Holiday Season as Memoir

Last week, we spoke about ways of structuring longer stories, and we considered parallel story lines, in particular the story of a physical journey that is mirrored by a mental or emotional one as well.

This week, I'd like to consider another structuring: story as description/story as scrapbook. 

For the sake of using an image that those of us in Western Pennsylvania can by and large relate to, consider your story as a Christmas/Holiday tree (or any other thing that is dear to you--a collection, a room decorated in your style, your wardrobe, etc.).  On that tree are numerous ornaments.  Each reflects you to a certain degree.  Each has a story of how it came to be yours, why you have kept, and how it ended up where it has on your tree.  Each individual story tells us something about you.  Moving through these stories should not only give us an overall view of the tree--a photograph as it were--but it ought to give us a new perspective as well--more like a movie taking us from seeing the tree from the outside at the bottom to seeing the room from the tree on top of the star.  Eudora Welty's The Golden Apples follows this structure as does Nikki Grimes's Bronx Masquerade.

For this coming week, consider a collection of sorts--your ornaments on your tree, a scrapbook of photos that you keep, the contents of your fridge.  Choose one of two assignments:

• Write a story about a single element in the collection and include some kind of transitional moves that show us how it would fit in the overall progression of elements; or
• Write a short list as a poem, prologue, or annotated table of contents that will outline the descriptive storyline.  

Journeys

This week, we've been talking about story structures.  One structure that is integral to Western culture is the story of a journey.  Most often, these journeys not only involve a change in location but also a change in heart (often as the result of some sort of quest or mission). 

Since the holiday season is filled with travel, this week's challenge is to write about a journey, anything from a round-the-world adventure (as I know some of you have had!) to a quick trip to the grocery store. 

The goal is to use the literal journey as a metaphor for a figurative one.

• A trip to the other side of the planet and back may teach you who you really are (a journey to find one's self).
• A run to the grocery store may not only be about finding nourishment for your family's body but for its soul as well (comfort food, anyone?).
• A visit to Grandma's over the holiday may remind you of your own days at your grandmother's house (a trip down memory lane).

Can't wait to read what you have to say!

Enjoy, Enjoy, ENJOY!

This week, it is my pleasure to say, "HAVE A HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!"

We will not have class next week, but there will be a post here because...

It's Share a Pair of Stories time!

Beginning next week and continuing until I am out of stories, I will run the collected community stories at http://shareapair.blogspot.com.  Yay!  I hope you will tune in!

For our next class (Friday, November 30, 2012), we will work at undermining some of our cliches with new expressions, and I encourage you to use the sensory surroundings of the holiday season to come up with fresh similes and metaphors:

• as happy as... (the cat in the turkey carcass)
• as sad as... (the broken wishbone)

You get the picture.

I'll see you all again soon!

Playing Around: Those Rhymes!

The other week in class, we worked on ways to get unstuck in our writing.  Years ago I had a social studies assignment that completely unstuck my grandparents' memories.  We were asked to call the oldest coherent generation that we could and ask them about a jingle that they remembered from an old advertisement.

Now, we don't have to remember a jingle per se, but remembering the songs and rhymes of your childhood can unlock floods of memories.

Begin by dredging up a rhyme from your past:

• How did you select "it?" Did you use "Eenie-meenie-mynie-moe" or "Ocka-bocka-soda-crocka?"
• What did you say when you skipped rope?  "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear?"  "Cinderella, Dressed in Yella?"
• How did you tease one another?  "I see London.  I see France?"  "Johnny and Mary sitting in a tree?"

Sometimes the song is enough to pull you into a moment right there, but if it isn't, dig further.

• Who generally said the rhyme with you?
• When did you use it?
• Why did you resort to it?

 Once you are in the moment, be sure to bring us with you:

• How does it sound and smell?
• What are your feelings and how were they expressed in your body?
• What were your interactions with your playmates?  How did their responses reveal their personalities?

After you are in the moment and are bringing us along, don't forget to continue to play.  Allow your sentences to mimic the jingle if you want.  Allow your rhythm to mimic your breathing.  Are you panting?  Use short staccato sentences.  Are you racing?  Give us a long, long sentence that leaves us rushing and gasping at the end.

I look forward to your responses!

Playing Around: Why? Why? Why? Why?

Do you remember those days when you were a child (or you had a child or were near a child) who was about four-years-old?

"Let's go to the store," you might say.

"Why?"

"Because we need food."

"Why?"

"Because people need to eat."

"Why?"

"Because if we don't we'll die."

"Why?"

You get the picture.  Sometimes the child just asks to be annoying, but many times they ask because the world is so new that they truly don't (or just partially don't) really understand.

After you write your story, ask yourself some of these questions.  Pretend that you are being interviewed by a four-year-old.  You may run into some answers that are less than obvious or some details that are obvious to you but not to others.

Share a Pair of Stories: Write Offs!

This Friday, we will devote our normal class time to a Share a Pair of Stories write off!  Come one, come all, invite a neighbor, bring a friend, or just show up by yourself!  This week's time will be devoted to capturing a special day on paper.

Playing Around: Freeze!

Yet another way to pull out your stories is to do so using the same strategies you did when you played games as a child.  Here are just a couple of ideas on how to do that:

• Freeze tag/Musical statues:Remember how you'd get stuck in awkward positions?  They were awkward because you were stuck in them without moving, but actually, they were the positions that you typically used getting from one place to another.  Think about freeze-framing a moment of your life.  It could be that moment on the playground or one from your adulthood.  There's always an awkwardness to the moment because you have been caught in transit.  Use that awkwardness to your advantage.  Where had you been?  Where were you trying to go?  What were the awkward strains of the moment and how were they finally alleviated?
• Musical chairs:Many times in life, we find ourselves forced out of our comfort zone into a new realm, much like that moment you try to lower your bum only to discover that you're out of chairs.  Give an example of growing up/moving on that you perhaps faced with resistance, one you were pushed into.  Tell us why you were hesitant to move on--what was the lure of the group and the music that kept you so keen to stay on the chairs?  And in the end, was the new stage an improvement?
• Hide-and-seek/hot-and-cold:Who hasn't played hide-and-seek or hot-and-cold?  The house suddenly transforms when you begin looking for hiding places, be they for your body or the prized item you will direct others to find.  Think about your life in the same way.  Usually we think of hiding as something dark and negative, but often it is not.  It is something merely off the beaten path, a small compartmentalized piece of your life that may, in fact, be beautiful.  Is there someone, like the mailman or a store clerk, that you joke with every day that isn't a part of your life outside that moment?  Is there a flower garden that you walk past every day that just lightens your heart?  These are the "hidden" moments in your life that speak volumes about your character and the joy you find.