Memoir done right is an art, a made thing...writing a memoir is knocking yourself out with your own fist...You're making an experience for a reader, a show that conjures your past--inside & out--with enough lucidity that a reader gets way more than just the brief flash of titillation...And how can [a good writer] do that? A good writer can conjure a landscape and its peoples to live inside you, and the best writers make you feel they've disclosed their soft underbellies. Seeing someone naked thrills us a little.--The Art of Memoir
YOUR ASSIGNMENT
For this assignment, I want you to write about a personal experience that you have always wondered about. Whether traumatic or inspirational, fantastic or mundane, recent or in the past, dig deep into this one personal experience and recreate it for readers in a meaningful, coherent, thought-provoking manner. Remember, as Mary Karr states, that the memoirist's aim is not objective truth, but rather to "create such a personal interior space, with memories pieced together, that the reader never loses sight of the [memoir's] tentative nature...[The memoir] is the speaker's truth alone" (16). As you draft and revise your essay, also consider Dinty Moore's pronouncement about writing the memoir essay: "one might write memoir and not essay" (28). In other words, memoir is not just about retelling a particular experience; anyone can do that. The memoir essay requires EMBELLISHMENT and REFLECTION. And how do you go about embellishing your memoir essay? You employ the elements of creative nonfiction--sensory details (what Karr calls carnality (Ch. 6)), descriptive and figurative language, conflict (both internal and external), characterization and dialogue, research (where applicable), and verisimilitude through a distinct voice (Karr, Ch. 4). Most importantly, don't forget that your essay should be about reflection--the lessons learned (or not learned) from your experience.
- In your Google Drive shared folder, create a Google Doc and name the file like this: Memoir_YourFullName (ex. Memoir_RobertMoreira)
- include a title for your essay, page numbers (top right), and your full name on the top left corner of the first page only
- in your essay, strive to render your experience through the elements of creative nonfiction and memoir mentioned above; you should also reference our course readings
- the final draft of your essay (that is, the draft due with your final portfolio) should amount to about 8-10 double-spaced pages (2500-3000 words)
The first draft of your essay will be due Thursday, 11/2, the date of Workshop #6.
