Today’s prompt is inspired by a talk Ianthe Brautigan gave on March 5, 2001.

Memoir is a journey. Just because it’s your life, don’t think you know the end. A beeper could go off and change everything.

Life is like a box of chocolates . . . you don’t know what you got until you bite into it. Sometimes your life makes sense after you write and digest your findings.

Ianthe suggests writing a memoir in an unusual way, not “this happened and then that happened.”

To start: Write excerpts from your past. Write your stories. Don’t worry about where they will go.

Tell your story as if sitting around a campfire.

If you need inspiration:  Make a collage from magazine articles/photos about what you want to write about. Look at these when you need a nudge to write.

Once you start writing, let go of how you should write. Relax into your writing. Your heart knows what to write about. Allow it.

Ianthe suggests thinking of the clothesline structure:  Two strong posts at ends. One is for the solid introduction. The other post is for the solid end. Then play around with insides. Move your stories around as you desire.

Writing Prompt: Think about your childhood. Write about whatever your mind flashes on.

Prompt:  This happened to me . . .

Examples of excellent memoirs:

To Have Not by Frances Lefkowitz

imperfect endings by Zoe Fitzgerald Carter

the underside of joy by Seré Prince Halverson