Memoirs. Will you write yours?

I once was told by a local Seattle editor (whom I both love and admire very much,) that sometimes, in order to let our best writing shine through, we need to write our own memoirs first.

She was reviewing a section of my work in progress that described the relationship between a grandfather and the main character. The descriptions, apparently, seemed a bit too close to the truth for comfort.  Once you let those memories out on a page of their own, she said, you are then freed to write your main character's true story.

I think she was onto something. So I decided to write my memoir. But where to begin?

I will not sit here and ponder on the merits of writing one. Everyone's life is different, and even though I do believe that everyone's story is a fascinating one, I am not going to be the one to judge whether or not you should write one. Let's just assume you have decided, like me, that whether our story is worthy of being cast onto the page or not, we're still going to go ahead and do it, if only as an exercise.

So, back to the first question: where to begin?

One could be forgiven for thinking that every memoir on earth should start at the beginning. You know, the birth of the person writing it.  But think about it: most of us, (I'd like to say all of us, but I am not certain that it is true) so, most of us, then,  do not remember the moment when we were born. Our earliest memories, as a matter of fact, begin around our third or fourth birthday.  (There is a fascinating, extensive study done on this very subject, having to do with brain protein and the growing baby body's hunger for it, but that would make me digress too much.  It is worth searching for, and reading, though.) Most of the stories we know from the first two or three years are mostly those that we have been told, or of which we've seen pictures. Also, many times, the circumstances of our birth are events that have their roots days, months, and even years and centuries before our birthday. Should we start there?

Getting lost in such quandaries only manages to discourage me from starting in the first place. Good thing I have great role models to follow.

My maternal grandfather, (may he rest in the same happy, joyful peace with which he lived his life,) wrote his memoir in a most unusual (and effective) way: whenever he remembered something, -- an anecdote, a person, a place, -- he quietly excused himself from the conversation he was having at the time and went straight to his desk. He wrote about that one instance, nothing else, printed it, and placed it in a folder. After he had accumulated a few, he began to sort them in the chronological order in which the events happened in his life.

I have a copy of his published work on my desk. And it is priceless.

On second thought, I AM going to be the one to tell you to go on and write your own! Future generations will thank you. Will you join me in this? I will publish here every entry of my memoirs. If you do the same, (and you have a blog where you are going to publish them) then leave the link in the comments, and I would be DELIGHTED to read them.

Game?