events in time in order to pace a narrative.
Even if you have no intention of publishing this, I would also consider finding someone with no connection to the story to act as an editor. This is probably the most risky recommendation because you're essentially asking someone to comment or revise your experience. Even if these editors do have a connection (family, friends, etc), it can be contentious or painful. But, they may have perspectives you hadn't considered or facts you didn't have.
Whatever you choose to do, be honest, be critical of your perspective, and be true to yourself in your goals with setting down words that are highly personal.
posted by youknowwhatpart at 7:33 PM on October 21, 2022 [4 favorites]
I am not a writer.
But, just start telling your story. You can always go back and edit, get suggestions, etc. But, just say what you want to say, and worry about the polish later.
posted by Windopaene at 7:37 PM on October 21, 2022 [2 favorites]
But, just start telling your story. You can always go back and edit, get suggestions, etc. But, just say what you want to say, and worry about the polish later.
posted by Windopaene at 7:37 PM on October 21, 2022 [2 favorites]
In line with Windopaene, consider recording your own spoken story-telling. You're more apt to include what you want to say rather than get distracted in the mechanics of writing. As Dorothyisunderwood suggests, maybe have family and other acquaintances of your father contribute their spoken stories.
Having recorded all you want, then consider how to organize it as writing. Some published authors work this way. One approach is to consider one theme or a few threads that would hold the story together. Another technique is to open with an interesting and engaging event, and gradually resolve it.
Let it sit. Then when you read what got written, you may find redundant or less important paragraphs and phrases to trim. Your expressive goal may not require this. But if you hope also to pass this on to family and friends of your father, keeping it engaging will help them.
posted by gregoreo at 7:44 PM on October 21, 2022 [4 favorites]
Having recorded all you want, then consider how to organize it as writing. Some published authors work this way. One approach is to consider one theme or a few threads that would hold the story together. Another technique is to open with an interesting and engaging event, and gradually resolve it.
Let it sit. Then when you read what got written, you may find redundant or less important paragraphs and phrases to trim. Your expressive goal may not require this. But if you hope also to pass this on to family and friends of your father, keeping it engaging will help them.
posted by gregoreo at 7:44 PM on October 21, 2022 [4 favorites]
I think the first step is to understand that you aren’t going to be writing nearly as much as you’re going to be editing, revising, and outright rewriting. You’ll have to do a bunch of writing upfront just to get the memories out of your head, but the actual work of making them into a cohesive narrative is going to involve a lot more.
I’m not a published writer, but I do write as a hobby, and one thing I find helpful is thinking in terms of scenes, like in a play or a movie. This will help you with structure, but also with overcoming any bouts of writer’s block or procrastination. First start out by listing the scenes you want to write about. This will be your outline, and you can fill in detail in the outline if you’d like. But the real fun of writing like this is that you don’t have to write the scenes in order. In movies, nobody films chronologically, and you don’t have to write that way, either. If there’s a scene 1/3 of the way in that’s hard for you, skip ahead and write something closer to the end. If you happen to be thinking about a particular scene one day, write that. As someone who’s never written before, you’re likely still thinking linearly, and it’s hard to write that way because it’s not how your memories are stored.
The other benefit, especially for a new writer, is that it’s easy to hit your goals. Most writing advice tells you to aim for like 1000 words in a day or something. If you dump the easy stuff out there first, it’ll be easy to hit that word count, and then when you get to the harder stuff, you’ll have practiced and developed the writing habit so you’ll be better prepared.
The downside is that it will require a LOT of editing after you’re done writing. But that’s why my first piece of advice was to think of the process as mostly editing and rewriting.
posted by kevinbelt at 8:03 PM on October 21, 2022 [2 favorites]
I’m not a published writer, but I do write as a hobby, and one thing I find helpful is thinking in terms of scenes, like in a play or a movie. This will help you with structure, but also with overcoming any bouts of writer’s block or procrastination. First start out by listing the scenes you want to write about. This will be your outline, and you can fill in detail in the outline if you’d like. But the real fun of writing like this is that you don’t have to write the scenes in order. In movies, nobody films chronologically, and you don’t have to write that way, either. If there’s a scene 1/3 of the way in that’s hard for you, skip ahead and write something closer to the end. If you happen to be thinking about a particular scene one day, write that. As someone who’s never written before, you’re likely still thinking linearly, and it’s hard to write that way because it’s not how your memories are stored.
