Sacré Maroon!

Writing, ,
Street in the Altstadt, Heidelberg, Germany

I belong to a number of Facebook groups related to writing. In some of them, I see questions I haven’t asked in years, Questions so basic that DON’T THOSE PEOPLE KNOW ANYTHING? comes to mind. Then I remember myself. Sometimes I drop a bit of advice, and often when I do it is appreciated (given a like or two, at least.) Thing is, I’m still not a famous, self-sustaining writer. Hell, I’m almost seventy, and I’m still aspiring to that (keeps one young, I’m told.) Great, but that means, that, while I can give advice to raw beginners (Speak Engrish, Troop!?) I still need a lot of help myself. And I have learned a few things over time.

Number one: nobody knows how you should proceed in your career. People who tell you what to do should pay attention to their own lives, and let you figure out yours.

Two: that’s not to say that you can’t learn from others’ experiences. You can, but never try to be them. Or even like them. You are you, and that’s fantastic.

Three: you will not be an overnight success. If you are, you’ll spend the rest of your life being unsure of your actual talents. As opposed to if you work hard for years and finally break through, in which case you will spend the rest of your life being unsure of your actual talents. This is called “Imposter Syndrome.” Get used to it.

And number zero: Know the rules like a professional so you can break them like an artist. (Pablo Picasso) Rule zero because it is the most important.

There, now you know everything you need to know to be a famous, self-sustaining writer. You’re welcome.

Memoirs are Made of This

Writing, ,
Looks Like the Library at Hogwarts, Doesn’t It?

If you want to know where that picture was taken, look it up. You have all the information you need.

As a student of the French language, I know that ‘mémoire‘ is a word for ‘memory.’ (So is souvenir.) It can also mean a token, something to remind you of a place, that sort of thing. In English, memoir is a book about one’s experiences. It’s not a biography, although there can be a lot of biographical information in a memoir. With all that said, and, having bought “Memoir Writing for Dummies,” I am endeavoring to write a memoir. I don’t care if it’s ever published, though. I’m writing it because I’ve noticed that the best books are the ones where the author is totally involved in the story, in a way the reader can sense. (Not literally, we leave that to Vonnegut.) Since I aspire to write REALLY GOOD STUFF, I am using a memoir as a way to get to know who I really am. Sure, you can pay some shrink to help you, but as I write pretty good anyway, I figure this will be cheaper. (Hey, I write gooder than a lot of people, anyway.) 🙂

So far it’s almost 70 pages long. One page per year, more or less. Well, now that I put it that way, I think I have some more writing to do. Let me know if you’ve ever done a memoir, particularly if it was for self-discovery. Okay?

Ciao!