photo by Dereck Hammers
Start with a Snapshot
I wrote my first memoir, Ghostbread, as a series of snapshots. I’d remember something and write it down. I might remember the time someone stole the silver dollar from the coat closet in 1st grade or the time I got ice skates for Christmas when we lived on the Tonawanda Indian Reservation near Buffalo. I didn’t know what I was doing necessarily. Memories would simply arrive, and I’d do my best to describe them, one snapshot at a time. By snapshot, I don’t mean actual photos, but a picture, scene, image (a certain sound or smell or sight) that conveys the basic essence and imagery of a memory as it arises. . . .
This little booklet is about making full use of past and present moments—the mysterious awkward challenging shimmering moments that make up our lives. The difference between the would-be memoirist and the actual memoirist lies in what you do with them. So go ahead. Grab that old photograph of your mother posing on the Jersey Shore back in 1928. You don’t need any fancy formulas, writerly secrets or pull-out charts. You don’t need any bells and whistles. You are the bell. You are the whistle. You have everything you need to begin right now.
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