A couple weeks ago, I helped a coworker format the manuscript of his father-in-law's memoir. He had been after his FIL for years to record his memories in one way or another, and putting pen to paper (well, he was more technical than that and used a computer) was how he chose to do it.
I got to thinking about it, and while my life has not been nearly as tumultuous as my coworker's relative (I am, after all, only 25 at heart), I have lived quite a life. I decided it was time to start writing some of it down--on a computer, that is.
The first step was to take a little walk down memory lane, and let me tell you, it was not as easy as I thought it would be. I don't mean that I had trouble remembering--I just didn't want to remember everything! A good story requires some sort of conflict, and going through all of it in my mind at once was overwhelming.
Sitting down to write the first sentence wasn't easy, either. I had been crafting paragraphs in my mind during my ride home, but when I sat down in front of my computer, writer's block set in. I wrote a few sentences but was dissatisfied with their blandness. I forced myself to keep going and write a straight account--even if it was boring and could have come from a user guide--and then I went back and made my sentences more clever sounding.
One great aspect to memoir writing is that you know the entire story from the start, so you can start at any point and write until you get bored, and then you can start on another section, and it's easy to pick up where you leave off. I haven't written much in my memoir, but I started with the night that B and I met--a very happy moment, in hindsight anyway. At the time, he scared me and I vowed to avoid him as much as I could. Luckily for both of us, I didn't keep that vow.
