Monthly Memoir Prompt — November 2023

I hope you are progressing in capturing your memoir stories to pass down to important members of your family.  They may not be interested at this moment in time but trust me, the day will come when they are and you may not be able to provide the information at that time.

I’ve already asked you to document the earliest memory you have and the most important event of recent times. Now I want you to picture a lifeline that goes from that earliest memory to the most recent memory and identify 3 points on that line where important things happened in your life. See the inserted image titled 5 Event Timeline. What are your significant events? Why were they important? Now write or record the stories. You don’t have to do them all at once. Work away at them as time permits over the next month when we check back in with one another.

I am working on documenting the story of my family’s transition from city life to rural life. It’s going to take me a while to do this — in fact, it may turn into a memoir. I will see how things go. I am going to keep this post short as I plan a longer post about a recent event but am not ready to share it just yet. Stay tuned!

Remember that you don’t need to be planning to write a formal memoir or autobiography. The point is to capture the information in a format that will outlive you and is accessible to your descendants. However, if you are thinking about doing something more formal remember the distinction between a memoir and an autobiography. A memoir is a collection of memories that are somehow connected and generally inform the reader about a specific topic. A biography or autobiography is a picture of the whole life of an individual, from birth to death (or present day if the person is still alive) either written by someone else (biography) or themselves (autobiography).

Have a wonderful day with your memories!