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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1June, 1 2024First of the MonthIt’s the first of the month, a great day to turn over a new leaf and get to writing some memoir. What’s my advice? Be hospitable. | 2 | |||||
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6June, 6 2024D-DayD-Day, 1944. What is a gnarlier topic than patriotism? Try writing a piece that uses one of your experiences in which patriotism is kind of off to the side, but tell it/publish it/read it on one of the big days like this, D-Day. Memoir is not about you, but is about something bigger. You are the picture in the frame. Want to see what I mean? Read this, a piece I read on NPR’s All Things Considered, that is about patriotism, but takes place on one of the funnier days in my life. | 7June, 7 2024World’s Oldest Public Museum OpensOn this day in 1753, the British Parliament passed an act establishing the British Museum, making it the world’s oldest public national museum. This all began when King George II gave his royal assent to an Act of Parliament to accept the collection of Sir Hans Sloane, a London-based physician, following his death. In his will, Sloane had offered the British nation the collection he built over his lifetime. That collection housed 71,000 objects, mostly plant and animal specimens. In return, he asked a sum of £20,000 for his heirs (which today would be more than £2,000,000). The museum opened to the public on January 15th, 1759 at Bloomsbury. From the beginning it granted free admission to all ‘studious and curious persons’. Visitor numbers have grown from around 5,000 a year in the eighteenth century to nearly 6 million today. Have a British Museum story? Here’s your news peg.
| 8June, 8 2024And You Think You’ve Got Stinky FlowersOn this day in 1937 a specimen of the world’s largest flower first bloomed in the U.S. at the NY Botanical Garden. The giant Sumatran Titan Arum, measured 8½-ft high and 4-ft diam, and while that may sound good, keep in mind that this specimen is known as “the corpse flower,” for its putrid smell when in bloom. The odor is released in pulses, attracting carrion beetles and other pollinators in the plant’s native Sumatra. It was there that an Italian botanist saw it in 1878. He collected seeds and sent them back home where they were grown; plants were sent to Kew Gardens in England in 1879. The US specimen flowered all those years later, and stunk up the place something fierce. Belmont Stakes DayEvery time the Belmont Stakes rolls around, my sister has some explaining to do about why she is named for a racehorse. Don’t think you can tell stories on your siblings? Think again. | 9June, 9 2024Birthday of the Father of American HorticultureThere is a basketball hall of fame, and boxing, so why not for horticulturalists? Located at saveseeds (dot) org, you can visit it which is where I found today’s birthday person, Peter Henderson, born today in 1822. Called “the father of horticulture and ornamental gardening” in the United States, and for good reason, he was the author of the first book written on market gardening in the United States, selling 100,000 copies and in 1871 established a seed company called Peter Henderson & Company, developing vegetables and flowers suited to American conditions. Using five-color lithographs in his catalogue, he revolutionized the way we shop for our gardens. He also personally answered every letter he received and in the course of 45 years in business, sent out 175,000 letters, two-thirds of written by his own hand. Got a garden tale? Here’s your news peg. |
10June, 10 2024Got Ants? Read UpOn this day in 1929 one of the world’s great authorities on ants was born. That’s right: ants. His name, Edward Osborne Wilson, known as E. O. Wilson, he has pondered the question of any numbers and he has a theory. An American biologist who has spent his life conducting studies of the ecology and evolution of the ant, traveling the world, he has discovered several new species. Currently there are practically 9,000 species of ant. Wilson predicts that someday there will be 20,000 and that within these species there are over a million billion individuals. | 11June, 11 2024All Hail the King of the SeaOn this day in 1910 was the birth of Jacques-Yves Cousteau, a man who dedicated his his life to preserving the world’s oceans. Seeking a way to explore underwater longer and more freely, he developed, with engineer Emile Gagnan, the Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus, or scuba, in 1943, opening the world under the sea to human beings. Then, taking to the seas about the Calypso, long before most of us yet knew about the effects of pollution, over-exploitation of resources and coastal development, he drew our attention to the potentially disastrous environmental consequences of human negligence, doing so through more than 115 television specials and 50 books, opening up the oceans to millions of households. | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15June, 15 2024Wedding SeasonIt’s the time of year for weddings, which may mean that your anniversary is coming up. Every year on mine, I write something about combining my family’s New York City food traditions with those of my husband, a South Dakotan. Twenty-three years in, there is still more to tell, though this may be my all-time favorite. Arkansas Becomes the 25th StateOn this day in 1836, Arkansas became the 25th state. Have an Arkansas story? Here’s your news peg. | 16 |
| 17 | 18 | 19June, 19 2024All Hail the Lady of the Harbor!It was on this day in 1885 that the Statue of Liberty arrived at its permanent home in New York’s harbor. A gift of friendship from the people of France, the 151-foot-tall statue of liberty, created to commemorate the centennial of America’s independence, changed the status of the island whose history was not always that of a national monument. Quick, what’s the name of the island she sits on? Now Liberty Island, formerly known as Bedloe’s Island, after Isaac Bedloe, who had bought it in the 17th century. The Mohegan Indians called the little island “Minnissais, meaning Lesser Island. It has been known as “Great Oyster,” “Love Island,” “Bedloo’s Island,” “Kennedy’s Island,” “Corporation Island,” and “Bedloe’s.” Whatever you want to call it, all Americans call it home to our greatest monument to liberty. | 20June, 20 2024Ah, The Summer SolsticeToday is the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, when the sun is farthest north. An astronomical event that happens twice each year, a solstice is when the tilt of the Earth’s axis is most inclined toward or away from the Sun, causing the Sun’s apparent position in the sky to reach its northernmost or southernmost extreme. The word solstice comes from the Latin word for sun, which is sol and the Latin phrase for the idea of standing still, sistere. This is because at the solstices, the Sun stands still in declination; that is, the apparent movement of the Sun’s path north or south comes to a stop before reversing direction. The word solstice is applied to the day on which these events take place. The solstices, together with the equinoxes—or those times when the tilt of the Earth’s axis is neither away or toward the sun–are connected with the seasons. West Virginia Becomes the 35th StateOn this day in Naturalist history 1863, West Virginia becomes 35th state. Traveling there? Live there? Here’s your news peg. | 21June, 21 2024Full Strawberry MoonJune’s full moon is known as the Full Strawberry Moon. We take our names from the Native American tradition. What wild and crazy things have you done under the full moon? Can you write about them? You can, once you figure out what your story is about. | 22June, 22 2024It’s Picnic Time AgainMaybe, like me, you collect recipes from your family, and haul them out for such occasions as summer reunions and picnics. Recipes are delicious with story, particularly those that are passed along from one family member to the next, or friend-to-friend. Here’s a piece about this to get you going. | 23 |
| 24 | 25June, 25 2024Time to Catch up on Your Writing, Right?It’s summer. You’ve blocked out the time, you’ve taken off from work, you’ve sharpened your pencils, or powered up your laptop, and yet…you’re blocked. Or so you think. It’s all a lot of nonsense, since there is no such thing as writer’s block. Don’t believe me? Read this and write on. | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
