I TRY TO LEARN SOMETHING NEW every day. It’s not a new idea, I know, nor is it unique to me. It’s an adage I see on t-shirts, hear from others and read pretty much everywhere. In this case, at least, familiarity has not bred the least contempt. Quite the opposite. As a result of this idea, I have accumulated a large number of reference books for memoir writing.
Maybe if you live by this adage, you actually do learn by this adage, and learning never gets boring. I hope so.
Get Yourself Some Reference Books for Memoir Writing
My everyday learning is through the reference books I keep at my elbow, seen here in the photo of a corner of my office. If, like me, you’d need a magnifying glass to read these titles, do not despair. Here is a list of the reference books I use to write memoir.
One of my all-time favorites is entitled, What Are the Seven Wonders of the World? It carries a subtitle of, And 100 Other Great Cultural Lists – Fully Explicated. I love having things explicated, don’t you? Particularly everyday things, and what could be more every day than the days of the week? But how about their names? Do you know where we got them?
Let Me Explicate
While the naming of the seven days of the week can be dated as far back as the Sumerians, the final products are a bit of a hodge-podge and include several that are taken from the natural world. For instance, Sunday comes from Old English for the Sun, while Monday comes via the Romans, and their name for the Moon. Tuesday? Anglo-Saxon for Tiw, the Saxon version of the Norse God of War. Wednesday pays tribute to the Norse one-eyed God Odin, as in Woden’s Day. Thursday is for Thor, son of Odin. Friday is for Frigg, the Norse equivalent of Venus, and Saturday returns us to the planets, in honor of Saturn.
What to do with that? Whatever you want. While I never give assignments and absolutely loathe all writing prompts and exercises, it seems to me that I’ve just given you seven pretty solid news pegs and deadlines to write to.
You can easily do the same for yourself. Get a hold of a solid set of reference books for memoir writing. Think hard about what you need for the work you do. Is it nature guidebooks? Atlases? Perhaps you need a set of medical texts. All of us need assistance when writing memoir and reference books are every writer’s best friend.
So get some and write on.
