Posted by
I am sure if you left out the prominent points of your life you would miss all the emotion you felt when these things happened. Think of yourself in perpetual youth, a memory which begins as far back as your mind will bring you. Characters will begin to show up, and you may even dream about them.
To reach into your life for details from the past you have to leave the baggage alone, forget about it,
today it is just another experience, something to add character to your style, life story, poetic memoir. I am sure as I think back to being in that crib, and the only thing I saw after kisses, tucked in sheets, was God above the wooden
bars; this vision stayed with me for a lifetime. The entire room is in my minds' eye. Once I wanted to hide inside those old dressers where a long metal bar pulled out which held ironed dresses, and to look at that dresser today in
the attic it is difficult to believe I could ever fit inside such a small compartment.
Once you have discovered you can talk about a stranger to another stranger, (a listener, reader, etc.) you can tell your own mind to release the hold it has on your yesterday, and you will be on one of the longest time travel "trips" you've ever known. Writers have many ways to go back in time; tricks of the trade. I find the best way is while you are alone, thinking about a certain place in time, and be sure to have paper and pen along with you. I have filled many notebooks with one thought.
Do you tell stories to your friends? Well if so, you can tell them on paper. Storytellers make wonderful writers in the genre of Poetic Memoir - you see - you may not recall the color of the wallpaper, but you remember the ugly flowers, and matted down shag carpet as you entered a room. Now you are there, this is the time to remember what was around you? Take this trip around the home where you grew up, from the front, side to back, and write, just write until your hands won't allow the words to exit from your heart. You are writing the basic story of your life. You probably forgot across the street was a huge tree, and during every storm you thought about that tree falling in your direction, near your window.
Where were you when you first realized you weren't with your guardian? Were you ever alone some where that is acceptable today and not yesterday? Oh, I have many I have shared and they still come into my mind and
fill a basket of thoughts, a basket to reach for - draw one like a game and every morning write about that thought, your writing about your life.
One of the best places for Poetic Memoir is a photo - photography brings back memory - perhaps because we all talked about the pictures, shared them as young people share the ipod today. I wonder what memories they will share, perhaps your memories - and stories will make a big impression on what life was like before technology took over the world.
I mentioned I would leave tips here every now and then, and this is one of the new tips for now. I am hoping they give
your mind a jolt, make you forget the sadness in yesterday, accept life, accept the happiness with the questions, turn it all into a story of your life. Hesitation is a bad trait for any writer.
  |   |   |
|---|
