Memoir Writing Help, Memoir Writing Ideas

Memoir Writing Help, Memoir Writing Ideas
by: Roxanne McDonald


You might not need any memoir writing help, per se, as you know your past and you know quite well how to write, thank you. You might instead just need someone to inspire you, motivate you, give you a nudge--with some memoir writing ideas.

Here are a few prompts to stimulate your memory and to encourage your creativity...of which you have plenty to work with and to share. So do the activities (or at least one), and share them (or it) with loved ones...or with me if you wish. I love reading your memoirs and responding.

Prompt:

Starting on June 17, 1976, Diego and Susy Goldberg, of Buenos Ares, Argentina, photographed head shots of each member of the family...one day every year. Of course, they started as a family of two--Diego and Susy--and have over the years created a photo essay that captures their physical growth (and more) over time.

Visit the website and study the photo essay, "Time" (at www.zonezero.com/ magazine/essays/diegotime/time.html).

In words instead of photos, choose one day of your family's life (starting with your parents or guardians and adding you as a child) and describe what you each look like. Do this for one day every year for as many years as you can.

Prompt:

All art is a response to something--other art, an event in our culture, a moment in history. Look at the photos (on roxannewrites.com or anywhere on the web, and write a page or two of your immediate associations with that picture.

For example, look at the photo of the old 50’s drive-in. What is the first memory that comes up for you? Who was involved? Who was absent and why? What sounds do you recall as predominant that day? What smells were there? What colors do you recall? How did you feel on that day?

Prompt:

At the bottom of the page of my site are two pictures. One is clearly related to the movie theatre, as it features a crowd of men and women (of the 40’s?) standing outside The Dixie Theatre, all facing the camera; and the other has to do with the stage (and movies...later), as it is an artistic rendering of Othello pulling back the bedchamber curtains and peering in at a sleeping Desdemona. Decide what one play or movie influenced you the earliest.

What was the name of the play or film? When did you first see it? What impact did it have on you? For instance, if you and your family were poor and you only saw one movie when you were a kid, maybe you grew up to love movies or work in the movie industry.

Maybe, instead, you saw a play every year with your since deceased uncle, and were inspired to go into theatre or to study literature. Write whatever you want about one movie or play, and then email me with the draft(s) for a response and more encouragement if you wish.

Finished with these prompts?

There are more lessons in Memoir Writing for Our Elders.

Note: The black and white photo below may remind you of something other than your first movie experience. Go for that draft, too!

And stop in every month for new prompts and/or a response to your creative memoir writing if you’d like. I know I’d love it if you did.

About The Author

N.H.-born prize-winning poet, creative nonfiction writer, memoirist, and award-winning Assoc. Prof. of English, Roxanne is also web content and freelance writer/founder of www.roxannewrites.com, a support site for academic, memoir, mental disability, and creative writers who need a nudge, a nod, or just ideas…of which Roxanne has 1,000s, so do stop in for a visit, as this sentence can’t possibly get any longer….

admin@roxannewrites.com >>Read more...

Characters In A Romance Novel

Characters In A Romance Novel
by: Patty Apostolides

Before you even begin writing your novel, you need to know who your characters will be. Minimally, you would want two major characters, the hero and the heroine. They will interact mostly with each other throughout the novel. How they interact with each other will determine the outcome of the story. Will they resist each other in the beginning of the story and by the end, fall in love? Or will they fall in love in the beginning of the story and then be driven apart by conflict? Once you’ve chosen them, then you need to decide what age they are, their personality traits, and their names.

AGE

Age-appropriate actions are paramount to development of the character. If the heroine is in her teens, she will react differently to situations than if she is in her late twenties. The same goes with the hero. In a romance novel, the typical heroine is in her early twenties, while the hero is older. If he is in his twenties, he shouldn’t be shown as a tycoon, unless of course, he inherited the wealth. If he is in his thirties, he shouldn’t be shown doing activities that are immature for his age.

PERSONALITY TRAITS

A character in your novel needs to have distinct personality traits that make them unique. By distinguishing them from the other persons in the novel, you can create all kinds of situations based on those traits. Personality traits are typically revealed in the story through actions, dialogue with other people in the story, and sometimes through flashbacks that may reveal how that person became the way they are.

If you are not familiar with personality traits, you can begin by studying the psychology books that describe them. Some examples of personality traits are introvert/extrovert, obsessive-compulsive, Type “A”/Type “B” personalities, etc. For example, an introverted person would appear shy, doesn’t speak much, and shuns being in social situations, whereas an extroverted person would be gregarious, out-going, and usually a partygoer.

