The best advice to remember the details we’d otherwise forget. I wish I had done it more, some memories have faded too much to trust as true.
When I do write, I find longhand, rather than on a computer, cements the ideas somehow. Anybody else still use black and white marbled composition books?
My 93-year-old mother tells me she wants to write her memoires. A friend said he would help her. I told her she had better get started and also offered to help, but she never really feels like it at the time. We do have some very deep discussions and she often tells me things I don't want to hear I should record them. Throughout her adult life, she has kept a journal. Most years she typed it, which is great. Her father did it too. Both of them filled their journals (hers is over 2,000 A4 pages long) with facts, unemotional cold facts. This happened and that happened, in chronological order. I suggested to her (and again offered to help) why don't you go through (she has been reading them all since my father died 18 months ago), and just add how the events made you feel. I think the challenge is that she has spent years burying her feelings and perhaps doesn't want to incriminate memories of my late domineering father. But she is fine telling them to me. I live in hope that I can encourage her, because she lives happily alone, 2 hours drive from me, on a good day, and has plenty of time.
My point is that imho writing needs to evoke some feeling. I am an area manager for Census and even the numbers tell me stories that evoke feelings. It's all about stories. My mother has almost a century of stories, and I would love to know more than just on this day, so and so visited and we had a glass of wine together.
Thanks for the kick in the pants. Got me To sit down and write a draft of the Morgan Dressage Association club news for The Morgan Horse magazine. Very dry, sadly 😁
All true. You get used to being a writer. I use voice memos to record conversations (with permission). The world is moving faster than I can write. I did write down everything that happened in March 2020, out of journalistic instinct. Cheers to your work.
The best advice to remember the details we’d otherwise forget. I wish I had done it more, some memories have faded too much to trust as true.
When I do write, I find longhand, rather than on a computer, cements the ideas somehow. Anybody else still use black and white marbled composition books?
Yes. As laboratory notebooks 😂😂
My 93-year-old mother tells me she wants to write her memoires. A friend said he would help her. I told her she had better get started and also offered to help, but she never really feels like it at the time. We do have some very deep discussions and she often tells me things I don't want to hear I should record them. Throughout her adult life, she has kept a journal. Most years she typed it, which is great. Her father did it too. Both of them filled their journals (hers is over 2,000 A4 pages long) with facts, unemotional cold facts. This happened and that happened, in chronological order. I suggested to her (and again offered to help) why don't you go through (she has been reading them all since my father died 18 months ago), and just add how the events made you feel. I think the challenge is that she has spent years burying her feelings and perhaps doesn't want to incriminate memories of my late domineering father. But she is fine telling them to me. I live in hope that I can encourage her, because she lives happily alone, 2 hours drive from me, on a good day, and has plenty of time.
My point is that imho writing needs to evoke some feeling. I am an area manager for Census and even the numbers tell me stories that evoke feelings. It's all about stories. My mother has almost a century of stories, and I would love to know more than just on this day, so and so visited and we had a glass of wine together.
Good Job
Nice
Thanks for the kick in the pants. Got me To sit down and write a draft of the Morgan Dressage Association club news for The Morgan Horse magazine. Very dry, sadly 😁
All true. You get used to being a writer. I use voice memos to record conversations (with permission). The world is moving faster than I can write. I did write down everything that happened in March 2020, out of journalistic instinct. Cheers to your work.
https://unitedstatesofanderson.substack.com/p/some-great-happiness