Metaphor for a New Year

Pictures make powerful story prompts, and this picture of a  crumbling sidewalk is no exception. It strikes me as a metaphor for our path thorough life and fits with the general theme of the new year and story.

Each New Year’s Day I’m reminded that life is a cyclical process. Each year exists within the “container” of twelve oscillating months that fit on a series of rectangular sheets roughly the shape of a sidewalk slab progressing through the year.

Though some may be similar, no two years are quite the same. Even on a newly poured sidewalk, you’ll find variations from one slab to the next, and by the time a sidewalk reaches the age and condition of this one, the differences among the sections are huge.

Each year in our lives has a story to tell. Although it’s anyone’s guess what it might be, it appears likely that each section of this sidewalk experienced some individually unique stresses, leading to its individual array of cracks, chunks and deformities.

This sidewalk is a visible record of the effects of a year – probably in reality a series of years. Our life writing, whether public or private is a visible record of the effects of years on our lives.

A freshly poured sidewalk traversing a lovely landscape is relatively uninteresting in its apparent uniformity and smoothness. It’s good for roller skating, pushing strollers, and playing hopscotch, but otherwise little more than a convenience for walking from place to place. A life with no challenges would be a dull life indeed.

This sidewalk is full of stories. It has repairs and subsidence and other areas that appear to be intact. Some spots are damp. How did this all happen? Is this the result of natural aging or damage? Has it experienced floods? Did a careless crane drop a wrecking ball? What might that have felt like, and how does the sidewalk see itself now? Various years evoke similar questions.

Looking toward the future, this sidewalk will need further repair to remain safe and useful. Lives sometimes need repair, and writing can be a powerful way to effect it.

Taken as a whole, this sidewalk is traveled by people on their way to a destination. Whatever the condition of the rest of the path, this section presents challenges to keep your balance and avoid stumbling. Some years are like that.

At this point my mind wanders to another task for today or tomorrow: updating my personal timeline – the rough equivalent of adding a new block to the sidewalk of my life. I see the similarity between my timeline and this sidewalk. Each year on my timeline is different. Some years were smooth, some were rough and challenging.

Like this sidewalk, the challenging years are the most intriguing, the most likely to provide insight, and the most likely to intrigue readers if I write about them.

I find a certain sort of dignified beauty in this sidewalk, and also in years of challenge.

Write now: Update your personal timeline. Start one if you don’t have one. Pick a year that was especially challenging and write about it. Describe each of the fragments, and how it came to be. What did it mean to you then, and what lessons have you learned? Use this sidewalk graphic as a prompt if it fits.

Photo credit: Bart Everson

The Tree of Me

On a whim inspired by matroyshka dolls and Growing Old: A Journey of Self-Discovery by Danielle Quinodoz, I decided to make a sketch of my “layers.” I found a tabloid-sized sheet of blank newsprint, picked up a pencil, and within about five minutes this graphic emerged showing my life from beginning to now. For the purposes of sharing and further embellishing, I redrew it with color for the boundaries. It’s still rough, as you can see by the orange blotch in the core that didn’t work out quite as hoped. But that’s okay. This is a source of inspiration and insight, not destined for the living room wall.

I was surprised as could be to see it. I’ve thought for ages about a chronological map of stages of my life. I like this one ever so much better. It’s organic and representative. As Quinodoz points out, I hold all those previous layers within me, but redefine them and cover them with new growth as I go.

When I began, I had no sense of direction. I thought I might be making a graph of roles I play. This emerged on its own. I will still work with the role idea later, as creativity further instructs.

I especially value this form, because within the layers I have space to write thoughts about that era. Here I’ve included rudimentary memories of threads of activity and my emotions and state of mind at the time. The layer boundaries are especially bold and jagged for times of great turmoil and upheaval. My world shifted on its axis at these points. The colors aren’t significant. Note that the boundaries are uneven – like the rings in an actual tree. They serve to organize memory clusters to clarify my sense of them and provide inspiration when I write.

Perhaps I’ll develop this further, but for now it’s a super-rich source of writing prompts, and it basically comprises a life-long memoir-at-a-glance, at least for me. Those cryptic notes won’t mean a lot to anyone else. 

It does show chronology, because the rings expand year-by-year. I didn’t put dates on the ring boundaries, but I could. I could do a lot of things. So can you, if you give this a try. I suggest using even larger paper so you have more room to take your time and make more notes.  I predict that you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the patterns and insights.

Write now: Find a huge sheet of paper or piece of posterboard and make your own cross-section. You  might sketch it roughly in pencil first, then move to the full-size sheet. Add detail and make it rich. Then write about each layer.

Moon as Metaphor

Hang on! This is not about astrology or New Age philosophy. I’m working on my personal timeline – again. I made a table timeline years ago, and refer to it often. This one is graphical. I took a tabloid-sized sheet of paper and drew a line across the center lengthwise, placing it in the center vertically. I divided the line into seven decades, since I’m working on my seventh one now. My plan is to add “light” memories, happy ones, above the line, and darker, painful ones below.

