Journal With Impact: Memoir

Workshop: Six Conversations for Writing Creative Journals

“How did I come to believe that what I knew was also what mattered? And, more to the point for the future, is it what matters?” Patricia Hampl

In her book, I Could tell You Stories, Hampl explores the realm of memory in auto-biographical writing connected by the impulse to remember. She pointed out that both Kafka and Rilke saw memory, “not experience”, as holding the sovereign position in imagination.

For herself Hampl discovered: “The recognition of one’s genuine material seems to involve a fall from the phony grace of good intentions and elevated expectations.” If we are unable to infuse our memories, or perhaps our search for our memories into our work then we rob it of honest quest and discovery and an imagination that connects. Each person’s voice is unique and bears witness to life. But in order to share, we first need to identify what really matters to us.

“We store in memory only images of value.”

Action Steps:

1. Choose a first memory of an experience you’ve had twice and write each up as an autobiographical event. For example, the very first day you went to school and then the very first day you went to school in high school, or college, or several years later for graduate work.

2. Or perhaps choose an area in which you became accomplished. The first day you swam in a pool and then first time you swam in a race.

 Share: What emotions rose to the surface? Were there similar ones in both choices?

NOTE: Memoir writing is extremely personal even when you are not preparing to share it publicly. Whether you have mountains of material already at hand and are trying to sort it out, or tumbling about in your heart and soul with no clear direction, it takes time and energy to understand, shape, and mold. Sometimes a seemingly simple exercise will knock you over emotionally for no apparent reason.

So over these next few weeks be kind to yourselves and take a break whenever you need to. The purpose of a memoir journal is to assist you in uncovering and engaging heart, soul, and mind, stories that you want to connect with.

Read deep, marcy