In The Moment 03.2020

creativity

8080 Calm CalmMMomoment.coment.com

Use your senses

Sometimes it’s how we feel that can

evoke memories. Focus on the sensory

aspect – touch, smell, taste. A sensory

memory might take you back to an

emotional experience. In focusing on

and trying to articulate one memory,

you might find that this sparks others.

Don’t forget dialogue

Dialogue is important in a memoir as

it reinforces characterisation and lifts

the text – endless prose can be difficult

to read. Dialogue creates immediacy

too. In addition, when someone else

in your story reflects or comments

on events, it brings another relevant

perspective to bear that will illuminate

your own. It amplifies the effect of your

experience to have a response or

reaction from others.

Exercise 6

If you are writing dialogue as yourself,

be true to this, flaws and all. Don’t

say things you wouldn’t say in real

life, otherwise it will jar. Real

conversations range wide, with

interruptions, pauses and repetitions,

but in literature you need the bare

bones of an exchange when committed

to paper and this should add to, not

repeat, other parts of your prose.

Jot down those highlights of a

remembered conversation, and what

insights these might convey, that could

work as dialogue.

Exercise 5

Take a specific event in your life and

focus on what you remember feeling,

because this will be relevant to how

you remember it. Take care over the

adjectives or metaphors that you use

• try to be as specific as you can about
  the quality of those feelings.

Harriet Griffey

Harriet Griffey runs

writersretreats.org and is

the author of Write Every

Day: Daily Practice to

Kickstart Your Creative

Writing (Hardie Grant, £12.99)

on sale March 2020.

Things to remember

Memory is inevitably subjective.

However, it is your memoir, so your

story can be told from your own,

subjective, point of view.

A writer’s imagination extends into

how a memoir is told and what tools

are used in terms of chronology or

structure, to make it come alive.

A memoir is premised on truth but

sometimes, in order to protect other

people and their role in your story,

you may have to be careful about this,

especially if you are going into print

and they are still alive.

Writing by hand can be a

good way to get started,

though later you may want

to transfer to a laptop as a

digital version of your memoir

will be much easier to edit.

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