The A to Z Memoir Exercise for Writers

Our quote today is from Dr. Seuss, that wise man who wrote wonderful books for children that contained advice for adults, as well. On our poster, he said:  Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory. 

That makes me think of memoir writing. In memoirs, whether short pieces or an entire book, we revisit our memories and often find the meaning or value in them, and something we may have learned. Memoir writing is a big topic in today's world from both professional writers and those who are in the early days of writing. 

We write memoir to see how an experience affected us, how it made us feel, and what we learned. What we learned about ourselves and others. A memoir is not an autobiography where we tell others about our entire lifetime. A memoir is about one part of our life, something that occurred that may have changed our lives in some way or changed the lives of friends or family. It might be an experience that taught us something about ourselves or about the world we live in.

Finding the right topic to write even a short memoir piece of maybe 1000 words is not always easy. I found an exercise recently that might help you discover your topic. 

The A to Z Memoir Exercise:

Make a list of all the letters in the alphabet, leaving a few lines between each one. Then, beginning with A write a word, then a line, or a sentence, or even two to represent that letter in your childhood, your teen years, or early adult years. 

Don't dwell on it. Look at A and go with the first thing that pops into your mind. For instance, when I did the exercise, the first word that came to me was 'alley' I wrote next to the word that the alley behind our big apartment building was where my friends and I played as children. Then, I moved on to B. 

As you move through the letters your mind will carry you back to those earlier days, and you might be surprised what pops up. 

When you have completed your list, read through it. You'll probably find several possible memoir topics among those 26 letters. 

Writing exercises can open the door to a new story, essay, poem, or memoir piece.