From My Memoir Blog
Writing Memoir. News You Can Use: March 11, 2012
NEWS YOU CAN USE. Maybe you saw these stories. Maybe you missed them, but these are among the pieces I’ve read recently that might elicit some form of short memoir – an op-ed, or personal essay – from you. Once a week I’ll bring you news pieces I find provocative.
Here are some that get me going:
- Help “spread the word to end the word”
- And the rich just get…weirder?
- Well, this is just too damn embarrassing
- Or maybe it’s just a little pogonophobia
- Alcohol in movies linked to…wait for it…binge drinking
Surely you have something to say using one of these as your news peg.
Looking for inspiration or guidance on how to write a personal essay? Look at my categories for NPR essays, parenting essays, and several other topics. All of the pieces there have been published, or have aired on the radio. If those don’t work, see the interactive calendar for more inspiration. And write on.
See a typo, a grammar flub, my (ever-present) overuse of commas? Point it out, and I’ll throw you in the pool for a monthly free book giveaway. Which book? One of mine – your choice – all of which were professionally copy edited, thank goodness.
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Your New Best Friend:
The Deadline Calendar
GO ON, TRY my interactive calendar of emotional high holy days, regular-version high holy days and more. Hover your cursor over a cinnamon-colored date to see what pops up. Use it to start personal essays, radio pieces and op-eds to submit on deadline. How? Look three months out for radio ideas; six to twelve for magazine pieces. Pick it, write it, submit it. You’re a writer. That’s what writers do.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Feb | Apr » | |||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8March, 8 2012Full Worm MoonLove it or hate it, the name for the March full moon is the Full Worm Moon. We take our names from the Native American tradition, this one referring to this time of year when the temperature begins to warm, the ground begins to thaw and earthworm casts appear, heralding the return of the robins. Worm person or not? It’s a way to sort people. So is this. Maybe it will inspire you. | 9 | 10 | 11 |
12March, 12 2012Girl Scouts FoundedWere you a scout? It was on this day in 1912 that Juliette Low founded the Girl Scouts. Millions of us were scouts, including me and my sister. But we have wildly different memories of the troop. Why? Hint: Our mother was the scout leader. What to do with those varying versions of the same experience? | 13 | 14 | 15March, 15 2012The Ides of MarchRight. It’s the Ides of March. What is that again? Come on, now. You do know you have to do research when writing memoir, right? | 16 | 17March, 17 2012A Day for Green Beer. Or Not.St. Patrick’s Day is one of those holidays that provokes some people to make fun of other people’s food. I know a little about that. I’m a New Yorker married a South Dakotan. See here for a way to write about those cultural differences as revealed in our food. | 18 |
| 19 | 20March, 20 2012Vernal EquinoxOn the Vernal Equinox, the Sun rises exactly in the east, travels through the sky for 12 hours and sets exactly in the west. On the Equinox this is the motion of the Sun through the sky for everyone on earth, with all of us together experiencing the same 12 hours of sunlight. Here in the northern hemisphere, let’s enjoy this first day of spring. How to make something that affects everyone in the Northern Hemisphere uniquely yours? Think in propinquities. | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| 26 | 27March, 27 2012Cherry Blossom FestivalsOn this day in 1912 some cherry trees got a very auspicious designation when then First Lady Helen Taft joined Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese Ambassador to the United States, to plant two of the more than 3000 trees to be planted in Washington. It was the beginning of Washington’s famous Cherry Blossom Festival. Do you garden? Maybe this will inspire you. | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |
