Memoir - the past is rarely over
Posted on | March 12, 2010 |
One of the things about working on one’s memoir is that it becomes forcibly obvious to each and every writer that the past is never over. It shapes who we are, and how we react, and how we make our lives work. Even when we’d like to think the past is safely behind us, small reminders come along to let us know we’re not geting away with anything free today.
To some people that may seem like bad news. Behind it, though, exists a life lesson of some power. We are not separate. We are not islands, and we are linked to others by a thousand threads, some of gossamer, some that look like steel hawsers. Seeing this we can choose to view our experiences differently. And as we do so we’ll look not for the high spots or the misery or the drama, but for those occasions when beauty and hope broke through, when the sunlight came from behind the clouds and showed us those threads, stretching to each horizon. At such times we are touched by the transcendent.
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Hi—I’m Allan Hunter, author of The Six Archetypes of Love and Stories We Need to Know as well as two books on writing for self-exploration, Life Passages and The Sanity Manual. If you’re looking to live your best life I hope you’ll find lots of inspiration here.
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July 2nd, 2010 @ 2:28 pm
Hi Allan,
I learned about your website from Writing World. I particularly like the article you wrote above.
I’ve tried to identify my “flaws” and travel the threads, hand over hand, into my past to see what about my upbringing has led me to where I am today.
There wasn’t much drama in my family, more the subtle undercurrents that signaled a certain expected behaviour.
Sometimes I doubt my ability to write an interesting memoir of the times I’ve selected. I felt like a golden child in safe circumstances. My childhood radar, which detected the adults’ behaviours of an large extended family is the mystery I must make interesting to a readership.
The proliferation of horror stories on the market today, of child abuse, or high drama are my competition. So I feel I must step up to the plate and dig deeper to make my story interesting, or meaningful.
If your readership in interested in looking at my memoir writing journey, please see my blog. http://maryemcintyre.wordpress.com