The other benefit, especially for a new writer, is that it’s easy to hit your goals. Most writing advice tells you to aim for like 1000 words in a day or something. If you dump the easy stuff out there first, it’ll be easy to hit that word count, and then when you get to the harder stuff, you’ll have practiced and developed the writing habit so you’ll be better prepared.
The downside is that it will require a LOT of editing after you’re done writing. But that’s why my first piece of advice was to think of the process as mostly editing and rewriting.
posted by kevinbelt at 8:03 PM on October 21, 2022 [2 favorites]
I'm a big fan of outlines for writing just about anything, but that might be a personality thing. However, one way of outlining would be to create an outline that is composed of each year, just a timeline. A lot of what you're trying to do is going to be fairly linear, so this could be a way of just giving some structure to your existing notes. From there you can move things around to the right places (even duplicating until later) and maybe start adding some more detail and gluing all the pieces together. In this way you can do some important editing along the way. If you really want to turbo this, some word processors let you have outline and page modes where each sentence can be a subnode of a "paragraph" grouping, which will let you easily switch to reader mode to see what it looks like strung together with formatting and proper typesetting, not to mention being able to easily move blocks of text around if they're written fine, but in the wrong place.
posted by rhizome at 8:16 PM on October 21, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by rhizome at 8:16 PM on October 21, 2022 [1 favorite]
If you are interested in taking a course on memoir, you could try your local library, or a university or college continuing education or community outreach department.
posted by lulu68 at 9:13 PM on October 21, 2022
posted by lulu68 at 9:13 PM on October 21, 2022
Lots of great advice so far. I would tell you to enroll in a creative writing 101 workshop class at your local community college or state university or whatnot. Workshop classes give you feedback on your idea and your work, and require you to bring new work to class each week. If the instructor is decent and the class not full of idiots looking for easy credits (and sometimes even if it is) you will get a sense of the scope and tone of the story you want to tell.
It is not easy. I used to write a lot. Now I do not. I regret it somewhat.
posted by vrakatar at 9:40 PM on October 21, 2022 [2 favorites]
It is not easy. I used to write a lot. Now I do not. I regret it somewhat.
posted by vrakatar at 9:40 PM on October 21, 2022 [2 favorites]
You don’t need a class unless you would find that fun or motivating.
Write about specific memorable instances as shorter stories, each with a beginning, middle, and end. You can write—and arrange—them in any order you want.
“Show, don’t tell” is such common advice as to be clichéd—but it’s repeated because it’s very helpful. Don’t worry about making any statements about what kind of person he was, or what he meant to you—that will emerge as the binding thread of the stories.
For example, instead of “My father was funny. He always had us in stitches at the dinner table, even during the divorce,” write about the time your mother accused him of taking too much chicken and he answered in a chicken voice and your mom laughed for the first time in months, or what have you.
posted by kapers at 9:48 PM on October 21, 2022 [1 favorite]
Write about specific memorable instances as shorter stories, each with a beginning, middle, and end. You can write—and arrange—them in any order you want.
“Show, don’t tell” is such common advice as to be clichéd—but it’s repeated because it’s very helpful. Don’t worry about making any statements about what kind of person he was, or what he meant to you—that will emerge as the binding thread of the stories.
For example, instead of “My father was funny. He always had us in stitches at the dinner table, even during the divorce,” write about the time your mother accused him of taking too much chicken and he answered in a chicken voice and your mom laughed for the first time in months, or what have you.
posted by kapers at 9:48 PM on October 21, 2022 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I am a published writer. I've never written a memoir, but one of my upcoming books is a non-fiction picturebook about my mother's childhood experiences.
