Hmmm...Pretend you are a character and write in the voice of the character but keep it true to your life?  Try to disembody yourself to some degree?  Go into therapy to see what the personal block is?  (just kidding!)  Maybe part of your problem is you know the whole story and to slow your thinking down enough to get in on paper is the hard part, whereas when you're writing fiction the story may be slowly evolving as you write it.  Break it down into small parts and try not to get too caught up in the linear details, just try to capture the essence with your authentic voice.  Just my ideas...

Hmm, very excellent ideas, slh0906.  And a very astute observation about the whole story evolution thing.  I'll definitely give it a shot.

Thanks!
Kydd

Thanks, mishmont.  You have a good point.  I'm not worried about the personal stuff when I really think about it.  It's just the story itself.  I tried again last night and maybe slh is right--too much to say and my fingers can't keep up.  I stopped after the first page and realized I was getting bogged down in the details, the settings, the backgrounds and the lead-ups.  I wonder if doing it first in outline form would help me avoid that.  Hmm, I should give that a try. 

I'm such a visual writer.  I see and create stories like they were movies playing in my head and I'm trying too hard to get all the details down for my invisible cast and crew...  

Since I started posting here, I've become an excessive editor, cutting whole pages and scenes from my stories without compunction.  Then I get back reviews saying "hmm, you seem to be missing something" and I say, "oops.  Well, gosh-darn, I mean, I see the whole picture, why can't you be clairvoyent and see it too?  Silly people."  

Well, maybe I should use a little of that editing enthusiasm on my memories.

Ciao for now,
Kydd

I would suggest that you not treat it as a "diary" rather treat it as just another story you are telling; you just already know where it's going. You've said you have no problem relating the story someone face-to-face, so why not just write it the same way you tell it to another person - you could even turn on a recorder when you are telling it; you'd soon forget it was on and just tell it naturally the way you always have. You can edit after the fact.

And there is nothing wrong imo with your story reading more like your fiction, would probably make it more readable to the average fan out there. But no matter the format you choose to write it, the key is just to go ahead and put it on paper and damn how it looks or sounds or feels initially. You know how to change it for the better when the time comes as you already have experience in doing so with your other writings. Don't treat your memoir any different because it is not, just another story you happen to be familiar with; pretend you made it up, lol - actually you are since none of us have perfect memories. Good luck. Take care. Vern

Ok Kydd, sent you new cover pics...better wings.  I just need to know if you want the darker version or the lighter version ---or something more in the middle.

So Kydd---can't imagine your having a problem with writing ANYTHING!!!  But since I write largely memoir (admitting it or not), and now that I've read the very good suggestions to you of others, let me add another "possibility."

I've lived an a lot of different environments, mostly overseas in places I've chosen, then traveled to adjacent areas . . . so lots of unusual experiences. . . that I write about.  Here's what seems to work best for me:  get out of myself and become the "observer."  Several advantages to this bit of distance.  Now I can look on dispassionately to clean out and toss away the "incidentals" which are sharp in my recollection but which add nothing, nothing at all, to this particular story/memoir I want to write.  And now---"dispassionate" seems to be a key word here---I can achieve FOCUS.  What's the point---and get TO it (the point)!  The first person singulars and plurals can now be controlled and limited and the seated-beside-myself positioning gives me objectivity.

Do you see where I'm going with this little "trick"?
And by keeping that tad of distance, I ALSO can avoid becoming a member of the I/me/we/us Club---surely an improvement.

Let me know how this works for you!

Filliam

Thanks, everyone.  Definitely all good advice (which I'm going to print out and save for some another time--when I'm not feeling quite so 'deflated').  Today, I'm not certain it's worth the effort.  No one really gives a rat's ass about it. 

Just yesterday, our John H. pointed out to me that who I've met, what I've done, and all the adventures I've had would get my ass kicked if I told any one of the stories of my life at a bar.  People would automatically go 'That's bullshit'.  He's probably right.  Over the past 53 years, my life has been like a pinball, bumping into amazing or not-so-amazing people, newsworthy events, and adventures that few will believe.  But, to put this all into a book would only emphasize my own anonymity and accentuate what a loser I am for not having capitalized on these chance meetings or events when I could have--although the 'loser' part was going to be the point of the book.  If I had family who cared, maybe I could write it for them, but my family sees me as a liability, not an asset. 

Filliam's correct in pointing out I would probably end up with a series of anecdotes and thereby be best left as flotsam in the past or for animated conversation at a cocktail party where I can blame the listener's disbelief on the drink.

I should concentrate my efforts on the make-believe instead and just write a few mildly entertaining tales.

Life's too short as it is.

And the producer friend who was interested in my initial posting is gone--lymphoma.

Much appreciated,
Kydd

Last edited by Kydd Dustyn (03-03-2011 11:50:20)

R A Keen wrote:

What about first telling the story to a friend and recording the tale simultaneously?

Might work, get you over the hemp later by writing it down as you listen. There's your rough copy than start fine tuning.

After all, that's all we really are - Storytellers but in weird little scratchings rather than voice. Use your voice as your guide.

Write well and prosper,

R A K

I was going to suggest recording it too, Keen.

I rarely read a memoir. Mark Twain wrote one. James Joyce did not. (Portrait of the Artist is close) Faulkner didn't. Flaubert didn't. Historical types usually do and they're ghost-written except for Churchill. Now I have to research this subject. I'll be back.

To memoir or not to memoir, that is the question. For me it's cheaper than theropy and harder to stay on than a greased bar stool.  Outlining is the only way I can see if there is a story with a beginning, middle and end. Oh yah and a purpose.