Writing

Memoirs

You will choose a defining personal memory and provide a purposeful lead that identifies the event and may give the reason for selecting the topic.
You will support important parts with relevant and specific details, such as: dialogue, character/setting description, action, movement, 5 senses and figurative language.
You will choose precise or interesting words to carefully communicate their ideas. (powerful nouns and verbs, figurative language (similes, metaphors, onomatopoeia)).
You will work in a partnership volunteering ideas, listen, and respond to their peers to develop and improve each other’s writing.
You will understand that revision makes written messages stronger and clearer to readers and communicates a larger meaning or reason for the writing.
You will use an editing checklist independently.

What is a memoir?

It is a true story that has happened to the author. Although, you may have to add little details that you don't quite remember.
It takes place in a short space of time, it is not an autobiography.
The main event is important to the author.
The author has a reason to share the story.
The story makes the reader feel something.
It is told in the first person. We know their thoughts and feelings.

YES: "When I slowly trudged down to the principal's office, my legs started trembling. How was I going to explain what happened?"

NO: "He was scared to see the principal."

Examples:

Fresh Eggs - The story is about buying chicks to raise as hens, so there would be fresh eggs. The surprising thing is that they turned out to be roosters. The deeper meaning is about the relationship between his mother and father.

Baseball - The story is about the summer he played on a baseball team and got sore eyes from the pollen. The deeper message is what it means to be passionate about something.

All Ball - The story is about a girl who buys a ball with money her father gave her before leaving for Korea. The ball is destroyed, and she is upset, but her father gives her a new one. The deeper meaning is about how someone leaving affects your emotions.

Ways to Generate Ideas:

First Times:

The first time I swam over my depth
The first time I went on an airplane

Last Times:

The last time I stole my brother's candy
The last time I did gymnastics

Times when things changed:

When I moved to Canada
When I quit cub scouts

A Time When I Conquered Something:

When I jumped off the ferry docks
When I survived a big earthquake

Use Your Feelings to Come up with Story Ideas:

Always times, one time

Christmas - The time my brother tried to steal my present.

Halloween - The time my cousin shot a bottle rocket at someone's window.

Swimming - The time I nearly drowned.

Playing with siblings - the time my brother and I convinced my littlest sister to climb on the “really safe branch.”

School trips - the time a goat ate Rosin’s backpack and lunch.

Shopping - the time the shopkeeper gave me my candy and my money back by accident.

Tips for Making your Memoir Better

What is the most important thing about your story?

Think about where you are going. What is the conflict?

Think about who your audience is. Why do I want to hear this story?

How much exposition do you need? Focus your camera on the parts your readers really want to read (conflict and events of the plot.)

In All-Ball, we learned very early that her father would be going to Korea. That was the most important information for us to know.

Which characters are the most important to get to know? Put a spotlight on them!

In Baseball, we really got to know the main character and a little about his brother. We didn't learn much about minor characters like his mother.

Which dialogue is important to the story? Only let your characters have the microphone when it is important to the story.

In Fresh Eggs, the writer put in conversations between the mom and dad so we could learn about their relationship. However, the writer only included conversations about the chicks, not conversations about other things like taking out the garbage.

Tell the story of the pebble, not the whole mountain.

An important part of being a writer is knowing what not to include. Focus on a specific experience with a specific person in a specific time or place.

Use description and metaphor to help yourself focus. Use specific words. You can write a lot about a single moment in time!

Example: Then, the earthquake started.

Description Words for the Setting: rattling windows, rumbling and grinding from the building, swaying lights
Description Words for the Time: sudden, never-ending, increasing intensity, 2:46
Description Words for People: pale, worried, shaking
Description Words for Feelings: growing horror, confusion
Metaphor/Simile for the Experience: like being on a boat in a storm

Improved Example:

“Is this normal?” said the student teacher who was watching me teach.

“Well, we do sometimes get earthquakes,” I replied, as the table shook gently.

My class nodded in agreement.

Suddenly the shaking became much more violent. All the colour drained out of my students' faces. The windows started to rattle, and began to open by themselves, slowily leaning forward on their hinges. There was a roaring noise as the entire building seemed to grind against itself. The lights overhead swayed back and forward and there was a clattering as the blinds bounced off the now half open windows. The rumbling went on and on, much longer than I’d ever felt it before. I could feel a sense of growing horror in the classroom as my students and I exchanged panicked and confused glances.

I had always been told that in an earthquake, a side-to-side swaying was okay, but if the building ever shook directly up and down, then you were in serious trouble. Suddenly there was a huge crashing noise and the building started to shift up and down like an enormous hand shaking a pop can.

So What?

Ask yourself: "What is my big idea?"

What are you bringing to this topic that is interesting?

What do you feel strongly about?

This is your message, theme, or lesson for the reader.

Don't forget the thought bubbles!

Your thoughts show your personality. They give the reader more information than the action does. They can change how we think about characters and events. What personality traits could we show through someone's thoughts?

Version 1:

Wolf: I wonder if she is as tasty as her grandmother?

Girl: I wonder if he can help me get to my grandmother's house?

Version 2:

Wolf: I think I smell a ham sandwich in that basket!

Girl: I bet he doesn't know I have poison in this sandwich.

Show, Don't Tell

Instead of using simple words like, "I was sad," use a description to show your feelings. You could say, "My heart sank and a tear rolled slowly down my cheek." Ask yourself, what does that emotion look like? Feel like?

Making Revisions

Write "Off the Page"

In math, you use scrap paper or a white board to work out a problem. In writing, you can use lined paper or a post-it to work on different parts of your writing and write out your thoughts.

Are there any parts of your story that are just, BLAH? Work on them off the page.

Ask yourself, "What am I missing?" "Is my theme clear?"

Try:

adding descriptive words and metaphors or similes
using ways to show, not tell emotions
a new lead or ending
introducing the conflict more dramatically
creating an exciting conversation
using your senses to describe the setting

Find the Heart

Ask yourself, "What is the most important part? Where is the part that really tells the reader the message of my story? Is it the longest part?" If not long, think about how to lengthen it. Make sure it is interesting.