Spark Your Memory: Week 2 Suggested Topics

So we're using immediate moments in our writing this week.  

Stuck?

I find that certain emotional topics lend themselves to moment-by-moment recall:

• Impatience
• Can you remember waiting in a line?  Perhaps at the grocery store when there is a price check, then coupons, then something that needs to be voided or returned, and then you have to go to the bathroom...
• Can you recall being approved for something?  Often, the hurtles and unexpected problems as you attempted to gain admission or achieve a goal will pop into your mind with startling detail.
• Nostalgia
• Is there a moment that you find yourself missing from your past?  For instance, does smelling someone's cigar suddenly remind you of a specific moment with your grandfather?  These nostalgia triggers, particularly smell triggers, can often bring back detailed memories.
• Is there a lesson that you continually try to impress to your children or grandchildren based on your experiences as a child?  If so, try telling it the other way--as a child looking forward.  You may be surprised at what you suddenly remember, particularly as it is brought into relief by your wisdom and experience now.
• Saying hello or goodbye
• You don't get a second chance to make a first impression.  Occasionally, our first impressions of something seemed burned on our brains.  This would be a good time to take advantage of that detail.
•  Often when I say goodbye, I am consciously soaking up every detail so that I will remember later when I predict I will miss the person or place I am leaving.  These instances can provide a wealth of immediate moments.
• Longing
• Have you ever been away from home and longed for your mother's home cooking?  I bet you can recall the smell, texture, sight, taste, everything possible from that missed meal.  This is the time to put that in writing.
• There is nothing to make you remember the benefits of the great outdoors like being stuck inside on a beautiful day.  Use one of those moments of longing to pull out the details you need for this piece.

Other moments that crystallize for me are "Milestone" moments:

• Your wedding
• The first day of school
• Holding your child for the first time
• The first day of your first job
• Overcoming the neighborhood bully

 A third way to write this piece, and a way that mitigates a good balance between showing and telling, is to pick something in your daily routine and then write a how-to and then turn it into a how-not-to:

• How to brush your teeth
• How to clean up your room super fast without your mom knowing you didn't really clean it.
• How to make breakfast
• How to get ready for bed
• How to get dressed up