{"id":10955,"date":"2021-10-01T06:19:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-01T13:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/?p=10955"},"modified":"2021-09-27T16:20:21","modified_gmt":"2021-09-27T23:20:21","slug":"lies-humiliation-secrets-prompt-604","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/lies-humiliation-secrets-prompt-604\/","title":{"rendered":"Lies, humiliation, secrets . . . Prompt #604"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Suitcase-glove-martini-glass-.-.-.-1-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10958\" width=\"379\" height=\"284\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Suitcase-glove-martini-glass-.-.-.-1-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Suitcase-glove-martini-glass-.-.-.-1-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Suitcase-glove-martini-glass-.-.-.-1-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Suitcase-glove-martini-glass-.-.-.-1.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 379px) 100vw, 379px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Memoir is similar to many elements of fiction: Careful scene setting, pacing, tension, conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Seduce the reader with a confiding tone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Reveal secrets. The best secrets are those that the author reveals or learns about self in the process, \u201cAh, did I really think that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Readers are interested in your conflicts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s important to modulate good times and bad times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe best memoirs explore and reveal conflict in a way that illuminates and startles.\u201d \u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/www.katmeads.com\/about\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.katmeads.com\/about\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Kat Meads<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Consider the scope of your memoir. It\u2019s not necessary to start from when you were born and work your way up. Don\u2019t try to write about everything. Take one aspect. The year you were in Paris, for example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you go with a chronological way of telling, share just the important events that shaped you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The idea is to look objectively at your life to write a richer subjective memoir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Part of writing memoir is reacquainting ourselves with ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ways to delve into writing your memoir:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Your childhood home<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>~Draw a picture of a house you grew up in. If you grew up in more than one house, pick one at a time to write about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>~ Write three memories that took place in this house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>~Put an x on those rooms where the memories took place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>~Write a paragraph about an early memory that took place in this house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>An eventful day<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>~Pick a significant day in your life. Write a brief paragraph about what the event was and why it was significant<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>~List five or eight details about that day<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Time capsule<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>~ Write about five items that would define you to put into a time capsule<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Lies, humiliation, secrets<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Write about a lie you told. What were the circumstances surrounding that lie? What prompted you to tell it? What were (or are) the consequences of that lie? Did you get away with it? What effect has it had on you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sentence starter: \u201cThe day that _________ humiliated me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What is your longest kept secret?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYou must not tell anyone, my mother said, what I\u2019m about to tell you.\u201d \u2014Maxine Hong Kingston<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you were going to start a memoir with that sentence . . . what would you write next?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This blog post is inspired from a writing workshop with Kat Meads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More about writing memoir:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/write-memoir-in-voice-of-narrator\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/write-memoir-in-voice-of-narrator\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Write Memoir in Voice of Narrator<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/memoirs-as-textbooks\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/memoirs-as-textbooks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Memoirs as text books<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/what-is-memoir-good-for\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/what-is-memoir-good-for\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">What is Memoir Good for?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>#amwriting&nbsp;&nbsp; #justwrite&nbsp;&nbsp; #memoir&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Memoir is similar to many elements of fiction: Careful scene setting, pacing, tension, conflict. Seduce the reader with a confiding tone. Reveal secrets. The best secrets are those that the author reveals or learns about self in the process, \u201cAh, did I really think that?\u201d Readers are interested in your conflicts. It\u2019s important to modulate [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[1165,117],"class_list":["post-10955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prompts","tag-just-write-writing-freely-the-write-spot-blog","tag-memoir"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43Dj8-2QH","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10955"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10959,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10955\/revisions\/10959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}