There are many types of personalities that you can choose from for your heroine, but typically, a “romantic” female would include the following: kind, young, nurturing, loving, warm, single, sensual, doesn’t fool around, and attractive. For your hero, the characteristics could vary even more, and usually include being: older, decisive, powerful, kind, caring, single, gentle, and handsome.

Typically, you should have well-rounded characters. However, beware of making them too perfect. Readers prefer reading about realistic people, and yet at the same time, want to escape a little. Leave some room for improvement to allow character development to take place. As a writer, you will have to do some mental gymnastics to allow this to happen. Maybe she is stubborn and headstrong, and doesn’t listen to other people’s advice. Maybe he doesn’t trust anyone, so he is wary and cautious. That’s fine. Once you decide on the traits of each character, then the next step would be to envision how they would react to certain situations. For example, an impulsive person would probably react differently than a cautious person to the same situation. Be prepared to get into the shoes of your character and feel what they would feel. When a hero and heroine get together, they may help each other overcome their character flaws by the end of the story. Through their love for each other, they help each other grow as human beings, and at the same time, accept each other’s flaws and imperfections. Of course, there will be some type of conflict in attaining their love. What story exists without conflict? But by the end of the story, they realize the importance of each other in their life and cannot live without the other, no matter what the price. Ahhh, true love!

NAMES

Once you have the age and personality trait of each character, then you need to give them a name that fits them. If the male character is a warrior or has a tough-minded personality, you wouldn't want to give him a name that sounds feminine, like Jean or Francis. Also, be sensitive to the setting, locale, and the time period, when deciding upon names. In addition, the names of your other characters should not overpower the hero/heroine’s names.

OTHER CHARACTERS

Once you have your main characters, then think about whom else will be in the novel. What role will these other players maintain to help the hero or heroine go forth? If you just add someone in the novel because you like him or her, but they don’t help the story, then rethink on how they could be useful to the story. Maybe they know something that might be useful to the hero or heroine, then add that into the story.

Cardboard characters are a result of focusing on one dimension of a character. The cardboard character can be either totally evil, good, funny, sad, etc. They don’t waver much from that description. Sometimes they are added in the novel to prove someone's character. For example, an evil cardboard character makes the hero look good by battling with him. That's the only purpose the evil character has, to show the hero's good side. We don't try to develop the evil person's character so that he/she is less evil. However, in recent literature, one sees more sympathetic looking evil people doing their bad deeds, yet somehow managing to make the reader feel sorry about them. Those complex types are not considered cardboard characters.

BALANCING ACT

No matter how well you think you are writing, always go back and double check your work for consistency. Make sure that if your hero has blue eyes in the beginning of the story, that he still has blue eyes by the end of the story, etc. Also, make sure you know your characters before you write. If you don’t, it will show up in your writing. Throughout the story, you have to carefully describe the real person in all their glory, as well as their character flaws. When I went back and read the first draft of my romance novel “Lipsi’s Daughter, I found that I tended to lean more towards making my characters too good. I then went in and deliberately inserted a fault or two. Those faults also help with the conflict. Conflict drives the story forward.

The final balancing act will come at the end, where you will have created, or synthesized a whole new person that has evolved into a better human being from the lessons they learned in the story. So now that you've read this section, go ahead, write your characters. Make them come alive!

About The Author

Patty Apostolides is the author of the novel Lipsi's Daughter. She is in the process of writing a poetry book and a second novel. For more information, visit her website: http://www.geocities.com/10500bc/index.html
liendou@Writing.Com >>Read more...

Writing Novel Idea : Tim Bowler

Writing Novel Idea : Tim Bowler

Tim Bowler is a winner of the Carnegie Medal award which written many great books. The book that seems to appeal to me very much is the book name shadows unlike the any other book around. This book is really stress on emotion of the main character. He put in fear, pain, cold and many feeling in it which is the very important point in writing good novel.

It depend upon your story or your theme in the way you progress you main plot. If you are using main character to progress your story, I recommend you to read one of Tim's books. He can express the emotion of the character very good. It's good to look the other people works and get learned, especially the great one.

I have to tell you one important thing when you have to do something, no matter it is for writing or not. You have to put your feeling right into your work. It will make it better. If you do it with no feeling or inspiration, your work is the same. In the Shadows I describe above, I have felt many feeling in it. The moment I skimmed through the few first pages, I got hooked by it.

The idea I'm going to share for you is, try to write a story about a man. You'll make him alive. He will be angry, sad, happy, fear, doubt, anxious or everything you can put in him. I once heard from someone that in every character of the story express the emotion of the writer. One man can express many emotion and feeling. You can get used of it too.

If you like this post, please make a comment to me. I'll be glad :) >>Read more...

