Memoir Writing Tip: The Memoir Project Calendar

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.

August 2025

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
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18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28 August, 28 2025 Jewelweed in Bloom   One of the things a great percentage of the country has in common right now is that the jewelweed is in bloom. You know jewel-weed, it’s lovely yellow and orange flowers seeming to dangle off the stems. Ranging  throughout the United States with the exception of Wyoming, Montana, and the southwest, it actually has two flowers, the obvious one with the spur on the end and a petal-less one that never opens, from which the plant gets its other name, touch-me-not, which, if touched at the right time, explosively splits open dispersing tiny seeds several feet in all directions. Beloved by pollinators such as hummingbirds, moths and butterflies, the stamens of the plant dust them with pollen as they seek the nectar deep in the trumpet cup of the flower. Jewelweed can grow up to five feet in height and I’ve read that it is thought to be an effective remedy for Poison Ivy, Poison Oak, Stinging nettles as well as a variety of insect bites. Read up before use.	29	30	31 August, 31 2025 A Pleasurable Traffic Jam Ah, traffic. Most of us hate it, unless we are talking about bird traffic, and we are today, since it’s that time of year again when the birds are on the move. They’ve actually been at it for a while, though it’s just becoming noticeable in most regions of the country –as well as online. Haven’t checked out an online bird site yet? It’s easy. Type in the name of your town, and “bird migration” and you’ll be amazed y what’s there. Birds follow flyways, and there is a flyway system, which incudes all the routes followed by migratory birds. These are numerous, and while some of them are simple and easily traced, others are extremely complicated. Differences in distance traveled, in time of starting, in speed of flight, in geographical position, in the latitude of the breeding and wintering grounds and in other factors all contribute to great diversity. And here is an amazing fact: No two species follow exactly the same path from beginning to end. Read up on flyways. You’ll be glad you did.