I have considered writing a memoir, but then I think: who would read it? I am about as interesting as the next person, but do I really want to share my “interesting” parts with the world?
Lucky (memoir) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In the book, “Writing and Selling Your Memoir”, Paula Balzer says: “If there is anything that can be learned from the reading and writing of memoir, it’s this. Life is complicated. It isn’t neat—and it certainly doesn’t always show humanity at its best. But memoir is also where we see the human spirit surviving,…”.
My problem with writing a memoir is the telling (or bloodletting) of the whole unvarnished truth. Joyce Maynard says that “the truth is not always a comfortable thing to look at squarely.” Ya think?
I have come up with a way to write a memoir that would be truthful and intriguing: write it in passages of 200 words. 200 words for grade one; 200 words for your wedding day; 200 words for the birth of your child; 200 words for turning 39 for the 20th time. In so sharing, you would be sharing the human experience—without all the boring bits.
What do you think? Can you truthfully show the “human spirit surviving” in 200 word capsules?
On the Homefront 