Life writing: Stitch it together, one story at at a time
I do not sew and would not contemplate making a quilt, but I understand the concept: create something from smaller pieces by stitching them together to make a beautiful new whole. The other day, it came to me that this is how I approach life writing. It is how I am approaching writing about my life. Not for me a linear path of carefully planned chronological tales. No. My approach is to keep my eyes open for prompts that spark a memory. Nurture that spark, and tease it into a story. Safe-keep that story in a metaphorical box or actual drawer. Keep being open to prompts and alert to sparks; keep writing them into stories; and keep saving the results. One day, sometime, will be the right time to take those bits and bobs, those scraps of a life lived presented as story, and stitch them into a whole of some sort. This, then, you might call a memoir and you might give it a title and others might read it. What a day that would be! In the meantime, it is both fun and valuable to be prompt...