I can't spell memoir (not memior!)

[lizzybennet]

The first chapter of my memoir is due tonight by midnight. I have 6 pages about my great grandmother so far. I love what I've written, and I'm glad that I've put it on paper for my children to read about. However, how I am going to work it into my memoir? If this is suppose to be about ME half a chapter about her fit in. I didn't really know her well enough to say that she necessarily shaped my life. I mainly wrote about memories that I had of her. Perhaps I can make the chapter about my female relatives as I remember them from growing up? I could also write about my two grandmothers and my mom, and somehow tie it all together as how these women influenced my life to some degree.

Chris' theory is that I should just write all my chapters by cutting and pasting my livejournal. That's a good idea in someways, but I've only been on livejournal for about 2 years. I'd hate to restrict my writing to only the past two years (although they have been memorable ones.) Perhaps I should compose my entries on livejournal. There just seems to be something about this textbox that loosens up my writers block. When I open Microsoft Word and try to write, I feel strangled. I can't get started and when I do it feels fake.

Add to this the fact that Chris has been out of town for the past week and still won't be back for 4 more days. I really miss him. It's also hard for me to find quiet time with him gone. Last night I went to sleep at the same times the kids did, around 9:30. I had planned on staying up to work on homework, but I was mentally exhausted from verbally wrestling with the kids all day. Zack tends to test his limits (a lot!) when Chris is gone. I'm constantly having to reinforce the rules and it gets very tiring.

Ok, enough complaining. When we get home from swimming lessons this morning it's time to write!

Comments

[risingpheenix.livejournal.com]

Could you use livejournal to prompt you? Take excerpts like Wil Wheaton did for Just a Geek? It would help you remember what has happened the last two years, especially remembering everything that happened during your trip to China.

spelling

[(Anonymous)]

I am 'spelling challenged' and have come to depend upon computers and spell checkers. Even so. I frequently misspell words. My g Uncle, Dr. Wm Theo Dalton, was a professor and frequently corrected my spelling when I wrote to him. He also corrected my essays and papers. It was convenient to have an Uncle at the head of the University English Dept. for a spell-checker,but for this reason I also became even more self- aware of my shortcoming in this area of my education. We did not have spell checkers or computers in the days of my college studies. When I returned to college after the Service, I married a spell checker. She could spell quite well. I took a year of French in College. I remember that trying to spell anything in French usually resulted in a disaster for me. All the rules of spelling just seem to go out the window. I do remember that memoire used as a noun is recollection or memory. It is also a verb. I can suggest that the pronoun 'me' is 'moi' and that is a convenient way to remember the me(MOI)r instead of the incorrect spelling. As I am no longer 'graded' on spelling , I choose to spell many words however my whim dictates at that particular moment. Some may say this implies a lack of education. I prefer to think of it as 'creative'. Bill