Well.I've finally assembled a bunch of pieces into the first chapter of a memoir.All told,it seemed a lot less work than I thought it would be,at least if I exclude all the written pieces from the past that have gone into it.I'd been assembling those for a number of years,and have managed to lose them all several times over.I recall most of the substance of those writings,but ,of course I can never reproduce the writing exactly as I first put it down.
I'm still feeling a sense of awkwardness when it comes to writing with a computer,but I guess that's the way it is done these days.Still though,I'm a note taker and there is a lot of work product in written form.I'll try to save and preserve that too,but really I haven't seemed to be organized enough to do that in the past.That is part of the reason that I've allowed this blog to show some of the background that,for me has gone into producing the memoir,and not just the memoir itself.Really,getting there is way more than half the fun,and I wanted to share that with my readers.
So,on completing my first chapter,there are a number of thoughts that come to mind.The first is that the writing needs to get better.I use a spell check which likely takes countless hours of revision and turns them into minutes.But I'm not great at revisions and by that I mean I'm not especially dedicated to revising on a regular basis.I though that that is one thing the computer might force me to be better at,and it still might.So,try to picture what you see here as my daily notes,like you might find in the room where I write if you were to visit.It's much more that than it is a finished product.For the most part it doesn't occur to me that my story is especially compelling.Life,after all has been rather ordinary.But I have to remind myself that,in a world that changes as rapidly as ours does,the time and culture is not necessarily something that everyone is informed about.In fact,the world of the early 1960's sometimes seems very foreign to me.There is also the fact that,like most of us,I have lived in some parts of the world that are not really familiar to everyone reading this memoir.I can stretch my imagination to believe that I may write something that is interesting or informative to them,even if those events seem mundane to me.Why should that not be true?After all,a big part of the reason I read anything at all is that I want to see places that are exotic to me through the eyes of people who live there.
Most of the stories I've related in chapter one I've been carrying around in my head for some time.Those things,once they happened have never really left me,though,as memories they have tended to evolve over the decades.One of the most insightful parts of writing chapter one was the opportunity to consider memory and how it works.Recalling things now is much different from the experience itself.I can never be certain that I've got everything exactly right.You see,I'm still firmly convinced that the quality of memory is related to the level of language development a person has,or ultimately attains.I've also come to see how a young child's mind works very differently from that of an adult.The very best memoir writers that I know have the ability to take a child's point of view in writing.It's not the only way to relate things,straight narrative will work quite effectively,but I've always admired that ability to take on the mind of a child.It's something that I need practice at.
I've never seemed to get over the idea that what I'm really doing here is writing practice.With time,and more inclination to revision,I hope the craft will get better.The completion of a first chapter really doesn't change that point of view in my mind.Keep in mind that what is written here is not a finished product.
Some of the research has been fun.Being that it's a memoir,that is to say,the world through my eyes,I tend to not do a lot of research,though at times I feel I must.I'm sometimes inclined to put things in a wrong time frame,forgetting if they happened in say,1963 or1964,in spring or fall or some such thing.So those are the things I need to double check a lot. I tried to get copies of some of the old magazines such as Newsweek or The New Yorker,as much out of curiosity as from any extraordinary effort to do research.I like to think about those times so that I have a greater understanding of them,but I don't really want that understanding to color my experience of the times.I fear it may change the story.
Ever since I was a child I've had a bit of a thing for maps.They fascinate me to no end.So,in relating this story about Redmondville,I am delighted with one particular piece of technology.Google Maps.It is utterly fantastic to me that today,when I'm looking at a map,I can literally take a stroll down the streets of Montreal or Jakarta or Moscow and see all the sights as though I were really there.The same applies to Redmondville.Really,though,Google Maps is a bit more valuable,perhaps, to writers of fiction than to memoir writers.Still I was spellbound by my virtual walk down that stretch of road where we lived in the early 1960's.The whole point of spending several hours in front of the computer screen was,of course,to find the old house we lived in.To this point,I don't know that I've done that.I think I've narrowed it down to a most likely possibility,but in the nearly 50 years that have passed since then,I cannot really be certain that it is exactly the house.It may well be,but I was greatly surprised at how different that area looks from the way I remember it.The house I've picked out sits in the right position,relative to the road,and it's outbuildings are in roughly the right place,relative to the house,though the driveway is not the way I recall it to be.There is no trailer to the south either,nor have I been able to locate that mud road.It is possible,perhaps even likely that both are gone.The next farm to the north looks unfamiliar too.There seems to be no little hollow between it and our old house,the way I remember.Nor can I spot the old school a bit farther down the road on the opposite side.I'm planning to take that walk a few more times though.
For the time being I've decided to keep the technique of trying to fix the various times we lived in in their historical context.Again,it gives me a chance to do some research that I might not otherwise do,and is so interesting to my mind.I love the idea of presenting new words,and thinking about how they emerged from those earlier times.It's just a short reminder to myself that it really is important to be aware of the culture of the time,even if I am trying to avoid having that influence raw memory.That could change with time though.
