Welcome,
I write a variety of works both fiction and nonfiction. My fiction includes science fiction, juvenile, and children's. I have a number of articles written for Idaho Writer's League newsletters. My main focus is writing a collection of humorous memoirs for publication.
Throughout this blog I will post ideas on writing memoirs in general and writing humor. For the sake of this blog, I classify 'memoirs' as personal essays as opposed to a book length publication telling one's life story. As I am putting together a collection of these personal essays for my upcoming book, I have established a theme for the book which each story follows.
In my childhood and pre marriage years I experienced many events which caused problems of one sort or another. Later in life as a husband, father, and grandfather, similar events happened. It is this problems then and problems now idea that each story in my first book have in common.
Some of these problems deal with vacations, health, car problems, and even bad haircuts.
For others contemplating putting their life story on paper, either literally or electronically, if you choose to write short segments of your life, choose a theme in which each story connects to the others.
I chose 'problems' for my theme because I tend to remember things that went bad, in part because I can look back on them now and laugh at those difficult times. For example, I may not remember many of the gifts I gave my wife for Christmas, but I will always remember the bathrobe which my father placed on the oil burning stove causing the robe to catch on fire. Were it not for the fire, that robe would have been just another present.
A writer friend of mine tells our fellow writers that if you can write 20 stories, you can write a book. 20 stories, each with about 2,000 words, equals a 40,000 word book which is about 160 pages.
Think about your life. Think about major aspects of your life, family, school, church, work, dating, cars, vacations, hobbies, etc. Remember events that took place. Write a brief description of them in a paragraph or two. In very little time, you will be surprised at the number of story ideas you will come up with. Choose one that fits your theme and start writing. Get the ideas written and you are on your way.
