One Reason To Write

Anais Nin was a prolific writer who is quoted frequently in literary circles. She is known for the many journals she published, other nonfiction and also fiction. The quote above made me think in particular of those who write memoir pieces, or even you who are keeping a Family Memory Book.

We lived our lifetime experiences and in writing memoir we can revisit those same times once again. The question is why do we want to do that? Isn't water over the dam gone? Can we bring it back? Should we?

Some writers might want to return to those happy times in their growing-up years. It's nostalgic and it's interesting to view whatever happened in those years from a different perspective--you the adult. Who doesn't like to bring back those happy times? That's easy.

But what about the difficult times in our lives, maybe even the tragedies some of us have experienced in earlier years? Do you really want to relive those times? Psychologists and psychiatrists will tell you that you need to go back and look at those episodes in your life if you want healing to take place. I have a book written by a psychotherapist that deals with writing a memoir to heal. It's a very interesting book, helpful to those who want to write this type of memoir story and even gives some good writing advice for anyone else. The name of the book is The Power of Memoir by Linda Joy Meyers, Ph.D. Click on the link to read the editorial reviews and reader reviews of this instructional book. Besides healing, or maybe as a part of healing, I think writing about a difficult time in our lives is a wonderful release of long pent-up feelings.

What about family disagreements or even feuds? Do you want to bring all that back in a memoir piece? Maybe doing so will let you see it in a new light, allow you to now begin to understand why this person or that one acted the way they did. Perhaps why you behaved in a certain manner. You may end up with a new respect for either the others or yourself and maybe some insight.

It's easier to view what happened in the past if we step back and view as an outsider might, although we still have the knowledge of what actually happened.

Give the quote above some thought today. Even novelists and short story writers often include things in their work that is based on an actual experience. So, they too, are tasting life twice through their made-up story.