I'm still feeling a sense of awkwardness when it comes to writing with a computer,but I guess that's the way it is done these days.Still though,I'm a note taker and there is a lot of work product in written form.I'll try to save and preserve that too,but really I haven't seemed to be organized enough to do that in the past.That is part of the reason that I've allowed this blog to show some of the background that,for me has gone into producing the memoir,and not just the memoir itself.Really,getting there is way more than half the fun,and I wanted to share that with my readers.
So,on completing my first chapter,there are a number of thoughts that come to mind.The first is that the writing needs to get better.I use a spell check which likely takes countless hours of revision and turns them into minutes.But I'm not great at revisions and by that I mean I'm not especially dedicated to revising on a regular basis.I though that that is one thing the computer might force me to be better at,and it still might.So,try to picture what you see here as my daily notes,like you might find in the room where I write if you were to visit.It's much more that than it is a finished product.For the most part it doesn't occur to me that my story is especially compelling.Life,after all has been rather ordinary.But I have to remind myself that,in a world that changes as rapidly as ours does,the time and culture is not necessarily something that everyone is informed about.In fact,the world of the early 1960's sometimes seems very foreign to me.There is also the fact that,like most of us,I have lived in some parts of the world that are not really familiar to everyone reading this memoir.I can stretch my imagination to believe that I may write something that is interesting or informative to them,even if those events seem mundane to me.Why should that not be true?After all,a big part of the reason I read anything at all is that I want to see places that are exotic to me through the eyes of people who live there.
Most of the stories I've related in chapter one I've been carrying around in my head for some time.Those things,once they happened have never really left me,though,as memories they have tended to evolve over the decades.One of the most insightful parts of writing chapter one was the opportunity to consider memory and how it works.Recalling things now is much different from the experience itself.I can never be certain that I've got everything exactly right.You see,I'm still firmly convinced that the quality of memory is related to the level of language development a person has,or ultimately attains.I've also come to see how a young child's mind works very differently from that of an adult.The very best memoir writers that I know have the ability to take a child's point of view in writing.It's not the only way to relate things,straight narrative will work quite effectively,but I've always admired that ability to take on the mind of a child.It's something that I need practice at.
I've never seemed to get over the idea that what I'm really doing here is writing practice.With time,and more inclination to revision,I hope the craft will get better.The completion of a first chapter really doesn't change that point of view in my mind.Keep in mind that what is written here is not a finished product.
Some of the research has been fun.Being that it's a memoir,that is to say,the world through my eyes,I tend to not do a lot of research,though at times I feel I must.I'm sometimes inclined to put things in a wrong time frame,forgetting if they happened in say,1963 or1964,in spring or fall or some such thing.So those are the things I need to double check a lot. I tried to get copies of some of the old magazines such as Newsweek or The New Yorker,as much out of curiosity as from any extraordinary effort to do research.I like to think about those times so that I have a greater understanding of them,but I don't really want that understanding to color my experience of the times.I fear it may change the story.
Ever since I was a child I've had a bit of a thing for maps.They fascinate me to no end.So,in relating this story about Redmondville,I am delighted with one particular piece of technology.Google Maps.It is utterly fantastic to me that today,when I'm looking at a map,I can literally take a stroll down the streets of Montreal or Jakarta or Moscow and see all the sights as though I were really there.The same applies to Redmondville.Really,though,Google Maps is a bit more valuable,perhaps, to writers of fiction than to memoir writers.Still I was spellbound by my virtual walk down that stretch of road where we lived in the early 1960's.The whole point of spending several hours in front of the computer screen was,of course,to find the old house we lived in.To this point,I don't know that I've done that.I think I've narrowed it down to a most likely possibility,but in the nearly 50 years that have passed since then,I cannot really be certain that it is exactly the house.It may well be,but I was greatly surprised at how different that area looks from the way I remember it.The house I've picked out sits in the right position,relative to the road,and it's outbuildings are in roughly the right place,relative to the house,though the driveway is not the way I recall it to be.There is no trailer to the south either,nor have I been able to locate that mud road.It is possible,perhaps even likely that both are gone.The next farm to the north looks unfamiliar too.There seems to be no little hollow between it and our old house,the way I remember.Nor can I spot the old school a bit farther down the road on the opposite side.I'm planning to take that walk a few more times though.
For the time being I've decided to keep the technique of trying to fix the various times we lived in in their historical context.Again,it gives me a chance to do some research that I might not otherwise do,and is so interesting to my mind.I love the idea of presenting new words,and thinking about how they emerged from those earlier times.It's just a short reminder to myself that it really is important to be aware of the culture of the time,even if I am trying to avoid having that influence raw memory.That could change with time though.
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