There are fields like medicine where there's a well-established series of steps to take you from "I don't know anything about this" to "I can do this at a professional level." Writing isn't like that-- there are as many paths as there are writers. All of the answers you've gotten in this thread are excellent ones. Any of them could work for you, so feel free to pick and choose any that resonate. Also feel free to try any of them and then if they're not working, throw them out and try something else.
Based on what you've said about your desire to get some guidance at this stage, it sounds like taking a class is a good option. Because there's no one way to write, that takes some pressure off which class you choose. Whether you take a class from a nationally known writer like Molly Wizenberg, or you sign up for a local community college class, you'll be learning from one specific writer about things that work for them. Some of those things will work for you and some won't-- but the best thing you can do is to dive in and start experimenting with your own particular process.
You mention that you want to "do the story justice," which is a great goal. But it's worth digging into what you mean by that. Are you working towards...
• A text that helps clarify your own feelings, but might not be meaningful to somebody else?
• A text that might be meaningful to your father's relatives and close friends, but not to people who didn't know him?
• A text that might be meaningful to your own circle of family and friends, including those who don't know anything about your father?
• A professional-quality text that would be meaningful to total strangers who have no connection whatsoever to you?
It's important to know where on the spectrum between "just for me" and "for the entire world" you want to fall, because that has a huge impact on how relentlessly you must wield your editorial knife. If you're just writing for yourself, you can include every detail that's personally meaningful, whether or not it helps shape a unified overall narrative. If you're writing for your father's friends, you might cut an anecdote that's only meaningful to you, but include one that's meaningful to anybody who knew your father. And if you're trying to write a professional-quality narrative, you will find yourself cutting things that are deeply important to anybody who knew your father, but irrelevant to the polished and consistent narrative of this one particular text.
Our culture tends to value creative expression most highly when it can be sold commercially. And so most of the writing advice you'll find (in books or classes or one-on-one editorial work) is geared towards writing professional quality texts. I am a professional writer so obviously I think there is a lot of value in shaping your feelings into a polished form you can share with the world! But I think it's a huge mistake to view that as the only worthwhile form of creativity. You wisely say that you don't expect this to be published, but I want to make sure you don't fall into the trap of applying professional standards if they don't serve your own personal goals.
You might even consider doing what I did. When I first started writing about my mom's story, I created two different versions-- one for my family, which included lots of extraneous details about various relatives; and a second that was much more streamlined, and meant for the world as a whole.
posted by yankeefog at 2:35 AM on October 22, 2022 [11 favorites]
There are fields like medicine where there's a well-established series of steps to take you from "I don't know anything about this" to "I can do this at a professional level." Writing isn't like that-- there are as many paths as there are writers. All of the answers you've gotten in this thread are excellent ones. Any of them could work for you, so feel free to pick and choose any that resonate. Also feel free to try any of them and then if they're not working, throw them out and try something else.
Based on what you've said about your desire to get some guidance at this stage, it sounds like taking a class is a good option. Because there's no one way to write, that takes some pressure off which class you choose. Whether you take a class from a nationally known writer like Molly Wizenberg, or you sign up for a local community college class, you'll be learning from one specific writer about things that work for them. Some of those things will work for you and some won't-- but the best thing you can do is to dive in and start experimenting with your own particular process.
You mention that you want to "do the story justice," which is a great goal. But it's worth digging into what you mean by that. Are you working towards...
• A text that helps clarify your own feelings, but might not be meaningful to somebody else?
• A text that might be meaningful to your father's relatives and close friends, but not to people who didn't know him?
• A text that might be meaningful to your own circle of family and friends, including those who don't know anything about your father?
• A professional-quality text that would be meaningful to total strangers who have no connection whatsoever to you?
