Connie's Corner

The class...

My class was great, ten students, just right . Susie, our instructor has changed the name to Memoir Workshop which to me is a whole lot less intimidating than the original Writing My Life History. The workbook author, who I mentioned before is ninety, has moved to Virginia to be close to her family. Up to three years ago she taught this class. Isn't that amazing?

The first order of business was to learn something about the person to our right, then write a couple sentences about what we learned. Rita, my partner, took a course in iris analysis about which I know nothing but will certainly be looking up. All reading aloud in the class is voluntary.

Then we were asked to write down why we were taking the course, what we expected to get out of it, and if we wanted to write about a particular time period in our life. It seems memoirs do not have to be about your entire life so my answer was a question mark for that one. Our responses to this might be the preface to our future book.

After this exercise we had one that I sort of hiccoughed on. We were asked to write a six-word epitaph for our tombstone. I guess my Jim's memory is too fresh in my brain still and all I could think was "a wife, a caregiver, a widow." No way I was going to share that with anyone just yet. Then, Susie said this could turn out to be the title of our book. That will take a whole lot of thought!

Some people read all their answers, some didn't read any, so we have a good mix. We have two people who are very far along in their writing, one has completed a life history (a ww2 vet), and the other has everything together just waiting for the right words.

For next time we read three chapters in the workbook and write a story from a memory. I could use something in my port, but I feel that would be cheating so I will be writing something new. Susie also asked us to drop for now any books we are reading and select an autobiography from the listing in the back of our workbook. I've already downloaded Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Cased Bird Sings. Plus, Ms. Angelou is speaking at our own Phillip's Center at the University here on Feb. 27th...and it's free!

The basic idea of the class is not for the instructor to tell us how to write but for others in the class to jog our memories by sharing stories of their own. I guess you can tell I am excited about it .

until next time...c