Before you begin to write your memoir, there are a number of
non-writing tasks which you must do--this phase of compiling your memoir
is called pre-writing, and it is essential to writing better stories.
Pre-writing can include:
-list making.
-rereading letters, journal entries, newspaper clippings.
-talking to people and reminiscing.
-doing any of the numerous writing exercises in this book or others to stimulate your memory and keep your interest high.
Pre-writing can actually occur at several points in the lifewriting process: at the very start of the lifewriting task, as an effective warm-up, whenever you pick up your writing after an absence.
1) Don't start writing until you have done pre-writing. Pre-writing generates memories to write about. Making a list of memories and emotions associated with those memories provides a convenient list of story topics. This is called a lifelist.
2) Let the pre-writing dictate where you will start writing a lifestory. Pre-writing often reveals a point at which you will feel most comfortable starting. This is your entry point, the point at which you simply must begin to write. That point can be a setting, a dialogue, or an action. Paying attention to what you most feel compelled to write will prove to be not only the most enjoyable way to proceed but also the most effective.
Resist the urge to start writing from what seems like the beginning of your story. Instead simply start writing from the point that most commands your attention.
3) Write on half-sheets of paper. Filling a full sheet of paper with words is often the hardest part of writing--so take an 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper and cut it in half. It is easier to fill a half sheet of paper with writing than to fill a full sheet!
On the half sheets, write whatever comes to mind--without deciding how any of this will all come together. At this stage, it is more important to write regularly and voluminously than to write well (that will come later). On top of each half page, write the name of your writing topic as your title. (Your topic should come from your lifelist.)
Your goal now is to produce a stack of half sheets of writing. Do not be concerned with whether or not you are writing well or how your final draft will shape up, nor what the beginning scene of your story will be. Do not even be concerned with whether or not you are filling up the whole half-page or whether some half pages are full and others have only a few short sentences.
You will organize later what you have written: shuffle the half sheets into a more appropriate order than they were written in; decide that the material on Page 4 belongs before that on Page 1 and that the piece about the picnic belongs after the piece about the conversation with your father. As you order your sheets, you may realize that you already have written something that can serve as a beginning or that you clearly don't have a good beginning yet.
Good luck pre-writing!
Pre written PapersPre-writing can include:
-list making.
-rereading letters, journal entries, newspaper clippings.
-talking to people and reminiscing.
-doing any of the numerous writing exercises in this book or others to stimulate your memory and keep your interest high.
Pre-writing can actually occur at several points in the lifewriting process: at the very start of the lifewriting task, as an effective warm-up, whenever you pick up your writing after an absence.
1) Don't start writing until you have done pre-writing. Pre-writing generates memories to write about. Making a list of memories and emotions associated with those memories provides a convenient list of story topics. This is called a lifelist.
2) Let the pre-writing dictate where you will start writing a lifestory. Pre-writing often reveals a point at which you will feel most comfortable starting. This is your entry point, the point at which you simply must begin to write. That point can be a setting, a dialogue, or an action. Paying attention to what you most feel compelled to write will prove to be not only the most enjoyable way to proceed but also the most effective.
Resist the urge to start writing from what seems like the beginning of your story. Instead simply start writing from the point that most commands your attention.
3) Write on half-sheets of paper. Filling a full sheet of paper with words is often the hardest part of writing--so take an 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper and cut it in half. It is easier to fill a half sheet of paper with writing than to fill a full sheet!
On the half sheets, write whatever comes to mind--without deciding how any of this will all come together. At this stage, it is more important to write regularly and voluminously than to write well (that will come later). On top of each half page, write the name of your writing topic as your title. (Your topic should come from your lifelist.)
Your goal now is to produce a stack of half sheets of writing. Do not be concerned with whether or not you are writing well or how your final draft will shape up, nor what the beginning scene of your story will be. Do not even be concerned with whether or not you are filling up the whole half-page or whether some half pages are full and others have only a few short sentences.
You will organize later what you have written: shuffle the half sheets into a more appropriate order than they were written in; decide that the material on Page 4 belongs before that on Page 1 and that the piece about the picnic belongs after the piece about the conversation with your father. As you order your sheets, you may realize that you already have written something that can serve as a beginning or that you clearly don't have a good beginning yet.
Good luck pre-writing!
thesis and dissertation
