The Power of Writing Prompts for Memoir by Author Leslie Watts
Posted by Kathleen Pooler/@kathypooler with Leslie Watts/@TheWritership
“Memoir is not a declaration of the American success story, one undeviating road, the conquering of one mountaintop after another. The puddle began in downfall. The milk didn’t get to the mouth. Whatever your life, it is urging you to record it—to embrace the crumbs with the cake. It’s why so many of us want to write memoir. We know the particulars, but what really went on? We want the emotional truths under the surface that drove our life.”
—Natalie Goldberg, Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir
How often have you sat down to write with one intention in mind and have something–a memory, a person, an event –show up on the page in the process of writing? The creative process seems to lead the way and the best we can do is to be open to it. Writing prompts can get those creative juices flowing and kickstart your book.
I am pleased to feature Leslie Watt of Writership Publications in this guest post about the benefits of using writing prompts in the creative process. Leslie and I met online and I reviewed her new writing book, 101 Creative Writing Prompts for Memoir Writers, which she co-authored with Alyssa Archer. I know from personal experience that a writing prompt can open up ideas, feelings and lead to new discoveries. Even if you tend not to use writing prompts , I hope you’ll enjoy reading what Leslie has to say.
My reviews can be found on: Amazon, Goodreads,LibraryThings and Riffle.
Welcome, Leslie!
Leslie Watts (R) with co-author Alyssa Archer (L)
The Power of Writing Prompts in Memoir
Writing Prompts are deeply supportive of the writing process generally and particularly for memoir, whether you want to publish a book, record memories for your family, or simply make sense of your life. Starting with a word, topic, or picture is one way to enter and make contact with the raw materials of our memoir: memories. Once you get the memories down, you can discern or create a structure and step back to figure out what you want to say about a particular time or place.
Writing prompts get short shrift. Critics say we need a kick in the pants. “Sit down and write the story.” But not everyone can dive in that way. Unseen forces of resistance get in the way. Maybe we were told never to share family business outside of the family. Without knowing it, those limiting messages stop us from charging headlong into our memoir. Sometimes we need to take a more gentle and indirect route.
Writing prompts have a way of helping us focus on and uncover things we wouldn’t otherwise find. We’ve all had that experience of trying to think of that thing on the tip of our tongue in the moment. It simply won’t come until we’re washing the dishes or taking a shower. A good prompt will lead you where you need to go and tease around the edges so that you can open and find the deep center. We know we have something to say, but we don’t know what it is yet or how to say it. Writing prompts along with free writing (keep your hand going, no editing or censoring) help us access what we are hiding from ourselves.
And writing prompts can help with writer’s block. If you keep a list of potential prompts handy, you’ll never be staring at a blank page or screen wondering what to write. Copy the prompt and write for fifteen or twenty or thirty minutes without stopping. What did you find? Maybe nothing this time, but often you will find the Truth.
What prompts should you use? You’ll want to find what works best for you and your project by experimenting. Sometimes I use a more focused prompt: Everything I know about the house on Patricia Street. Sometimes I go fishing for what my mind wants to reveal: I remember, what I really mean to say is, I’m looking at. When you’ve written on one prompt for a while, you might try its opposite as well. I don’t remember, what I don’t mean to say is, I’m not looking at. This practice allows you to get at what Natalie Goldberg calls the underbelly, what we wouldn’t write normally tells us more about ourselves and our lives than what we’re willing to reveal.
Most often, I use words and phrases or pictures as prompts. I have a list of prompts that I come back to regularly. My writing partner and I read books and pull phrases from them for inspiration. Here is a collection from our last writing session: still struggling; see the world differently; leap into the lake of writing; know the author better; hints, stories, examples. You can take the first line of a favorite story or choose the last line and write up to it. You are limited only by your imagination and your willingness to explore.
Beyond word-based prompts, it’s good to involve your senses as well. I get concrete results when I write about meals I’ve eaten. There is something about food that allows me to dig into the memories. If you listen to music from a particular time in your life (I recommend using Pandora, Songza, or YouTube to find songs), you can contact a different level of memory.
My Writership co-captain, Alyssa Archer, and I have led a workshop called Scentsational Writing. Alyssa prepared several small jars with strong scents, some pleasant and some not so pleasant. All were stimulating, not just to our noses, but to our minds and memories. We smelled the jars, picked one scent to focus on, and then wrote for fifteen minutes. Many of us who explored these scents went immediately to old memories, things we hadn’t thought of in years. The smell of rubbing alcohol transports me back to a doctor’s office where I received a shot of penicillin. The smell of almond extract took another writer to her grandmother’s kitchen. These memories were rich with details: visual, auditory, and olfactory.
Keep a list of these topics in a document, a note-taking app, or on the last page of your notebook. Sometimes, let your writing practice be to collect lists: places I have lived, cars I have ridden, vacations I have taken, people who have broken my heart. The results will provide more fodder for your explorations.
Alyssa and I believe in the power of writing prompts so much that we’ve written five writing prompt books and include at least one writing prompt every day in our year-long program to help people write a novel. We post Pictures & Prompts on our website each weekend because we feel that not knowing what to write should never be a reason not to.
I hope you’ll give writing prompts a try to see what they bring to your memoir.
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Thank you Leslie for offering these practical writing tips specific to memoir writers. My favorite line is “writing prompts have a way of helping us focus on and uncover things we wouldn’t otherwise find.” It reminds me that memoir writing is an excavation process and can benefit from a few tools to guide the way.
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Author Bio:
Leslie Watts is an author, blogger, podcaster, editor, and co-captain of Writership. She co-authored 101 Creative Writing Prompts for Memoir Writers with Alyssa Archer. Leslie has authored and co-authored a total of twenty-six books, including writing books and children’s books. She lives in Austin, Texas where she’s been writing and using prompts for more than fifteen years.
Contact Information:
You can find her online at www.Writership.org. https://www.facebook.com/Writership/
https://plus.google.com/b/112296100323269575251/112296100323269575251/posts
https://twitter.com/TheWritership
https://www.pinterest.com/writership/
https://www.instagram.com/writership/
http://thewritership.tumblr.com
Book Synopsis:
Writership is pleased to present the first in our series of creative writing prompt books. 101 Creative Writing Prompts for Memoir Writers is chock full of gorgeous pictures and written prompts for you to jump start that memoir you’ve been wanting to write. Complete with an introduction to free-writing, this book provides lots of fodder for your creative explorations. Approach the prompts in order or flip to a random page for new inspiration. Revisit the prompts for a deeper dive into the topic at hand. When combined with a daily practice, these prompts will help illuminate the themes and messages you want to write about in your memoir. Explore your life’s defining experiences, adventure, adversity, and accomplishments through these writing exercises.
Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Writing-Prompts-Writership-Publications-ebook/dp/B00NKRYNZ8/.
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How about you? Do writing prompts help stimulate your writing process? Do you have anything else to add to Leslie’s suggestions from your own experiences?
Writership Publications has graciously agreed to give away a copy of 101 Creative Writing Prompts for Memoir Writers to a commenter whose name will be selected in a random drawing.
We’d love to hear from you. Please leave your comments below~
Next Week:
Monday, 02/29/16:
“Detours and Diversions: A Memoir Moment”
February 2016 Newsletter: “Lent and Spiritual Awakenings”.
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