Power Write with a Memory List
If you are ever at a loss for what to write, consider creating a memory list as a useful resource.
What’s a memory list?
It’s a list you create with a brief sentence, a phrase, or just a word that signifies a memory from your life.
If you’re like me, you have hundreds of memories from your childhood all the way up to now. Each is significant in that it triggers your recollection of that moment, person, place, time, or a turning point in your life.
Your list might include funny, happy, painful, and embarrassing memories.
Let me give you an example from my list, which includes hundreds of memories. I created a master list that I can add to any time I think of a new memory.? In addition to memories, you can include topics that particularly intrigue you in a separate list.
Here’s a random excerpt from my multiple-page list:
-??????? A cab ride in Jamaica with a strange, silent driver
-??????? Calling the Justice of the Peace from a phone booth
-??????? My first embarrassing ATM experience
-??????? Summer Camp misery
-??????? Diving into a pile of leaves
-??????? Chemistry class in high school
-??????? Army footlocker dilemma
-??????? Books that changed my life
-??????? Cleaning up the old metal-clad table
-??????? Coming back to Fort Gordon and hearing, “Get your hands out of your pockets, troop!”
-??????? Crawling through a tunnel in Vietnam
Each one of these immediately triggers a memory of that event, person, or time in my life. Some are significant. Some are not. Yet, all trigger my memory.
When I’m stuck as to what to write, I have something that is unique to me—a list of people, places, or events from my life. Yet, when I write about it, each memory may have a wider lesson or potential moral that I can share with my readers.
Here are some examples of how I turned a memory into an article published on LinkedIn and elsewhere. Some expanded memories became speeches or talks I delivered to live audiences. I’ll include a link to the article so you can see how it developed from my memory nugget.
Memory: Pricing myself out of a job.
Published article: How I Priced Myself Out of a Job
Lead in or tee-up to my story: “How I priced myself out of a job by following well-meaning but bad advice.”
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Memory: Creating a bookstore window display featuring Aristotle vs. Plato.
Article title: “Plato, Aristotle, and Ayn Rand duke it out in a bookstore.”
Tee-up: I used the article title as the tee-up.
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Memory: Crawling through the tunnel in Vietnam.
Article title: Fear Taught Me Vital Lessons in a Claustrophobic Tunnel
Tee-up: “How I conquered fear, crawling through a tunnel.”
I also did some dramatic presentations of this story for Toastmasters.
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Here’s one more example of turning a memory into an article…
Memory: Trying to find a particular restaurant in Coffeeville, Kansas.
Article title: Search for the “Flying Eggs Restaurant”
Tee-up: “Funny thing about a typo… it can bring a boatload of trouble.”
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What makes your memories valuable is that you have no competition. Each memory is unique to you. You may be able to find a lesson or message from your memory that helps you connect, entertain, and potentially inspire your readers or audience.
Start your own unique list of memories.
Give it a try.
Go ahead...
Teacher/Tutor and Essayist
1 年It's interesting to look at another writer's process! You seem to be writing mostly memoir, while I write mostly straight discursive prose. Your technique sounds helpful for what you do. I have to write impressions or short-to-medium trains of thought. I can write inspirationally to some extent, but only after a lot of prep "behind the scenes." Anyway, thanks for the essay!