It's important to know where on the spectrum between "just for me" and "for the entire world" you want to fall, because that has a huge impact on how relentlessly you must wield your editorial knife. If you're just writing for yourself, you can include every detail that's personally meaningful, whether or not it helps shape a unified overall narrative. If you're writing for your father's friends, you might cut an anecdote that's only meaningful to you, but include one that's meaningful to anybody who knew your father. And if you're trying to write a professional-quality narrative, you will find yourself cutting things that are deeply important to anybody who knew your father, but irrelevant to the polished and consistent narrative of this one particular text.
Our culture tends to value creative expression most highly when it can be sold commercially. And so most of the writing advice you'll find (in books or classes or one-on-one editorial work) is geared towards writing professional quality texts. I am a professional writer so obviously I think there is a lot of value in shaping your feelings into a polished form you can share with the world! But I think it's a huge mistake to view that as the only worthwhile form of creativity. You wisely say that you don't expect this to be published, but I want to make sure you don't fall into the trap of applying professional standards if they don't serve your own personal goals.
You might even consider doing what I did. When I first started writing about my mom's story, I created two different versions-- one for my family, which included lots of extraneous details about various relatives; and a second that was much more streamlined, and meant for the world as a whole.
posted by yankeefog at 2:35 AM on October 22, 2022 [11 favorites]
You don’t need a class unless you would find that fun or motivating.
I wanted to second this just to emphasize that you already have the story in your head. Sure, there might be some helpful bits in a class about beginnings and transitions and whatnot, but don't think you can't put pen to paper without some new rules. Except for avoiding triple-negatives
posted by rhizome at 2:46 AM on October 22, 2022
I wanted to second this just to emphasize that you already have the story in your head. Sure, there might be some helpful bits in a class about beginnings and transitions and whatnot, but don't think you can't put pen to paper without some new rules. Except for avoiding triple-negatives
posted by rhizome at 2:46 AM on October 22, 2022
I'm sorry for your loss.
I am a former journalist, and I've done a little work with beginning writers.
These are all excellent suggestions, but I agree especially with Windopaene and gregoreo. Beginning writers often self-edit way too much. Sometimes it even cripples them or a given piece. In the actual writing, the first and most critical step is to get as much out of you as possible. And that probably is easiest with voice recording.
I also agree that getting memories and photos, etc., from others can be helpful. You can even record them, too!
posted by NotLost at 4:55 AM on October 22, 2022
I am a former journalist, and I've done a little work with beginning writers.
These are all excellent suggestions, but I agree especially with Windopaene and gregoreo. Beginning writers often self-edit way too much. Sometimes it even cripples them or a given piece. In the actual writing, the first and most critical step is to get as much out of you as possible. And that probably is easiest with voice recording.
I also agree that getting memories and photos, etc., from others can be helpful. You can even record them, too!
posted by NotLost at 4:55 AM on October 22, 2022
There is a difference between being an accomplished writer and being a good storyteller. You can be the latter without ever having written a word.
Good storytellers are, for instance, friends who tell you what happened to them on the bus this morning, and they make it sound so interesting you laugh or say "no way".
Maybe you're more ready for this than you know.
So you can prepare by telling someone the story you mean to write down. The person should help you by letting you tell the story several times, like you are practicing a speech or something. And once you're telling it for the third time or so, record it. As we talk, we automatically tell the story in a way we think we'll get the best response. And it'll sound way more natural than if you put the words on paper that you think a good writer should be writing.
As you tell it,you also tend to work out in real time what bits are moving, or meaningful. You can even comment, saying, "and I realise now that this means so much to me because..."
People often think written stories should sound better or more dignified than spoken ones. When often, especially for first timers, the opposite is the case for the kind of work you're planning.
posted by Omnomnom at 5:08 AM on October 22, 2022 [2 favorites]
Good storytellers are, for instance, friends who tell you what happened to them on the bus this morning, and they make it sound so interesting you laugh or say "no way".
Maybe you're more ready for this than you know.
So you can prepare by telling someone the story you mean to write down. The person should help you by letting you tell the story several times, like you are practicing a speech or something. And once you're telling it for the third time or so, record it. As we talk, we automatically tell the story in a way we think we'll get the best response. And it'll sound way more natural than if you put the words on paper that you think a good writer should be writing.
