Memoir Writing

There are a lot of reasons to write a memoir, or autobiography, not the least of which is the possibility that details of events will be forgotten or changed over time, the line between fact and memory becoming less distinct as the years go by.

Memories pile up year after year like boxes of unsorted photos. A few of the benefits of writing your memoirs include:

1. Storytelling is a lovely life-skill. Once you get the knack of telling stories about yourself, you’ll learn to organize and communicate all your thoughts more clearly.
   
   
2. Writing about your life lets you share ideas and lessons. Your knowledge and wisdom can help others grow along with you. Writing forces us to think and rethink about our past and present surroundings, the people around us, relationships, and occasions that seemed ordinary at the time, but make our lives extraordinary.
   
   
3. Writing about your life helps dissolve the hard knots of loss, betrayal, regret, and guilt that keep you stuck in the past despite your best efforts to forget. It causes you to record certain events or dramas in your life that may be of value to others.
   
   
4. Writing is a challenging mental activity, and research shows that challenging yourself mentally improves your mental agility and stamina. And, you will be describing – or perhaps explaining – things the way you want them to be recorded.
   
   
5. In a crowd of people it’s natural to wonder “Why should anyone read about my life?” And that’s the best reason to write it. As you sort out the details of your actual path, and look for what makes your journey worth reading, you will incidentally also reveal what makes it worth living. You are providing evidence of aspects of your life that individually will be useful and interesting to your readers, but collectively, will be useful to history.
   
   
6. You can take Jacquie McTaggart’s workshop, The Memoir Project, for free at the library! The first class was this morning, but there are five more workshops that meet Monday morning at 10:00-11:30 am through May 11. This is Jacquie’s third time leading the class at IPL. It is free thanks to the Independence Hotel/Motel Tax Grant. All sessions are self-contained, so no worries if you miss a class.