Memoir Exercise
By Rory C. Keel
If you write memoir, here’s one exercise that will jog your memory and help you start your writing.
Answer each of the following questions in one paragraph or less.
1. Describe the story the world you grew up in told you that you should become?
What message did your parents, class, society or environment in which you grew up suggest you should be?
2. What was the story of who you should become that you told yourself?
What dream did you have for yourself?
3. What is the story life has told you now, of who you are?
Where are you at in life at this stage?
Now compare your answers to all three questions, is who you are today, the same as what you were told you would be?
Using these questions, you can build a framework to develop the story of your life.
Wordsmith Six 