I am in the midst of copy-editing my partner's (Mary) own memoir of about 300 pages, she has been a spotty journal keeper throughout her adult life, but the sections where she IS able to include quotes from "that moment" are acutely real. She is also a poet, so various poems written at those moments or inspired by the events add another dimension.
My own grandfather was a chronic journaler, starting at age 18 with a small pocket-journal he scribbled observations in from Europe at the end of WWI. It is shockingly real to see the pencil marks this man made a good 60 years before I ever saw them. I was told I reminded people a lot of him, though all I knew of him in person was a "grumpy old man" that I only saw every few years. I think he was 60 when I was born. He was not particularly introspective, but a lifetime of observations about the world around him painted a picture as much of the artist as the subjects. As part of this exercise, we have read a lot of memoirs and memoiresque essays, mostly by poets and other writers who are reflecting on their own writing process. I have been very impressed with these self-expose's. Stephen King's "On Writing" and several of Mary Karr's memoiresque collections come to mind. - Steve On 4/25/19 2:33 PM, Jochen Fromm wrote: > It doesn't have to be a big piece of national history if it is well > told, which is of course an art. I think Robert McKee's book "Story" > contains a lot of good ideas. > > It also depends if you have good material, for example personal > journals or diaries. Personal journals are priceless. The part on page > 6/7 where a journal entry is a quoted feels real and authentic, a bit > as if you experience "Wild Cat Creek" yourself. > > > -------- Original message -------- > From: Pamela McCorduck <[email protected]> > Date: 4/26/19 01:16 (GMT+01:00) > To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group > <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] New Mexico Legacy > > Your kids, and especially your grandchildren, will so appreciate this > kind of memoir. Often, local historical societies welcome a copy too, > because the memoir is fine-grained enough to appeal to somebody doing > local history, even if it isn’t a big piece of national history. > > > > >> On Apr 25, 2019, at 12:20 PM, Jochen Fromm <[email protected] >> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: >> >> Today the book from Frank arrived, after I ordered it at Amazon >> recently, and I have read it in the evening. When I read the name >> "Kayser" of the grandparents I thought they must have a German >> background, since "Kaiser" is the German word for emperor. (One of my >> German colleagues is named Kaiser too). And a few pages later I read >> that they are indeed descendants of German immigrants. Fascinating. >> It was also interesting to read about the USS Baltimore. I like the >> idea of writing down the story of the own family to preserve it for >> future generations. The digital world is so short-lived and temporary. >> >> Cheers, >> Jochen >> >> >> >> >> ============================================================ >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >> archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ >> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove
