MM is for Meandering Memories
How Do Your Memories Feature In Your Writing?
Please read my previous post on Auto/Biographical Writing in which I described a memory that is still important to me, and wrote a poem about my memory of following my grandmother into teaching.
At what point might memory cross over into fiction, I’ve been wondering. We can never eliminate the expansive imagined material that our brains house. We may try to write factual accounts and end up with a reimagined form of the story.
Putting Meandering Memory to Good Use
Every time you plan a story or plunge head first into one without any planning (a.k.a. pantsing – see below) you are relying on the data you already have stored in your library of past experience and knowledge a.k.a. your brain. [see Planning VS Pantsing at Writers HQ].
- Do not mistrust your own ability to be creative with words.
- Do not force your imagination to invent something brand new in an instant, for creativity needs to be nurtured, practised and rewritten over and over again.
- Do trust your experiences and knowledge to help you say something that your reader may not have met or thought before.
- Do trust your experiences and knowledge to guide you to say exactly what your reader with recognise as having been similar to their own memories.
This is a topic I could write about at length but I hope I’ve said enough to convince you the powerhouse of your brain, and the gentleness of your heart, will enable you to create worlds, characters, plots, and themes that will rest with your readers precisely because they recognise them. Your ability to tell a story will provide added entertainment value and make those readers think for themselves as they read.
More writing practice at ABC Alliterative Title Challenge.
