Category: My own life
-
Life to Stories: 3 Habits, 3 Rules, 3 Stages
Since the beginning of civilization we’ve looked to heroes to show us the way. In the old days these heroes were mythological and lived on mountains. In the modern age, we look to each other in order to learn how to climb those mountains.
Written by
-
How Boys Become Men – or – Can Memoirs Stop the Violence?
aggression, anger, assertiveness, Boys, development, essay, gender, idealism, Islam, males, Memoirs, men, Muslims, rebellion, thumosEven though Husain’s ideology was light-years away from mine, our hearts followed similar paths. Both of us believed that our political beliefs were righteous and important. Both of us felt responsible to take any action necessary to change the world to conform to our beliefs. This sense of righteous urgency caused both of us to…
Written by
-
Why Boomers Should Write Memoirs about the 60s
As I search for my story, I return to my curiosity about my parents. All I knew about them was summed up in a couple of clichés about immigrants and the Great Depression, but I knew nothing about their specific, day-to-day circumstances. I wonder if reading their memoir would have brought us closer to each…
Written by
-
Catch-up grief: how visiting my brother helped me grow
As I write my memoir, these 32 years later, I discover the gaping hole his death created, as if I was postponing my grief until I was mature enough to better understand what happened. I now watch our relationship unfold in slow motion, and this time I intend to learn as much as possible about…
Written by
-
Failure to Launch Generates Dramatic Tension
Emerging into adulthood is sometimes dubbed “launching,” a term that reminds me of a woman in a fur coat smashing a bottle across the bow of a ship being sent to sea on its maiden voyage. My launching did not include getting hit with a bottle of champagne, but I was hit with other substances…
Written by
-
Making memories, remembering memories, writing memories
This eight hour workshop immersed us in each other’s stories.
Written by
-
Your Autobiography is the First Step Towards Writing Your Memoir
But I don’t feel done. I want to take the next step and share my life with others. The problem is that readers don’t want a compendium of my entire life. They want a Story – that is, a dramatic form that we all have learned since we were children. My life does not by…
Written by
-
Reading error teaches a writing lesson – or – A good character is hard to define
Part of relating to a good story is to feel a personal connection with its characters. Now I need to develop the knack of portraying the people in my life onto the pages in my memoir. I have attended workshops, and read how-to books about this skill, but it has been eluding me until recently…
Written by
-
Link isolated anecdotes into a story with the power of your beliefs
A memoir starts with a single anecdote. Then another, and another. In our imagination, we know these events formed our life. But other people can’t read our imagination. They can only read what’s on the page. We must transform the anecdotes into a compelling story. The memoir writer’s job is to discover the binding that…
Written by
-
Escaping the prison of what might have been
I have met many men and women, who start out pointing in one direction, say towards a profession, or marriage and babies, or the family business. Then they end up somewhere else. Often the change in direction leaves them or their parents feeling confused, as if they have disrupted destiny or lost an important part…
Written by