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Write an autobiography. This is a GREAT diary.
Peace
by willb48 on Fri Oct 26, 2007 at 11:07:05 PM PDT
[ Parent ]
As for the autobiography... I have to wait for a few more family members to go on to their eternal rewards first.
I'd love to write about some of the people I've met along the way, though. I have been blessed with a life populated with an amazing cast of characters.
Healthcare NOT Warfare! (Petition)
by jgilhousen on Fri Oct 26, 2007 at 11:21:50 PM PDT
You can always write while waiting for the family to pop off. Anyway, who says an autobiography has to be about your intimate personal life? Describing the characters you saw along the way might be enough.
You certainly have a narrative gift - and memories shouldn't die with the man.
by willb48 on Fri Oct 26, 2007 at 11:29:47 PM PDT
I have a very difficult time telling a story without providing tons of context. Perhaps hopelessly linear thinking, but it seems like a meal without salt to talk about where I've been and who I've met without any mention of how I happened to get there.
When I was delivering homilies on a regular basis, I'd draft them on Monday, and it took me the rest of the week to edit them down to a manageable size.
Your point about not having to wait until sufficient numbers of coffins have been lowered into the ground to insure that all of the innocent (and most of the guilty) are protected from potential embarassment... yes, well taken.
by jgilhousen on Sat Oct 27, 2007 at 12:03:38 AM PDT
I've been trying to get my (ageing) relatives to write down family stories they have heard. So far, zip. I think the grandkiddies would love to have a book of these memories. I don't know whether they would be inspired by my tales of drug-dealing. It's an open secret among my contemporaries.
My father and maternal grandfather were bootleggers. My paternal great-great-grandfather was scalped by a Cherokee, and died of sepsis.
Stories like this need to be preserved. Be sure and mention in your autobiography why Aunt Emma fell face forward into punchbowl during the reception after Cousin Claude's wedding. The reason why his fiancee chose peach rather than white as the color of her wedding-gown could furnish a whole town with gossip.
Just make stuff up. Many of my relatives seem to do this. Then they accuse me of the fault. Dangit, I'm pretty sure I orbited the Moon during the 1970s. I remember it as though it were yesterday...............
I have about 200 pages of memories, so far. I doubt that they will be published, but one day I will send them to a cooperative laser-printer (my printer HP II is no longer supported by HP or Microsoft) and have something to pass on to my ungrateful colateral descendants. I'm going to leave out all the naughty bits about marriage.
Really, yours is the most well-written diary of the week.
Dip your toe into the water.
And, if you choose not to do so, I'll trust your wisdom. Some tales must not be told, some tales must be told - and Marcel Proust proved that some tales are too tiresome to tell. I don't care what cookie he ate.
Watch out! My latest letter-to-the-editor has been accepted for publication by NYT.
Keep it short, keep it sarcastic, if you wish to get a letter published by NYT.
Your writing deserves more thoughtful analysis, and praise. Your essay would certainly deserve a place on the Op-Ed space, and I encourage you to submit it there.
by willb48 on Sat Oct 27, 2007 at 02:04:25 AM PDT
by jgilhousen on Sat Oct 27, 2007 at 10:21:58 AM PDT
Here I am, not able to sleep after my three-week-old son woke me up to get him some food (I swear, if he doesn't learn to fend for himself ....), trying to let my brain drop back into unconsciousness, and I read something as poetically appealing as this.
by I on Fri Oct 26, 2007 at 11:41:20 PM PDT
expecting to be fed repeatedly every. single. day! [wink]
I've been trying to get my cats to go to Petco for their own kibble and litter, but the little beasties seem unable or unwilling to memorize the PIN code for my debit card.
(And of course, the foregoing is all a mask for the fact that all the adulation over my writing is making me seriously blush. The kudos from Meteor Blades, whom I consider one of the most gifted writers on dK absolutely blew me away.)
by jgilhousen on Fri Oct 26, 2007 at 11:58:54 PM PDT
wide narrow
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