Sometimes you have to go away to learn (relearn) where your heart lives. Last month I was on the Seine River for eight days and then in Paris for four days and saw a lot of really charming towns, beautiful buildings, churches, bridges, landscapes and gardens. But none of it made me think – yes,…
Writing Your Own History
Writing Your Own History
unbogging the past
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 3 Comments
Let’s say that you want to write your entire life story, and you want to start with memories of your grandmother telling you about growing up in Andorra, moving to Paris, coming to this country where she met your grandfather on a cattle ranch in Wyoming. (And this is just your maternal grandmother.) You also want to include what your paternal grandparents told you about living in Vermont during the Depression, the biggest snowstorm that ever hit St. Johnsbury, and the history of that farm table handed down to you etc. And you’re not even up to your parents let alone the beginning of your own journey on this earth. There’s just so much material if you’re over the age of thirty and it compounds as the years fly by. The sheer weight of all this material can bog you down before you even begin. What to do? Check out what Jean Franks did below.
Terrific Books, Writing Your Own History
fiction: an imaginary tea party
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 4 Comments
When you want to fictionalize your life in a short story or a novel, your props might be a theme that you want to explore, a true life setting, some characters who may be real people in your life (more about them later), and emotion. The emotion is important. And it’s not really a prop of course – it’s the engine of your fiction. Hopefully you also have fragments of a story. Something happens in fiction. Your characters want/need something, they struggle for it, things go wrong, and in the end they either get it (happiness, peace, the girl/boy, money, property, understanding etc.), or they don’t. But there’s action in the struggle. They don’t just sit around thinking about it like we usually do in real life.
Writing Your Own History
writing your own history
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 4 Comments
There are two ways to write your own history. Write a memoir – just one period of your life. Or write an autobiography – your whole life from birth up to this moment. Both are non-fiction and true. (There’s a wonderful discussion of truth in memoir, thanks to James Frey and Oprah, all over the newspapers as I write this.)
Personal Essays, Writing Your Own History
the personal essay: weird shoes, etc.
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 0 Comments
If you can write a coherent sentence and are willing to work hard, you can write a personal essay, each and every one of you. And most likely get it published too. Yes, a number of you may be rolling your eyes right now, but it’s true. You’ve got a shot at this. And the personal essay is the one genre of writing I can say this about.
Writing Your Own History
the best assignment you’ll ever get
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 0 Comments
Go to a library or a bookstore and browse. Dip into books. Find the latest books by your favorite authors. Find the kind of book, or collection of essays, that you want to write. Find your muse and mentor, your literary love. Check out or buy as many books as possible. Go home and read. When you’re writing you can rationalize these book binges. You’re acquiring essential tools for your job.
Writing Your Own History
the 5 minute exercise
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 3 Comments
This morning in my writing workshop at the Wellness Community we began, as we always do, writing a list of pains and pleasures: the most hurtful things that had happened in the past month and then the things that had brought pleasure and happiness. Everyone wrote for five minutes. The five minute time limit for writing is crucial and the whole workshop is set up around it – three hours of five minute writing exercises about different topics and then reading the exercises aloud…..
