GO ON, TRY my interactive calendar of emotional high holy days, regular-version high holy days and more. It’s probably my number one memoir writing tip, since writing on deadline, or to a deadline, is one of the single best ways to learn how to write memoir.
How to Use the Memoir Project Calendar
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. Pluck something from the calendar and start now to submit the very best work you can produce.
Here is how to stop using writing prompts and writing exercises, those time-wasting devices leave you merely practicing writing. You want to write with intent, and you want to succeed. So start today and do so.
Write with intent: Pick it, write it, submit it. Read and react. You’re a writer. That’s what writers do. So write on.
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1November, 1 2024The Holiday Season Officially BeginsI know, I know. It once was that “the holidays” did not begin until the day after Thanksgiving. Well, no more. What’s a memoir writer to do? Take notes. And remember that your family will object to your version of the story, no matter how well you write it. Here’s a little coaching on how to cope with that reality. | 2November, 2 2024Let the Knitting — and Writing — BeginI keep a knitting journal, each year noting when I spot the season’s first knitter, as well as noting each sweater/sock/mitten/scarf I knit, who it’s for, and the date I delivered it. And it would make a great primary source for a memoir. You? What do you do to beat writers’ block? | 3 | ||||
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| 11 | 12 | 13November, 13 2024Lobsters Are On the MoveRight around now lobsters move offshore. According to the lobster research site at the University of New Hampshire, an estimated 20-50% of offshore lobsters are migratory, moving offshore in the winter and spring and inshore in the summer and fall. How far do they go? The juveniles don’t go far, but mature lobsters have an average annual range of about 20 miles. A small number of lobsters migrate very long distances, including one migrant lobster who reportedly moved 798 nautical miles in 3 1/2 years. That’s a long commute. | 14 | 15 | 16November, 16 2024Time for a Singalong!On this day in 1907 Oklahoma entered the union as the forty-sixth state. The state’s history as we know it, begins with its Native Americans, whose influence is evident even in the name, derived from the Choctaw Indian words “okla,” meaning people, and “humma,” meaning red. Along the way the state was the topic of a collaboration between the great Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, who made their first joint effort that of the production of their great musical called simply Oklahoma! | 17 |
18November, 18 2024Let Me Tell You About Telling TimeOn this day in 1883, precisely at noon, North American railroads switched to a new standard time system for rail operations, which they called Standard Railway Time. Almost immediately, many American cities enacted ordinances resulting in the creation of time “zones.” The four standard time zones adopted were eastern standard time, central daylight time, mountain standard time, and Pacific daylight time. Though tailored to the railroad companies’ train schedules, the new system was quickly adopted nationwide, forestalling federal intervention for more than thirty years, until 1918, when daylight saving time was introduced. | 19November, 19 2024Whew. I Mean it: Whew.According to the Old Farmers Almanac, right around now skunks begin to hibernate. Whew, huh? Got a skunk-dog-phew story? Write it up and read it on the radio. | 20 | 21 | 22November, 22 2024All Hail the Cranberry!Behold the cranberry. You probably are, right about now, in fact beholding the cranberry, as you will several times today while you cook some, eat some or store some leftovers. So how about a cranberry fact or two? The cranberry, along with the blueberry and Concord grape, is one of North America’s native fruits. First used by Native Americans, who discovered the wild berry’s versatility as a food, fabric dye and healing agent, the name “cranberry” actually is from the Pilgrims, who called it “craneberry,” because of the small, pink blossoms that appear in the spring resemble the head and bill of a Sandhill crane. In 1816 cranberries were first successfully cultivated. By 1871, the first association of US cranberry growers had formed. Now, U.S. farmers harvest approximately 40,000 acres of cranberries each year. | 23 | 24 |
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