Seeing for Miles
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/books/14dexter.html?_r=1&ref=arts
Write about what you know:Reflections of a Wayward Soul
That was the headline from The Arts section in todays New York Times with the link above. The article was really about his fiction writing but it gives all of us writers pause to get back to the basics. If you write about what you know then you do not get lost. You do not struggle with story lines and the writing comes easily. I know many of the writers of Personal History do not really think they are writers. I am not sure what a writer is but I know that if you feel you have a story to tell and you tell in it on camera, into a tape recorder, pen and pad of paper or type on to a blank screen on a computer you are writing. If you stay with what you know you will also be a story teller. Call it what ever you like, the idea is to get the story down to share with your family members.
For those of you that do not know where to start writing try finding good triggers that can open the flood gates for your writing. And not all triggers work for all of us. Some triggers could be remembering burning leaves as my next newsletter talks about. A trigger of smell can take us back to a place were we then can add the detail as if we were standing right their back in a moment of time. If you have not signed up for the free monthly newsletter email me at Hella@personalhistories101.com and in the subject line say include me for the newsletter. Ten Triggers go out each month and I never know what I am going to write about and do not believe me when I say the topic before I actually edit it. Some thing may come by that triggers a whole new essay!
