Memoir 2/10

We had a good class today...thanks Tamarra and Stephanie. We talked about what point of view to use when writing a memoir and looked at some examples. Possibilities are:

• the voice of an adult about an event as an adult (yes, you are all adults!)
• the voice of an adult about something that happened in childhood
• the voice of a child about something that happened in childhood

We also looked at first paragraphs of memoirs. They differ from news stories in that they don't have to include who, what, where, when, and how. The first paragraph should include some of this so the reader isn't lost, but it can also leave some items out-something for the reader to be curious about.

In class activity: We wrote down song titles from our MP3 players and iPods and thought of events in our lives that the song titles reminded us of and then we chose one to write about.

Assignment for next week:

• Choose a topic for your memoir.
• Decide what voice it will have and how much time it will cover (30 minutes, 1 day, 1 summer, etc.). Remember--you're not writing your life story! You're writing about one event or story in your life.
• Decide at what point in time the memoir starts (at the beginning of what happened or somewhere else?).
• Write the first paragraph of your memoir. You can write more if you want, but only bring the first paragraph to the workshop next week. Remember to include a "hook"--something that hooks your readers in and makes them want to read more.
• Make sure your paragraph is typed and double-spaced. Print out a copy for the workshop.

See you next week!
Kathryn