Barbara J. Hamby

sign-up for our email list

Memoir Writing

Memoirs are popular these days. I’m not sure exactly why. Maybe it’s because more people are living to a ripe old age. Maybe it’s because email has replaced letters, a former source of history. It seems the busy-ness of everyday life has made oral history a thing of the past.

Those of us who deign to leave memoirs behind for our heirs often puzzle about what format to use. Chronological order, i.e. birth to present day, seems too organized for a creative mind.

Going back over the years, some of us have discovered, there are holes in our memory banks that are tough to fill in.

Since I have been working on my life history, I’ve found that spending a long time in an unhappy era is too painful. So, now and then, I jot down a funny story or relate a happy incident to balance my mood.

I haven’t decided how to glue all those memories together. Maybe I won’t. Perhaps I’ll just gather a series of stories and challenge any readers who require an orderly progression to put them together.