As I began jotting memories in, I realized it isn’t always clear which side to put them on. Some, like winning the Distinguished Thesis Award, were clearly on top. Others, like being emotionally ambushed by classmates in a grad school class (I’ve forgotten the subject, but not the event) are clearly way down in the dark field.

Few are that clear. The majority are basically happy, but nuanced. Becoming engaged, for example. I was a freshman in college in Texas at the time, and my fiancé was in Cambridge, Mass. Although I was sincerely in love, thrilled at the elevation in my status, and relieved to have “landed my man” so easily and early, it wasn’t that perfect and simple. I was a bit sad about spending weekend evenings alone in my room studying or writing letters while most of the other girls in the dorm were out on dates. I did feel a bit of regret when a fellow I’d enjoyed dating earlier in the year asked me out again and I had to convince him I really was engaged. I sometimes wondered if I really knew what I was doing.

If I take the simple example of getting engaged, having that question popped and saying “Yes!”, or flashing that glittering stone, the memory goes high above the midline. If I take the entire cluster of memories, they scatter, with a fair number dipping below.

The implication for life story or memoir writing  is that writing about a single event, like getting that ring, will be short and sweet, and, well, trite. The story will be far more interesting if I include the full cluster of memories with reflections on my doubts and moments of angst. The shadows set off the highlights and amplify their meaning. Highlights give perspective to the dark times.

Looking down my timeline I notice that some periods shine forth brightly, lit with concentrated happiness and success. Conversely a few times, thankfully not too many, dense thunderclouds nearly obscured the sun.

Noting these cycles brought me to the metaphor of the moon and its phases. The moon is so predictable. On some clear nights, especially during the leafless season, it shines so brightly that color is dimly visible. (Cones, the eye receptors enabling us to see in very low light, are not sensitive to color.) Two weeks later the night will be inky, with varying degrees of moonlight between.

These cycles, these contrasts, are what make for compelling stories. Using the timeline is an effective way to find this contrast. Note memories for the period you’re writing about, and place them above or below the line. When you have the least hesitation, pull that memory out and break it down into components, placing each above or below the line. You may find that it expands into the far distant future, or reaches way back into your past.

Adding these details, these shadows, give depth to stories. They make it throb with life, placing it in the natural cycles of moon phases, seasons, breathing in and out, and our hearts’ squeezing and releasing to pump blood.

The shorter the story, the less opportunity for variation, but every story has room for a bit of depth. Longer ones, memoir length, may go through several cycles within the larger arc.

Write now: plot out a key memory from your past. Select a complex one, breaking it down into components and chart their locations above and below the neutral line. Then write the story.

Image credit: Wikipedia, creative commons license

New Year's Resolutions Don't Have to Be a Joke

Are you one of the majority of readers who will be making New Year's resolutions in the next day or two? Perhaps some of those will include resolutions about writing. Maybe you'll resolve to journal every day. Maybe you'll resolve to complete a memoir, or write a story a week. Whatever your resolutions, here's a tip to help make them bear fruit:

Commit to it publicly and create a time-linked Action Plan to go with each step. I am resolving to complete my Los Alamos Years memoir by January 1, 2011. Here is the Action Plan I just knocked out in about ten minutes I've had a lot of practice writing Action Plans, and I've completed several book projects, so I could do it faster. Perhaps mine will give you an idea what to include in your own.

Sharon's Action Plan for The Los Alamos Years

1-1-2010	Write a draft overview of the story.
1-14-2010.	Define purpose and audience
	Write philosophy of story. What message do I plan to convey?
	Break overall story into segments — these will probably become chapters.
	Survey all the vignettes I’ve already written and select which to include.
	Sort vignettes and align with segments.
3-1-2010	Determine what additional stories need to be included.
	Select photos for inclusion
	Write drafts of each chapter (add additional level to this action step when structure is defined).
	Develop scenes.
	Polish description, dialogue and detail.
10-1-2010	Send draft around to three or four trusted people for proofing and editing.
11-15-2010	Incorporate feedback from beta readers.
	Insert photos and other graphics.
	Finalize Title.
	Format for printing.
	Convert to PDF.
12-7- 2010	Create Cover.
12-15-2010	Upload to (CreateSpace) for PDF and eBook distribution.

Notice that I did not put dates on every single step. Some of these will be done "out of order." Some dates may slip and some may be met early. I'll print my table and put it -- somewhere here where I can see it even with the clutter that tends to build up around my desk -- so I can see it often and be reminded of my commitment. The table will grow as I refine the plan.

By the way, this is not a totally new project idea for me. I've been nibbling at it, dancing around it, for two or three years, and writing vignettes for nearly a dozen. I'm not starting from scratch. But I don't think it would matter. The steps remain the same, and will look familiar to anyone who has seen the Planning Diagrams in the first chapter of my book.

Write now: write a resolution of your own. It may be as simple as writing a single vignette, or journaling every day for a week. But take the time to put it in writing and create an Action Plan, however simple.

New Beginnings

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

January First is typically thought of as a day of new beginnings. This year and this post also mark the completion of 300! posts in this blog. In the spirit of New Beginnings, I’m expanding the blog's scope. For nearly three years and three hundred posts, I’ve concentrated almost exclusively on writing lifestories. Today, you’ll notice that the title has changed ever so slightly. Now, rather than being The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing, one word is missing. It’s simply The Heart and Craft of Life Writing, a small but subtle distinction.

