‘Triggers’ (a flexible topic – and ideal for a vacation project)
Keep a notebook close by during the break in which to note any ‘triggers’ which led you to reminisce about a time in your lives. You may have been talking to someone, watching television or a film, driving somewhere, reading a book. Choose one to three of these - write about the memories evoked, keeping the total words to 500 – 750 words.
OR
‘This (…….) Life ‘ (another flexible topic)
The Australian newspaper’s Weekend Review column considers original submissions of 450 – 500 words for their ‘This (…) Life’ story each weekend. This topic draws upon this format! Examples ‘This (Downsizing) Life’ by an 80+ year old about planning to farewell loved home; ‘This (Number 8) Life’ about growing up as ‘Number 8’ in a family of nine children. Also –see our ‘This (….) Life’ stories!
Keep a notebook close by during the break in which to note any ‘triggers’ which led you to reminisce about a time in your lives. You may have been talking to someone, watching television or a film, driving somewhere, reading a book. Choose one to three of these - write about the memories evoked, keeping the total words to 500 – 750 words.
OR
‘This (…….) Life ‘ (another flexible topic)
The Australian newspaper’s Weekend Review column considers original submissions of 450 – 500 words for their ‘This (…) Life’ story each weekend. This topic draws upon this format! Examples ‘This (Downsizing) Life’ by an 80+ year old about planning to farewell loved home; ‘This (Number 8) Life’ about growing up as ‘Number 8’ in a family of nine children. Also –see our ‘This (….) Life’ stories!
As always, some gentle reminders –
Bev Lee
- if you find it hard to get started, or find yourself becoming bogged down, it can be helpful to re-read Tips for Writing Your 500 Words from ABC Open. Please don't feel constrained though - our aim is to enjoy writing; to further develop our own writing style and to share our writing with a supportive audience
- choose something which won’t make you depressed, something you feel you have dealt with, while at the same time writing and sharing a story which is important to you.
- if your story is getting long or seems to be losing focus, formulate a ‘key sentence’… ‘This story is about ….’ to help you to decide what stays and what goes. (You can always ‘park’ part, even all, of a story which you’re not happy with for possible use one day).
- it’s fine to
- share a story on a topic if you have written about it before
- write on more than one topic, or more than one story on one topic
- create a ‘members choice’ topic if you have something you’ve always wanted to write about, or a new story topic has been triggered while reflecting recently
- share or adapt a story written previously as part of an autobiography or other story collection, tweaking the story to ‘fit’ the topic if necessary.
- write the topic in another genre – eg. as a standup comedy skit, children’s story, poem or short play/screen play
- present a catch-up story you haven’t shared yet; or
- simply pass and enjoy the stories shared by others.
- remember to read through your story to locate and edit very long sentences which have many connecting ‘ands’. Think about ways of breaking the sentence up. Varying sentences to include short sentences can add impact to your writing.
- always remember that reflection plays a central role in memoir writing.
Bev Lee
