The Memory List: How to identify events and relationships to put in or leave out of a memoir

This task is a core endeavor, strictly useful and strictly necessary.?

People are always careful to say “There’s no magic bullet” when they offer advice.” Well …

The?Memory List?is as close to a “magic bullet” as you can get. You will be thrilled at how it facilitates your writing.?

A Memory List is made up of three-to-five-word memories of everything you can remember about an experience, a time, a person, an event, anything.?

Don’t write without a Memory List. If you’ve already started to write your lifestory: Stop and compile your Memory List as soon as you finish reading this valuable tip. With a Memory List in hand, you will never again have to face the dreaded—and totally unnecessary—“writer’s block.” A Memory List is that good. (That’s why we think of it as a “magic bullet!”)

Your Memory List will take you a while to create but that needn’t be a reason you drop everything until it is done. No, give it a big push at the start of your writing.

You can begin to write your memoir from items in your developing list. Then keep adding to your Memory List as you are creating your memoir and more ideas come up. These additional items will likely lend your memoir more precision and focus. Eventually, your list can have hundreds and hundreds of items. In fact, it should. If it doesn’t include at least several hundred items, be patient and keep adding to your list, keep developing it. Having too few memories on your list doesn’t serve your memoir—but this is something that almost never happens!

If you appreciate the info in this newsletter and are finding it useful to you as a writer, you will definitely like the Memoir Network website. We have 600+ free blog posts on every topic of writing as well as free ebooks, videos, and writing courses. For starters, download our book, 21 Must-Do, Memoir-Writing Tasks.

On any day that I don’t know what to write about (not a frequent occurrence, by the way), I turn to my Memory List and choose something that captures my attention at the moment and begin to write about that memory. Later I will add this story in its proper place in the memoir.

With a Memory List, there will be no more “writer’s block.”?

Imagine: No more “writer’s block”—ever.?Just look your list over and write about something on it.

How’s that for a magic bullet!?

For more info on Memory Lists, click?here.?

And remember: “Inch by inch, it’s a cinch; yard by yard, it’s hard.”

Good luck writing your stories!

Keep writing. Your memoir is important.

Best,

Denis

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