Sooner or later we all find ourselves hanging out in the past, whether we want to or not. Some of us go into such times with fondness and nostalgia for days gone by, others kicking and screaming as we’re dragged off into a dark corner. Yet memories, especially the ones we’d love to avoid, are especially useful to writers. We must study our subject to express the truth, and our closest, most obvious model is ourselves and our pasts. Examining my memories will benefit my fictional people’s realism.
The Transmutation of Memories
The past is not a fun place, really. It’s a well. A vital source of life-giving water and placed in a verdant garden, but full of spiders and crickets and ghosts.
Forced to examine memories, I find I’ve lost many past events’ narrative track. All I hold is a kernel of a starting place—a whisp of emotion, a beat within a forgotten scene, or a truth well established through family lore. Does revisiting the scenes of past events spark the memories?
Recently I found myself in a place from my past. It had moved on; so had I. I barely recognized it, yet I don’t think so much had changed. My memories just weren’t all that persistent. Like the Dali painting, time transforms events as well as itself. Yet as I sat in that place, bits of recollection floated to the surface. Sweet at first, but then…things deliberately forgotten.
Things that probably need me to tell their story.
What evokes (or provokes) your memories? Can you use the information and feelings for creativity? Or is it best to shun the past? Comment on the blog. (Click the blog title, then scroll down to see the dialogue box to comment.)
If you enjoyed this journal entry, you might like to read about facing your fears.
I started this blog thread on the gritty details of the writing process over on my Facebook Author page, @kbkathylbrown, but think I might be better served putting it over here. If you’re interest in following my writing process in an informal way, you’ll find a few posts on Facebook that might interest you. You can subscribe to the blog from the website landing page (scroll down).