Living the Hard Life?

I'm Certainly Living a Ragtime Life. 1900 sheet music cover
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

        Often when we think of memoirs, we think of people who have had struggles and difficult lives.  The heroic stories of overcoming abuse, addictions, health challenges, and other harrowing situations seem to sell books and get media attention.   But what if you've led a reasonably normal life where little that was really bad happened to you?   Is an easy regular type life worth telling others about?

       My life has been interesting by the standards that many would consider, but it's also been a very good and mostly easy life.  Oh sure, I've had some kind of bad things that have happened in my life, but in retrospect they weren't that bad.  I survived relatively intact with hurts that I've gotten over for the most part.

        Divorce is never a good thing from my point of view and I've had two of them.  I went through some tough times with those divorces, but they were nowhere near as bad as some divorce stories I've heard.  And in the end I think I came out ahead in a better circumstance after each of them.  No harrowing divorce or child custody stories there.

         So what does one do with a good life when telling the memoir story?   With the divorce stories I could dramatize them a bit more than they were, and indeed there were some dramatic story-worthy parts to those.  My life on the road is filled with stories that many might find interesting.   The years of my childhood might be worthy fodder for memoir.   The stories are there.   They always are there in any of our lives.

        The interest factor comes mostly in the telling of the stories.  There have been memoirs that I've read that by all standards should have been fascinating except the storytelling was dull and lifeless.  On the other hand I can think of some memoirs that on the surface did not seem extraordinary, but the telling of the stories was so engaging that the books had my attention throughout.   A poorly written memoir can turn a great life into a lackluster sequence of events while a well told narration can make a trip to the grocery store unique and interesting.

         My good life?  How should I tell it?   A comic approach can be very entertaining, but comedy is not so easy for all of us.   A lighthearted saga filled with hyperbole and fun anecdotes might work well.  Or maybe I should just tell it like it was in my own voice.  

         A good life doesn't have to be a boring life.

         Do you like to read well-written accounts of events that don't seem particularly eventful?   How does a book about suffering and sadness affect you?    Would you rather read about a tragic life or a happy life?

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Born in the Shadow of the Computer (Part 5): The Last Installment, but not the end of the story

Illustration for "Story of your Life", by Hidenori Watanave for Hayakawa's S-F Magazine. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

     
        When I started this "Computer" series I didn't actually intend on it becoming a series.  At first I was going to do just one post, but then it turned into a second, then a third, and a fourth.  Then, as I continued writing the story, I realized that this is a saga--a story of not just my life, but of modern history in some ways.  My experience is similar to that of many of you.  My story is the story of many people of my age and older and younger.  Computers truly shadow over us all and provide the setting of the world in which we live.

         But isn't this what memoir is in many ways?   Life doesn't happen in a vacuum.  My life touches your life and your life touches the life of the person who hears your story.  We are all interconnected.  The lessons you have learned can be valuable to another in the same way each of us learn the lessons that others have learned.  My story is not relevant unless the story has some universal meaning and is something to which others can relate.   If you don't know what I'm talking about in my story then how can my story interest you?

       Of course it's up to the writer to clarify the story so a reader can understand and thus identify with it.  The writer has to show the reader what happened and put the reader in the middle of the story.  The life lived should be in turn lived by the reader vicariously through the reading of the story brought to life bigger than life.  The story should exist in every dimension in the reader's mind so that the reader can almost feel that they'd been there, that they'd lived the life alongside the characters portrayed on the pages.

       So what's this have to do with my computer story.  The story never ended on this blog.  When we last left the narrative, my father had died.  After that I got another job that involved computers.  Then this happened and that happened and a whole lot of other stuff happened.   As I dwelt on all of this I realized that my blog is not this computer story.  The story could go on and on and take over Wrote By Rote.  That's when I came to a realization.  The "Born in the Shadow of the Computer" story is more than a blog series.  It could be a book.

         Now don't get me wrong.   I'm not saying I'm planning a book about my life with computers.   But I'm not saying it will never be a possibility.  The story will go into my computer files as seed for some future project perhaps.   The story will germinate and grow perhaps.  Or it may lie dormant.   Whatever happens, I see that this story is organic.   It is a living thing that will grow if I nurture it.

          Do you have a story that you need to tell about your life?   What types of life stories are you most interested in hearing?   If you were following my story, did it interest you?   If so, what about it interested you?

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Stages of Life for the Purpose of Memoir

Stephen Jefferys starring in the ''Tomorrow’s Memoir' (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

      There are a number of theories and philosophies about the stages of human life.    These stages may number from three or four to as many as twelve to fifteen, depending on considerations of what is being measured.  The criteria can be based on biological, sociological, or psychological factors.  All views are relevant and totally appropriate according to the outlook of the viewer.  From my point of view I would like to consider the four stages of life as seen through the eyes of the memoir writer.

        I would posit that there are essentially four major general stages that affect the memoirist:

1. The developmental years of infancy to preschool age childhood. (from birth to about age 5)
2. School days  (from about age 5 until the early twenties and in some cases later)
3. Work years (Generally starting as early as age 18 or even earlier and ending usually at retirement)
4. Age of reflection (Usually starting in the sixties until ones death.)

            Each stage has a specific meaning and impact upon the memoir writer.  Sometimes a memoir might be undertaken within one of these stages and will provide an account of something relevant to that particular period of the writer's life.  Obviously a memoir written during one of the early stages will not be a complete life story, but only a look at a life to date or certain instances that are important to that person and of potential interest to others.

           This slice of life writing is a topical memoir that tends to focus on a notable period of a person's life to date.   A memoir of this nature might for example look at a young person's experience of being bullied and how they overcame it, or a battered spouse's ordeal and eventual escape from the situation, or a successful business person's rise to success.  These types of memoirs are not the complete story when looked back upon, but merely chapters of the larger life story.

            My intent in this post is to establish a groundwork for some future posts I will be presenting that will look at each of the four stages of memoir writing.  Forgive my ruminating, as I hold no claim to expertise on this topic.  The views that I am expressing here and in future posts are in a sense for the sake of personal contemplation and to seek other opinions about this topic.  I look forward to hearing some of your thoughts about this.

             What are your views on memoir writing?   Do you agree with the stages I've proposed?  Which life stage do you think has the most impact on an individual?   Which stage is richest for memoir material?

              I welcome guest posts on any of these topics if you have something special you'd like to discuss about one of them.


         

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