Posts Tagged ‘old friend from far away’
Red | Memoir Prompt
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I am short on time this week, (meaning I have to work my real job more days than normal – ugh) so I am borrowing a memoir prompt from an awesome writer, mentor and teacher of memoir — Natalie Goldberg. It is a fun prompt with only one rule. It will help you [Read More]
Memoir Prompt – Religion
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1416535039 Should we or shouldn’t we? Talk about religion, that is. Lately, I have heard so many stories about childhood memories around religion, many not very favorable. Mainly, I think, it’s the unfavorable ones that have a profound effect on us. Tell us [Read More]
Memoir Prompt – Cooking
The memoir prompt for this week has to do with cooking and you have two options to choose from. When did you taste your favorite fruit for the first time? If you don’t remember, imagine it. Goldberg says that imagining often leads to the real deal. Also, it might not [Read More]
Memoir Prompt – Feeling Different
1416535039What about those little (or sometimes big) hurts from childhood? We’ve all had them. There is a lot about bullying in the news these days. Whether we were bullied or not, I know that everyone has times when they felt different or like they just didn’t [Read More]
Memoir Prompt – True Teachers
Natalie Goldberg, in “Old Friend from Far Away,” writes about Allen Ginsberg. Many people don’t know who he is, and those who do remember him think only of his sexual or drug-related adventures. However, Goldberg says that Ginsberg was one of her most [Read More]
Damn The Signs! Swim Away!
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Swimming along in life’s truck path and finding brief respite in cool waters found in southwestern Ohio. This is my submission for this week’s memoir prompt, Swimming, given to us by Kim Manley Ort… I was in my mid 30’s and life had worked its way into a [Read More]
Monkey Mind and Memoir Contest
Monkey mind, we all have one. It’s that mind that never stops thinking. It is also your critic and judge, telling yourself that you can’t write. Natalie Goldberg says, “Monkey mind can take the form of your mother, a nun, a professor, a priest.” [Read More]
Memoir Prompt – The Itch
Yes, the memoir prompt is that simple this week. Write about a time you itched, physically or metaphorically. (pg. 50) And here is a clip from an interesting section of Natalie Goldberg’s book called “Sideways Step” about not entering your memoir writing [Read More]
Nuts About Memoir
On page 46 of Old Friend from Far Away, Natalie Goldberg writes, “Think of the history of nuts in your life.” Notice the word “history” here. By adding this word, she is not asking us for feelings about nuts. History implies details – dates, [Read More]
Obsessions and Passions
Oh, this is going to be good. We are going to write about our obsessions or passions this week in the memoirs group. Here is some guidance from Natalie Goldberg (paraphrased) from her book, Old Friend from Far Away. “Memoirs are not about your whole life, they are [Read More]
Remembering Happiness
Is happiness as compelling as fear? That’s what I wondered after last week’s exercise on remembering fear. Like fear, happiness for me is best remembered in moments. It’s often fleeting, but oh so delicious. Contentment tends to be longer lasting, but [Read More]
Celebrating Memoirs ~ Contest
Guess what kids? It’s contest time again here at Extreme Writing Now. Well, actually it is contest time over at one of the satellites of EWN, the Facebook Fan Page, but it starts here. Guess I better get moving with the details before I start confusing myself. We will [Read More]
Memoir – The first time you were afraid.
Getting to the emotional truths underlying a story. Do you remember the first time you were afraid or any time you were afraid? Set up the story. Where were you and why? Describe the setting. What happened next and what were you thinking and feeling? What happened after? In [Read More]
Memories of Coffee
This week’s exercise for writing memoir is all about coffee and you could win a copy of Natalie Goldberg’s book Old Friend from Far Away. Being from Canada, I grew up drinking tea. When I started working, we used to go to a little coffee shop in an office [Read More]
Writing Memoir Now
“To have an old friend visit from far away – what a delight!” What if that old friend was you? The quote just mentioned is from the introduction to Natalie Goldberg’s book, “Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir.” It was a birthday present [Read More]