As you tell it,you also tend to work out in real time what bits are moving, or meaningful. You can even comment, saying, "and I realise now that this means so much to me because..."
People often think written stories should sound better or more dignified than spoken ones. When often, especially for first timers, the opposite is the case for the kind of work you're planning.
posted by Omnomnom at 5:08 AM on October 22, 2022 [2 favorites]
One thing I have found, as someone who reads voraciously and has started writing again in the last few years (caveat: fiction, not memoir), is that my idea of how the story ought to go doesn't match up with what actually comes out on my page. That is, I know what effect I want to have on my reader, but my writing sometimes comes out dry and flat. But sometimes it sings!
When revising, I've found writing workshops invaluable, in helping me articulate why some parts are working, identify the problem areas, and figure out how to fix them. It's sometimes easier to see what's happening in other people's work than your own. Especially figuring out how to read books* not just for pleasure but also for craft and mechanics. It's like how art students draw in galleries to figure out technique. I admit that I also like the structure, accountability, and community of a class.
In terms of other resources, The Artist's Way is commonly recommended, although I found it a little too spiritual for my taste. But I thought Bird by Bird really helpful, as was Elizabeth George's Mastering the Process.
* I agree that commercial publishing is not always the best goal for a piece of writing, and there are all kinds of gate-keeping issues around publishing in general. But those texts also serve as the basis for what we think a "good" story is, i.e. my taste has been shaped by the novels I've read.
posted by basalganglia at 5:49 AM on October 22, 2022
When revising, I've found writing workshops invaluable, in helping me articulate why some parts are working, identify the problem areas, and figure out how to fix them. It's sometimes easier to see what's happening in other people's work than your own. Especially figuring out how to read books* not just for pleasure but also for craft and mechanics. It's like how art students draw in galleries to figure out technique. I admit that I also like the structure, accountability, and community of a class.
In terms of other resources, The Artist's Way is commonly recommended, although I found it a little too spiritual for my taste. But I thought Bird by Bird really helpful, as was Elizabeth George's Mastering the Process.
* I agree that commercial publishing is not always the best goal for a piece of writing, and there are all kinds of gate-keeping issues around publishing in general. But those texts also serve as the basis for what we think a "good" story is, i.e. my taste has been shaped by the novels I've read.
posted by basalganglia at 5:49 AM on October 22, 2022
I've always said, Words make phrases, phrases make sentences, sentences make paragraphs, paragraphs make pages and pages make books.
Don't overthink it. If you can't get a bunch of words together and put them down you will never get a book. Polishing, format, all those things can come later.
Just start writing.
As an aside NaNoWriMo is next month which is a writing challenge to put down 50,000 words in a month. It might be a way to kickstart your project with a bunch of other people, if something like that interests you.
posted by AlexiaSky at 6:37 AM on October 22, 2022
Don't overthink it. If you can't get a bunch of words together and put them down you will never get a book. Polishing, format, all those things can come later.
Just start writing.
As an aside NaNoWriMo is next month which is a writing challenge to put down 50,000 words in a month. It might be a way to kickstart your project with a bunch of other people, if something like that interests you.
posted by AlexiaSky at 6:37 AM on October 22, 2022
I wrote a self-published book about people who run one person tourist attractions, and the best advice I can give you is: just start writing it! You can take classes or get someone to edit it if you want, but the thrill for me was just filling up pages with stories, and then editing them myself at least three or four times each until I stopped wanting to change things. I loved the writing process, but didn't like promoting it after I was done. I was happy I sold a few hundred copies, and I stocked some in little free libraries. Above all, have fun!
posted by Furnace of Doubt at 1:16 PM on October 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Furnace of Doubt at 1:16 PM on October 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
Lynda Barry teaches a workshop called "Writing the Unthinkable" that's intended for non-writers and has a lot of focus on memories.