Writing Novel Idea : AI

Writing Novel Idea : AI

AI is abbreviate of Artificial Intelligent. Which in Computer term means of the computer that can communication with human and it can trick us to think of them as human being just like us. Why I am posting the header like this? You sure know that in many many sci-fi fictions have AI in their story. Being in many forms and shapes.

The AI in the movie that I most appreciate is from Spielberg's film name AI . Which idea is really fascinating. Do you know that the idea about the robot (or the AI) have love is not new. Do you remember Pinocchio? He is in my opinion the most famous AI robot (Actually he isn't a robot but he was made by the human) in the history that have love.

So let's start with today's idea of the novel writing. What if you make some AI robot in the future world that was created by the godly genius scientist. He create a fantastic adaptive neuro-fuzzy algorithm (I'll let you research in term of homework!) of AI that can learn just like human and name it "Alice" (or Elisa or something else). She can learn everything in natural language. She can adapt new things she perceive into the lines of code. Her intelligent approaching perfect more and more. Alice is a only program in the computer, but she want to be more. One day when the scientist go out for a period of time and let Alice learning by herself (by internet, Google I mean :) Alice now has a chance to do something. She start by order some stuff from the internet to make her a more likely human. And then she start to create herself. After the scientist return, he was suddenly surprised to find a hot girl inside his lab. It was Alice. And the story will make the diverge here as you like.

This was the plot in my head for sometimes ago, but it never been written. My story will go as Alice was falling in love with the scientist and can do everything to get him. She is growing more powerful as her learning curve is exponential. She can control almost every electronic stuffs. The world is gonna be doomed. But I have planned the ending was very happy and I told you that this story is never been written :)

I hope this will make some help for you. Have a good day ! >>Read more...

Writing Novel Idea : The Invasion

Writing Novel Idea : The Invasion
Last week I watched the movie starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig from The Invasion. After watched the trailer fews day before, my girlfriend and I feel the same that we have to go to watch this. The Story is all about virus that come with some meteor falling from the sky. They change human control system of mind and conscious change them into cold and no emotion behavior. At first glance, this movie remind me of some books I have read before.

The concept of this virus (I say it as a novel writer, no expertise in biochemical here) is to change all of every single human mind and conscious to connect as one soul. They can feel each other, communicate by some telepathy method. This concept is much alike Stephen King's book name The Cell. In The Cell it story is about the signal of the mobile cell phone changing human brain into something else. But the point that is similar to the Invasion is the one connected soul. Another same idea and older from this one is Isaac Asimov's Foundationin book title Foundation and the Earth. They all shared the same idea of one connected soul.

Now let's get to the point, my idea today is about all that I said above. The main idea of these three story is the one spirit link that made from some evil method, spiritual method, or even mechanical things like empire of the machine. They all have the same ultimate goal of changing every single life in the universe into the one of them. By many methods, many things that you can use to write yours. Now the story begin with the main character that has aware of that thing but the others haven't. And so the story goes.

This is just an example of what you can use your idea. You can even use it in your main work just to make it more deep and interesting. Writing has limitless possibility !

Have a good day ! >>Read more...

Writing Novel Idea : Affair Detective

Writing Novel Idea : Affair Detective

Today I go out and hang around with my girlfriend. We went to the cinema and watched a very hottest movie coming on last week. The name of the movie is Sai-lub-jub-baan-lek which can be translate to detective that catch some affair (I have to admit that i couldn't find the English title of the movie).



The story start of a young man who really like to create some new equipment that he think is very work but the other isn't. He was then kicked from his boss in electric shop for his creation. And then he tried to start a new restaurant business by borrowed some starter money from local gangster. He was then failure again losing all of his money. He has tried hard to fix his life and one day he has came across a book about detective. That book was all about detective that chasing for the affair of the guilty husband. And then here come the story of the movies. At last he was falling in love with one of his target. I mean the girl that has an affair with the woman's husband that has been hired him.

The movie is really fun as it is the comedy(most) with a little drama at the end. The movie is straight forward so that you can guess the end. But as a novel writer, I have seen more possibility of the story. It can be twisted into many ending. It can be criminal scene that he can murder the rich husband and blame it on his wife and then runaway with a lot of money with the girl. It can be sad drama story that the girl give up their job of affair (as a courtesan) and runaway leaving the detective to be a sad man thinking about her forever. Or it can be the happy ending one (the movie end this way).

I have show you that you can use simple things as you source of novel. Another advice is take off your hand from your main work for a bit and try to write some new short story of you fresh idea. Many great writers have produce a lot of great works this way

Have a nice day ! >>Read more...