ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS:

Your task is to write a memoir related to a topic/subject that is relevant/important/substantial in your life–bring to life a moment from your past in order to explore its meaning in the present. Everyone has had different experiences, and your task here is to investigate and recreate a moment that was, in some way, formative and changing for you.

Yet why not say what happened?

Pray for the grace of accuracy…

We are poor passing facts,

warned by that to give

each figure in the photograph

their living name. – Robert Lowell, “Epilogue”

The key is to write and examine your past with a purpose. If you’re honest and critical enough (of not only others but of yourself), you might find that even moments that once seemed insignificant may now hold a sense of gravity.

That was the summer everything we would become was hovering just over our heads.

– Junot Diaz

Think about glimpses and details that somehow divide a moment into a before and after. Keep in mind this is not an autobiography, but a memoir. Autobiographies examine a life. Memoirs, which like memory, come from the Latin root memoria, examine a specific time period.

I encourage you to use whatever form of writing you deem most effective.

In fact, Austerlitz said, I have never owned a clock of any kind, a bedside alarm or a pocket watch, let alone a wristwatch. A clock has always struck me as something ridiculous, a thoroughly mendacious object, perhaps because I have always resisted the power of time out of some internal compulsion which I have never understood, keeping myself apart from the so-called current events in the hope, as I think now, said Austerlitz, that time will not pass away, has not passed away, that I can turn back and go behind it, and there I shall find everything as it once was.

– W.G. Sebald

PUTTING EVENTS INTO CONTEXT:

Think about what was going on in your life, and in the world, at the time of the memory you choose to concentrate on. Certain details might help cue your readers in to the time period. For example:

Was there anything remarkable about that year in terms of national events?

What were the major social conflicts that year? For instance, in 2014, “Black Lives Matter” is an important social movement.

Think of popular cultural symbols, like what music was popular? What movies were in theaters?

Of course, depending on what you chose to write about, you don’t need to include all of these details. But at the very least consider them, and the context they might give your writing. It could be as simple and small a thing as mentioning what was on TV at a friend’s house.

THINK ABOUT P.O.V. & VOICE:

As Richard Hoffman writes in his essay, “The Ninth Letter of the Alphabet: First Person Strategies in Non-Fiction,” there are many different ways to employ the first-person perspective. Make deliberate choices about what kinds of POV you want to use, and why.

Also, think about the tone you want to strike with your sentences. The voice of your first-person narration should compliment your character’s (yes, you are a character in your memoir).

Written guidelines: MLA format, 4-5 pages.

Memoir Conventions & Expectations

Drama

Relevance–to intended audience

Authenticity

Character arc of some kind

After effect

Vivid detail & the presence of scenes

Reflection across a distance of time

Personal voice

Evident research of some kind (outside of simply memory)

Heart/emotional appeal

Remember that you are coming to terms with memory and “truth;” your purpose is to move your readers