A Glimpse of how the Workshops "Work"
 

       Typical Workshop Exercises (@300 words)

    Whenever possible, SIM (stand in moment); log details; write from child’s POV (point of view); avoid "adult" POV, "narrate".

   Recall your first sense of winning or losing big.

   SIM(s) that marked "end" of your childhood; or your first "rites of passage" to adolescent/adult/wiser adult.

   Recall person who meant most to you at some time, and describe why? Stay with child’s POV if possible.

   Recall early 1-2 moments that told/showed you something important about life (child’s POV).

   Recall your favorite childhood day-dream, fantasy, imaginary friend.

   Recall your first pet/close friend/great teacher.

   Identify a childhood feeling you still have as adult, or an frequent adult feeling you can trace back to childhood.

   Recall your last extreme pain/happiness; physical or emotional.

   Pick your three favorite colors and use them as a "triggers" to describe vivid childhood memories.

        Example: My earliest memory is not of my mother. It’s of being held in the arms of a different warm, soft young woman, one in a lavender, quilted robe who laughed as she squeezed drops from half a grapefruit into my upturned mouth. I had crawled down an outdoor flight of wooden stairs to get to this woman, the beautiful, blonde daughter--Sheila--of our downstairs neighbor, I later learned. I also remember a black, bulbous automobile outside (hers), which my parents swore they never photographed or mentioned to me. I was not yet two years old; my first romance (…maybe my best?).  

        New Directions

In what new directions is memoir writing likely to take you?

I believe you'll be moved to look inside more and appreciate--for good or ill--how far you have come.  Knowing our insides runs almost exactly counter to consumer society's media-saturated diversion and distraction, pandering with a vaunted self-esteem marketed as unitary ingestibles, almost like vitamins.  Taking stock of your life also may give you increased respect for timeless, spiritual values, of whatever sort naturally attract you.  People say they feel a stronger presence of the historical continuum that geneations of families represent; they feel a renewed sense of being a link in the Great Chain of Being.

A refreshing humility may let us perceive what a small piece we are in that timeless chain, or how familiar our joys and sorrows look when seen as merely a thin slice of the larger spectrum.  And it may sharpen your inner compass points, the standards and ethics you live by.  I've never advocated excessive navel-gazing, but squarely looking at ourselves in the mirror of some moral code or spiritual regimen seems essential to cultivating the inner consistency that harbors inner peace and acceptance.

Finally, I hope you find everything you search for in this experience.  I'm ending with some light-hearted suggestions to make your writing tasks go faster.  Strunck & White with a smirk, but they make sense after the chuckle fades.  Apply them only after you have a draft going that you feel good about.  And remember, rules can be broken:  I wrote this guide almost as I'd talk it, just to give you the flavor.  HIW, as a friend of mine says: hope it works!
 

           Rules for Really Successful Writing

Barrier Island Group Arts Center

©S. K. Oberbeck 2002

An Alter Ego Production
1119 Periwinkle Way #145
Sanibel Island, FL 33957

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