Drawing Out the Past - Writing Exercises for Memoir Writing

If you've decided to take the enormous task of writing your life story, you may find yourself scratching your head from time to time, stuck on a particular point in your life, or missing years. Here are some simple exercises to jog distant memories and draw out your past.

Photograph Jumble: Sort through that box of old photographs in your attic. Mementos, cards, letters, and old photos are a wealth of material and can instantly bring you back to a moment in time. Select 10- 12 of them from any given decade, spacing them out chronically. Now, construct a timeline in those ten years using the photos. Take each photo and write at least 1 page about that day-what was happening? Who is there with you? Were you the one taking the photo? What events brought you to that place in time? What did that time mean to you?

Can You Smell That Smell?: Use your senses, in particular, the sense of smell. Scent is the strongest of the 5 senses tied to memory. Recall a scent that always jogs a memory, and write about it. Perhaps it's L'Air de Temp, and your first love wore it. Or the aroma of apple pie cooling in the window might bring you back to when you were a child. Some scents are unusual or even unpleasant, but they invoke pleasant memories. Other examples that have come up in discussion are root beer, licorice, witch hazel, mothballs, the ocean, gymnasiums, leather, or the aroma of fresh cut grass. Choose from the above list or remember another smell that immediately transports you back in time. Write about how it makes you feel? What happened? Why do you think the memory it triggers is so important?

Letter Writing: Choose an event from your past and write a letter to someone you know about it. Address the letter Dear_____, and start to tell them the story. You can choose a child, a friend, a spouse, a niece or nephew. Consider the person you are addressing, and tell the story as you would tell it to them and explain to them why it was important to you. This personalizes the story and makes it familiar to you and to the reader.

Who's on First? We've all had our share of firsts. First time you rode and bike, first day of school, first date, first kiss, first time you drove a car, first time you crashed a car. There are endless possibilities of "firsts" to write about. Choose a "first" experience and write about what it was like, what you were feeling.

These exercises can be used over and over every time you get stuck, or can be used to gather important details for your memoir.