Writing Unleashed with Laura M. Harkins

I received a text message from my father late Wednesday night asking if I would like to go with him to VA to visit my grandmother.  During the past couple of weeks, h er health began to decline . Hospice gave her morphine to alleviate the pain. We stopped by Chesapeake Home for Adults yesterday for a visit. Then, a phone call came early this morning letting us know she passed away. Instead of blubbering on, I am reposting a piece I wrote about my grandmother back in February. Saving My Grandmother From Alzheimer's What is a memoir?  An autobiographical account of one aspect of a person's life.  Not the author's  entire  life.  Peter Bricklebank, a published author and teacher, prefers the term personal narrative over the memoir.  A person doesn't need to be "a ripe old age" to write a personal narrative.  The term describes the reflection of an "on-going story" of life.   Bricklebank's perspective helped when I took ...

What is a memoir?  An autobiographical account of one aspect of a person's life.  Not the author's entire life.  Peter Bricklebank, a published author and teacher, prefers the term personal narrative over the memoir.  A person doesn't need to be "a ripe old age" to write a personal narrative.  The term describes the reflection of an "on-going story" of life.   Bricklebank's perspective helped when I took  Smith magazine's Six-Word Memoir  challenge.  I didn't know what I wanted to write about.  Trying to pinpoint a moment of my life to chronicle was like trying to pick my all-time favorite book or song.  There's just too many to choose from.   So, as an ongoing story of my life I chose the relationship with my paternal grandmother.  It's my attempt to fight her Alzheimer's disease by writing everything I can remember about her down.  Very few of my childhood memories exist without her.  Coming to gri...