Short Memoir & Reflection Project

Short memoir assignment & checklist, the memoir reflection checklist, the competency evaluation scale

Step 1 Find a topic and make sure you know what a memoir is:
Review your life graph. Remember this is mine. And also do these quick-writes (less than 5 minutes on each prompt):
  • List 5 things you know for sure about life and why; Name 5 critical incidents / people in your life and how they have shaped you - they can be positive or negative; Write 5 life mottos / bumper stickers that describe your philosophy of life and describe what each one means to you; List 5 things / mistakes you'll never make again and why (from eating stinky cheese to trusting the wrong person - can be serious, funny, quirky, melancholy, optimistic - must be YOU); 5 things you most want out of life and why; lastly, name the 5 things you would metaphorically kill or die for - the stuff you believe in so strongly you'll take on any comers to protect/safeguard and explain how you have come to feel so strongly about these.
  • Read the professional model text "Big Boy" by David Sedaris. Notice the main literary elements in this memoir as well as in the one you are reading.
  • Read the student model text "My Life Because of You" and see if you can find / identify all the key elements.
  • Read The New Yorker article "A Memoir is not a Status Update" by Dani Shapiro to make sure you understand what a memoir is and isn't. Use this information to help you decide on the topic for your short memoir. PDF version here. 
  • Some helpful websites: Writers Write The Truth about Memoirs series; The Happy Self-Publisher's "The Memoir Through Line"; Writer's Digest "The Key Elements of Writing a Good Memoir" (source for a lot of the handout material); The Write Life "How to Write a Memoir"; and Memoir Writing for Geniuses

Step 2 Plan & Draft:
  • Now, choose ONE lesson, value, idea, realization you want to write about, share with others, and start planning the memoir - think beginning, middle and end - and in narrative episodes (emotional beats), ie which stories, ideas, concepts will you tell/describe in each part in point form. For this you must use the Memoir Planning Sheet / Outline  template provided, referring to the key aspects of a memoir handout, and include your initiating incident and ending incident with desire line, as well as fleshing out a minimum of three (3) emotional beats. Again, this plan does not have to be chronological, but you're mapping the components of this memoir. See Sauvé's example.
  • Once you have this rough plan, DO these 7 Mandatory Memoir Writing Exercises to flesh out, add detail to, and develop the writing of your short memoir - don't repeat an exercise for the same part of your memoir, each exercise should ADD a part to your memoir. Make them useful. You can type these and start a running draft.
  • REMEMBER this is a school project. You are the writer. You may have 5 topics, choose the one you're most comfortable sharing with me. YOU decide.

Step 3 FULL Coherent Draft with title:
Organize a full, typed draft, in order. Make sure the 7 exercises / techniques / devices are used and evident. See Sauvé's example.
  • Prepare questions for the online conference - what do you want help with regarding your draft?
  • Brainstorm your title by trying out the following titles exercises (remember how important the title is to the whole text):
    • ​You MUST have a title. Use the titles of the memoirs on the reading list as inspiration. Think about your memoir, your journey, your lessons
    • Use the 6-word memoir idea inspired by Hemingway's very short story "For sale: Baby shoes, never worn". What 6 words would you use to represent the memoir you have written?
    • Use Damaged, Night, and/or The Glass Castle to think up an adjective, a time of day/season/part of nature, or a symbol to title your work, eg Worried, Useless, Afraid, Brave OR Moonlight, Dawn, Rainfall, Dew OR Birch Trees, Monotone Rainbow, Paper Shadows, Field of Dreams etc.
    • Use Hero of the Underground, Girl, Interrupted, Million Little Pieces, etc and copy the phraseology of the title but switch out the words to words that represent your memoir, eg, Hero of My Imagination; Childhood, Lost; One Hundred Grains of Sand; etc...
    • Use Eat, Pray, Love and come up with 3 words that represent your memoir - eg Fight, Relent, Repeat; Naive, Hurt, Grateful
  • DO the following subtitles Workshop. You MUST also use a subtitle - this comes after the colon and can also be inspired by the models:
    • A Long Way Gone: A memoir OR a short memoir
    • Smashed: The story of a drunken childhood OR Worried: My battle with anxiety
    • _____ : One woman's adventure in ____
    • ____ : One man's journey to _____
    • _____ : A true story of redemption
    • ____ : A summer in Italy
    • _____ : My struggle with _____
  • Create your final title by combining a poetic title, a colon, and a more detailed subtitle. In other words "this is my story" is not acceptable, nor is simple My battle with depression - YOU NEED BOTH a title and a subtitle and make them interesting.
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Step 4 Polish, reflect & submit:
  • Re-read and use the feedback to revise your work
  • ADD on IF you need to with these optional exercises
  • Finalize the good copy (check the checklist - ignore all the process stuff, you're submitting only good copies) See Sauvé's final good copy.
  • Write your reflection. See Sauvé's example.
  • Submit the good copies of the memoir AND the reflection as attachments by email by Monday June 1. (Remember that day we're starting the next project)