Boni
Eng 11
Memoir: A Journey into Your Past[1]
Assignment Guidelines
You will be writing about yourself, about something that happened to you. It doesn’t have to be about something big. Often the most interesting stories are about little things—fishing one afternoon with your cousin, getting ready for your first dance, meeting your new stepfather for the first time, meeting your best friend, making a little mistake but learning a big lesson. Everyone has little moments that stick out in his or her mind as meaningful to them. You will be writing about some of those moments and learning how to make your writing reflective and interesting to an intended audience.
Memoir Convention #1: Baby Steps
Baby steps are used to describe and action step by step—or baby step by baby step. Babysteps give the reader meaningful details. For example, you could write “He walked through the doorway.”
Or you could use baby steps and write:
He grasped the cold doorknob and turned it slowly to the right. He pushed the door inward. The hinges squeaked and cold air rushed past the opening door. The room was dark. He darted his eyes to the right. Nothing. He pushed the door open a little farther, and slowly moved his right foot into the room. His shoe creaked a bit as it hit the polished hardwood floor.
Memoir Convention #2: Exploding the Moment
Another way of thinking about baby steps is called “Exploding the Moment.” It’s when a moment is slowed way down—like in the movies. The following is an example of an exploded moment written by a 5th grader.
It was 4:00 a.m. of a cold Saturday morning in January. We were going to see my cousin take off to Massachussetts and the to Saudi Arabia. We were at the air base in Burlington, VT. When my mom got in the door she started to cry. I could feel the urge to cry but I held it in. All my relatives were there. Finally we went into the big cold room where we would see them go. Everyone was crying but I held it in. I felt like a walking teddy bear because I would walk over to someone and they would give me a hug, then to another person and the same thing would happen. It was now 6:30 and I was now the official helmet holder—not for very long because that thing weighed a ton. We had brought flags. One for my cousin Todd and one for us to wave at him. When it was finally time to go we all went outside and waved as they drove in their big, big truck. I felt my heart drop and get heavy when they went away and I remember this like it was yesterday.
Memoir Convention #3: Thoughtshots
Thoughtshots are another way to include detail in your writing. A thoughtshot allows the writer to pause and reflect on a particular event or a detail. A thoughtshot lets you go deeper into your own mind, and it allows you to go deeper into the mind of someone you are writing about.Here’s an example of a thoughtshot fromHatchet by Gary Paulsen:
The jolts that took the pilot had come, and now Brian sat and there was a strange feeling of silence in the thrumming
roar of the engine—a strange feeling of silence and being alone.
He was stopped. Inside he was stopped. He could not think past what he saw, what he felt. All was stopped. The very core him, the very center of Brian Robeson was stopped and stricken with a white-flash of horror, a terror so intense that his breathing, his thinking, and nearly his heart had stopped.
Seconds passed, seconds that became all of his life, and he began to know what he was seeing, began to understand what he saw and that was worse, so much worse that he wanted to make his mind freeze again.
He was sitting in a bushplane roaring seven thousand feet above the northern wilderness with a pilot who had suffered a massive heart attack and who was either dead or in something close to a coma.
He was alone.
In a roaring plane with no pilot he was alone.
Memoir Convention # 4: The “Lead”
One of the things that you will want to think about is the beginning of your memoir. This is called the “lead.” You will want the beginning of your memoir to be very interesting and to lead the reader into the rest of the piece of writing. Here are some examples of good leads from some famous authors who wrote memoirs.
“I was six years old when my mother taught me the art of invisible strength.”
--Amy Tan
“You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this at this time of the morning.”
--Jay McInerney
“You must not tell anyone,” my mother said, “what I am about to tell you.”
--The Woman Warrior
“Suddenly everything stops.”
--Alison James
Assignment Requirements:
This piece of writing will be graded out of 100 pts. and placed in your English 11 Writing Portfolio. In this piece of writing you will be expected to:
● Write an interesting lead or beginning
● Use Memoir Conventions to make your story interesting—baby steps, thoughtshots, or exploded moments
● Clearly communicate your reflections to your intended audience
● Use correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation
Remember that the best memoirs have an apparent theme, then a deeper or larger one. Use your Lifeline and the starter pieces you have written in class to choose your themes. You have to keep asking yourself. “What does my memory mean? Why is the memory important? How will I communicate that meaning to my audience?”
The Final Draft of your Memoir should be 500-750 words (2-3 pages, double-spaced), 12 point font size in Times New Roman or Times.
DUE DATE: ______
1
[1] Content adapted from