There's a lot of great information about it on the web, like
How To Write The Unthinkable With Lynda Barry
Transcript from interview with Lynda Barry about Writing the Unthinkable
Writing the Unthinkable Lesson at boingboing
Lynda Barry draws out the creativity of memory
The specific exercise most often described is detailed in that first link, but it's basically:
think of a common physical object (car, kitchen table, Mom, tree)
write a list of ten of those (cars, tables, Moms, trees)
pick the one that seems the most vivid
now picture that, and ask yourself:
• where are you
• what time of day or night does it seem to be
• what season does it seem to be
• where is the light coming from
• what kind of light is it
• what’s the temperature like
• what does the air smell like
• what are you doing
• is there anyone else in the image with you
... and so on - there's a full list of questions in that first link.
If you're looking for tools: a lot of writers like Scrivener (and a lot don't, heh). One thing Scrivener is particularly good at, or at least designed for, is writing lots of smallish bits - scenes or whatever. You can then use Scrivener's features to tag each bit with relevant tags: "for the public," "just for me," "for the family," "vague memories," "really clear memories," "polished," "raw," whatever. Then you can pick all the "polished" and "for the family" bits and turn that collection into the version for your family.
Good luck - this sounds like a great project.
posted by kristi at 3:48 PM on October 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
There's a lot of great information about it on the web, like
How To Write The Unthinkable With Lynda Barry
Transcript from interview with Lynda Barry about Writing the Unthinkable
Writing the Unthinkable Lesson at boingboing
Lynda Barry draws out the creativity of memory
The specific exercise most often described is detailed in that first link, but it's basically:
think of a common physical object (car, kitchen table, Mom, tree)
write a list of ten of those (cars, tables, Moms, trees)
pick the one that seems the most vivid
now picture that, and ask yourself:
• where are you
• what time of day or night does it seem to be
• what season does it seem to be
• where is the light coming from
• what kind of light is it
• what’s the temperature like
• what does the air smell like
• what are you doing
• is there anyone else in the image with you
... and so on - there's a full list of questions in that first link.
If you're looking for tools: a lot of writers like Scrivener (and a lot don't, heh). One thing Scrivener is particularly good at, or at least designed for, is writing lots of smallish bits - scenes or whatever. You can then use Scrivener's features to tag each bit with relevant tags: "for the public," "just for me," "for the family," "vague memories," "really clear memories," "polished," "raw," whatever. Then you can pick all the "polished" and "for the family" bits and turn that collection into the version for your family.
Good luck - this sounds like a great project.
posted by kristi at 3:48 PM on October 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
I continually return to a specific period of my childhood when I was between the ages of 8 to 12 which had a significant impact on the trajectory of my life
Turn that 8-12 into years, make a list of (year, age). Add in your school grade (year, age, grade). If you moved or anything, add that in the right place. If you saw movies or TV or other things that you can google down to a date-range, add those memories into the list.
That will help you really narrow down when memories happened. Like: "That happened when I was late 10 or early 11 because it was 6th grade. So fall of 1980 to spring of 1981." or "That happened when I was 8 or 9 because it was at the old house. So 1978-1979."
I guess that's just something like make a master timeline that also holds a bunch of other stuff because it will eventually help arranging things.
posted by zengargoyle at 5:36 AM on October 27, 2022
Turn that 8-12 into years, make a list of (year, age). Add in your school grade (year, age, grade). If you moved or anything, add that in the right place. If you saw movies or TV or other things that you can google down to a date-range, add those memories into the list.
That will help you really narrow down when memories happened. Like: "That happened when I was late 10 or early 11 because it was 6th grade. So fall of 1980 to spring of 1981." or "That happened when I was 8 or 9 because it was at the old house. So 1978-1979."
I guess that's just something like make a master timeline that also holds a bunch of other stuff because it will eventually help arranging things.
posted by zengargoyle at 5:36 AM on October 27, 2022
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I will say that although the writing was definitely not polished in any of them, years and even decades later, I still vividly remember details from the unpublished and self-published pieces I read because they were of places and people I knew. For the people close to you or in your community, these stories can be deeply meaningful.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 7:27 PM on October 21, 2022