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Monday, May 31, 2010
Narrowing the topic
To those of you who are writing your memoir on a trip or something else over a finite period of time: Are you focusing on one certain aspect of the trip? I am trying to do my memoir on an 11 day trip to Mexico and while it seems that that is not too long, I feel as if I could write a 300 page memoir on all that happened. I am having a little trouble pulling the focus onto something specific in the trip rather than the I went here, we did that, we saw that. As mentioned in a few of our readings I am trying to write the memoir with a purpose. I don't want people to read it and say who cares or why is she telling this? I became good friends with a lot of the people on the trip and wanted to focus on these and how we became close through everything we experienced together. Also, how is everyone using the dual perspective to make their story more interesting?
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I have the exact same problem. I am going to talk about a trip I took to D.C. with friends but I am afraid that it will come off as a scrapbook. I don't want people to say, "this is nice",or "why did she choose to talk about this." I still haven't out how I am going to make it all work.
ReplyDeletePertaining to the dual perspective, I find the evolving identity of the main character fascinating, because you are afforded the narrators present sense of self reflecting on and providing insight into their past circumstances. Showing the audience how their understanding and perspective have changed, revealing their value judgments and personal development. I'm going to try and take advantage of this relationship and use it in my memoir
ReplyDeleteMaybe it would be good to key in on one person and how that trip effect both of you and your relationship. It sounds like there is too much in your trip to tell it all, so on the other hand you could just talk about the highlights to the trip instead of it as a whole.
ReplyDeleteI am writing my memoir about a 3 week long trip as well but I have chosen to focus on a few key memories. I think it makes it much easier to thoroughly develope the story.
ReplyDeleteMy memoir was originally about an earlier period in my life (about a year) but even with specific events, it was too long. After discussing it with Kate, I decided to cut it short to just one day. At first I thought that I would lose my purpose, but I didn't. I felt like it might be more mysterious and have a greater impact with a shorter comic.
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