Over the course of time, especially the past year, I have become increasingly aware of the various facets of life writing and how they fit together. Some people can stick with a single focus for their entire lives and feel satisfied and happy. I’m not one of those people. I’m an adventurer, a wanderer, an explorer of new perspectives and insight, and eager to try things new ways. I need to follow this impulse to expand for my own reasons, and trust that you will find additional value also.

The facets of life writing as I currently see them include both processes and products, and they overlap all over the place, so the boundaries I describe below are arbitrary and loosely defined. The first three, autobiography, lifestory and memoir have been the focus to date, with the most attention given to lifestory writing. I’ve mentioned journaling, personal essay and documenting, but mostly in passing. The change in blog title reflects my growing interest in these latter three.

• Lifestory — informal vignettes of specific memories and events written from a personal perspective. There is no right way to go about it. They can be as informal as a journal, as impersonal as a document, or as insightful as memoir. They can be rough drafts or highly polished. They can stand alone or be incorporated as elements in a longer work. They are the perfect place for a beginner to get started.

• Memoir — a highly personal account of a specific period of aspect of life. Memoir emphasizes personal reaction and interpretation as much or more than events. It generally implies more literary focus and polish and may evolve from a collection of lifestories.

• Autobiography (chronicling) — an overview of your life, generally written in chronological order. The focus tends to emphasize events and circumstances more than personal observation and interpretation.

• Journaling — a repository of raw thoughts, memories, and insights. A tool for discovering insights and documenting and recording events. Journaling is highly personal and there is no right way to do it.

• Documenting — memorabilia that genealogists treasure like a birth and marriage certificates together with constructed documents like a time line of your life, an account of a specific event including details. Many autobiographies serve to document the details of a life. These documents often serve as supplementary material for other writing.

• Personal Essay — the other end of the line from documenting ... or maybe not. Essays document insights, beliefs, opinions, and interpretations rather than facts. An ethical will is a type of personal essay.

• Poetry and music — valued and time-honored forms of expression, but these forms of life writing will remain outside the bounds of this blog.

Though the focus and title are broadening, much of the content will remain consistent, addressing topics like Truth, secrets, disclosure, and other key concerns. You may not even notice the expanded focus, but I’m a stickler for clearly defining the purpose of any piece or collection of writing, so the title had to change to reflect the expanded focus.

I wish you every blessing and success in this new calendar year and hope that it will be filled with written words as well as joy, growth, and expanded insight.

Write now: doodle some thoughts about the focus of your writing projects. What do you want to write about in the coming weeks and months? Do you have unfinished stories you want to polish? Do you seek publication, by others or your own devices? Expand your timeline. Add to your store idea list. Pull out an old story and polish it. Whatever you do, write!

A Gift That Keeps On Giving

Now that Thanksgiving is out of the way, most of us will soon be swept up in a rush of holiday activity, whether that’s Christmas, Hannukah, or something else. It’s gift-giving time for nearly everyone, and many are looking for creative ways to trim costs this year without making it obvious. Here’s a thrifty idea for parents, grandparents, and other family members (or friends!) you’d like to encourage to get started on writing their lifestories — create a lifestory gift box. This is a gift that can reap dividends lasting for generations. You can keep it basic, or get as elaborate as you like.

Suggested contents for a basic box include:

• The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing, by Sharon Lippincott
• One or more packs of blank index cards for capturing story ideas
• A new pen
• A pad of writing paper (not a fancy book — such things are intimidating to write in)
• A blank printed timeline (you could enter basic information to get them started)
• A neatly written or typed list of stories you hope they may start with
• A binder or file folders for holding finished stories. Decorate an insert for the cover and spine if you use a binder.

The following optional items are listed as suggestions, but none are essential. Let your budget, knowledge of the recipient’s tastes and preferences, and your imagination by your guide.

• Photos of memorable events to jog their memory
• Records, tapes, CDs, or mp3 files with favorite memory-jogging songs and music
• Hole punch (for adding printed pages to binder)
• A gift certificate for typing up hand-written stories (depending on need. You can offer your own services, draft a friend or relative or offer to pay for this)
• Mementos
• Chocolate
• Gourmet coffee, tea or other beverage of their choice
• Scented candle
• Lap desk

If this idea appeals to you, click over to Amazon right now and order the book. Order one for yourself while you’re at it if you haven’t already, and save on shipping.

While you wait for the book to arrive, choose a box that’s big enough to hold paper, pen, the book, and related items. The kind with the lid that has tuck-in flaps to hold it closed works especially well. Cover it with lovely, durable paper and include a note to let the recipient know it’s intended to be used for storing writing supplies and maybe using as a lap desk. Then click here to download a blank Heart and Craft Timeline and follow the instructions at the end to customize it before printing. (A version for filling out on the computer is also available there.)

This gift from your heart is sure to open theirs and result in lots of stories that will keep people reading for generations and keep them aware of family history and ancestors.

Write now: about your memories of holidays past and memorable gifts you’ve given and received.