GROWING THE COLLECTION
RECOLLECTING TOGETHER
Some of those memories will be important shared moments. If the other people involved were still around, you’ve set yourself up for a meaningful conversation, going to the others and asking, “What do you remember about…?” This might add context to your own reflections, or simply allow you to record a different version of events.
VISUALS
You can also start to add in photographs. These not only add a welcome visual element to the stories, but they will be an aid to memory.
OBJECTS
Another avenue into memories is through possessions – a car, a watch, a musical instrument, a piece of jewelry or art. Tell a story about these and they could help turn the objects into family heirlooms, perhaps ones with enormous sentimental value.
EXTERNALS
Connecting your life with historical events can give perspective to anyone who might read what you’ve written. There are giant events like the moon landing, more localized ones like a flood or tornado, and also events like a real estate crash.
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As you can see just by reading this far, you’ll soon have a lot of memories for your Memory Lane.
THEN WHAT?
At some point, you’ll turn to editing what you’ve been putting down. As any professional writer knows, “writing is rewriting.” Here a spell- and grammar-checker is helpful. But, more importantly, you’ll want to tighten up some stories and add details to others. Some thoughts on creating a readable recollection:
Write for one person. Even though you might share your memories with a number of people, it helps if you picture one or two people in your mind as you write. Write the story for, say, your daughter or your nephew. By picturing that person, you’ll know what will make them laugh or cry or gasp. Your goal is always to share the feeling, not just the event.
Don’t try to write impressively. If you’re trying to impress readers with your vocabulary or complex sentences, you’ll just take them out of the story. You want colorful language not polysyllabic words. Take that little example from earlier, about a teen bedroom – the longest word was “suspicious” and the example used first person (I/me/my) five times in a short paragraph. Keep things clear. If I ask a colleague to read a draft of something I’ve written, I always say, “Please put a mark next to any sentence you had to reread to make sense of.”
It’s a garden, not a jungle. As you’re putting done memories, the more the better. But if you want to shape those stories into something others will gladly read, you’ll probably need more pruning and less fertilizing – in other words, ya gotta cut. Here’s where it helps to have a specific reader in mind (the one person you’re picturing as you write that we described above). Picture yourself reading your text aloud to that person and you can imagine where their interest is waning. It may even happen that you start to bore yourself – that’s a good thing because that’s when you know you’ve become objective about what you’ve written and you are becoming skilled at pruning.
Time to share. Finally, if you’re ready to share what you’ve written, you’ll want to ask someone who is kind but honest to give you feedback. It’s probably wise to start with just a story or two. They will, no doubt, be supportive and tell it’s great. So you need to ask questions. Where did your mind wander? What parts did you have to read more than once to make sense of? Did it ever feel too slow? Too fast? Where did you have questions?
A ”Memory Lane” Writers’ Group?
Even better than asking a friend for feedback would be to have a writers’ group to share excerpts with. Perhaps we should start one. If you’re interested in being part of a group at the park that is writing memories, let me know. We could start writing over the park’s off-season and meet in person in the fall.
(Photos: the writer, Marcos Paulo Prado; street scene, Olivia Hutcherson) |