Bite size memoir is designed to help anyone record some personal memoir in small manageable bites. There’s a prompt every week and some constraints to keep it small (with full details at the bottom of this post). Feel free to dip in and out each week without commitment.
To catch up on how it started, please read here. If you have your own blog and want to participate, please feel free to incorporate links to and from your post to encourage readers to blog hop.
This week’s prompt was Magic and Fairy Tales. (You can read the compilation of responses here.)
For various reasons, I had a last minute change of plan for today’s prompt and under time pressure to come up with my own offerings, suddenly felt rather constrained! Heeding my own advice, I started with the 10 x “I remember..” statements as a warm up. Then I started exploring Enid Blyton who was the source of many of my childhood fantasies about fairies, magic and animals that might answer back! She was the JK Rowling of my era and if JK Rowling had been writing when I was young, I’d have been running into the wall at Kings Cross to get to Platform 93/4 !
I was trying to keep my 150 words of prose in one time frame, when it suddenly struck me – I don’t have to – and maybe I’m here writing this, perhaps because I had such a creative imagination. Do I owe it all to Enid Blyton for fuelling that in me at an early age?
I’ve had a week of wearing my heart on my sleeve and bleeding all over the paper but you don’t have to – this should be fun and not a competition!
10 x “I remember ” statements
I remember my Mum believed in spirits and ‘you could be anything you wanted to be’.
I remember strange smells were put down to ‘visitors’.
I remember things that were missing had been ‘moved’.
I remember seeing a ghost at the bottom of my bed – an old lady in old fashioned clothes.
I remember Thumbelina, the Borrowers and the Bionic Man!
I remember the excitement when the tooth fairy left ten pence under my pillow in exchange for a tooth.
I remember Samantha in Bewitched wiggling her nose.
I remember practicing wiggling mine for hours in front of the mirror.
I remember concentrating really hard on making something disappear saying ‘abracadabra’.
I remember believing I would find my own magic one day.
150 words prose
Who knows what we don’t know! I read ‘facts’ about pixies, brownies, elves and fairies. I was certain fairies existed and I was the special sort of little girl they would reveal themselves to. I kept swan vesta match boxes, and turned them into beds, cutting little blankets out of scraps of fabric. I spent hours wandering the garden finding perfect pebbles for fairy tables and chairs. I lay in wait beside fairy rings.
Later on I would screw my eyes up – wishing and cursing people and events – certain I could influence them. And later still, I needed to believe ‘fairy stories’ of miraculous cures. I would screw up my eyes going beyond the poo-pooing of the ‘facts-only brigade’. Is it because of this, I could take steps into uncharted worlds that led me to the impossible land of survivors? Who knows what we don’t know?
What do you remember?!
I’m interested in what you might have believed in or just as importantly, didn’t! What is the point of memoir if it isn’t to recognise that we’re all different, we all have something to contribute and we all have something to learn from each other. Scroll down for instructions:
Meanwhile, a few of us have had an interesting little debate over on another blog about the differences writing memoir and fiction. There are some fundamental differences between the two – a novel can be completely made up, whereas a memoir does come with an obligation to tell truths. An extrapolation of this is that working with fact is somehow not a particularly ‘free’ process. (These are my words and summation thus far. I hope it’s a discussion that continues because I love crawling up the backside of some stuff, many are too happy to take for granted. If you want to know more, pop over and see what we’ve been up to at Annecdotal)
However, one of the very reasons I’m writing my ‘big’ memoir is to get across how thinking outside of the box – which perhaps in times of great struggle is the true test of creativity and imagination – may have helped me get a grip on a terminal prognosis. In writing about it, I’m also discovering other things about myself and trying to differentiate what’s different about me, that others in similar situations may want to embrace. I didn’t intend for this Bite Size topic to go there when I sat down to write, but as anyone who writes anything discovers: from letters and journals to whole books, sometimes you don’t know where it’s going until you get there..
Here’s how you join in:
A REMINDER OF HOW THE BITE-SIZE MEMOIR CHALLENGE WORKS
- Each Friday I’ll suggest a topic by 2pm UK time (BST) via my blog and Twitter (using the hashtag #BiteSizeMemoir – You don’t need to be on Twitter to participate.)
2. The challenge will be to write about the topic using
either
10 x “I remember statements”
or
150 x words (prose, or poem if you want to stretch yourself)
Either will make you pick and choose your words carefully whilst keeping a tight focus for time’s sake. You might want to write more, to keep at home, but please only submit one option within the limits for sharing (i.e. 10 statements or 150 word prose/poem)
3. The Deadline for sharing your ‘Bite’ will be 2pm (BST) the following Thursday. You can share in either of two ways:
a) Post your response in the comments section of the current topic – I will find it and cut and paste to the compilation of responses. (You may not see your comment appear immediately but don’t worry – I will find and share it)
or
b) If you have a blog you can post your response on your own blog with a link back to this post, and then also provide the link to me in the comments section. I will then link your contribution back to your post, in the compilation of responses.
4. It would be great if you felt able to include the country the events took place in – I won’t enforce this but I think it provides a significant context for other readers. As an example look at the compilation for “School at Seven”
5. I will aim to compile responses and share them via another post before the next challenge is issued.
A few rules:
- If you need or want to be anonymous that’s fine – When you post a comment just put ‘Anon’ or a nickname in the name field. It does ask for an email address as part of spam filtering but only I will see it.
- Please keep others anonymous to protect their privacy and dignity – change names or use initials etc.
- If you’ve got an axe to grind, please do it somewhere else.
- If you stumble across this after the deadline, do feel free to contribute and include your blog link in the comments section of the compilation, so others can read it.
May 23, 2014 at 6:59 pm
Thank you Lisa for the comment you left me on my blog this week. I do believe I am a touch synaesthetic! Hmmm…maybe more than a touch. I did not even know what it was / what it was called, so appreciate you sharing the link.
I am thoroughly enjoying your bite-sized memoir challenge both as a writer and a reader. Thank you also for linking back to my blog this week, I appreciate your support, as well as all I am learning from your thoughtful and insightful comments.
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May 25, 2014 at 7:33 am
Thanks Suzanne. I’m getting so much out of it, the pleasure is mine and I really appreciate you having a go every week!
The synesthesia thing is really interesting – that link wasn’t particularly brilliant – this one’s a bit more informative if you want to explore further! In our house Max and I agree things like History is yellow, English is red etc and Simon is just totally bewildered! Max sometimes tastes thoughts especially stress – it’s often cucumber! http://www.synesthesiatest.org
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May 22, 2014 at 3:15 pm
Hi Lisa,
I really enjoyed this one, and loved reading all the others. Here’s my ‘Magic and Fairy Tales: http://traceyscotttownsend.com/2014/05/22/magic-and-fairy-tales/
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May 22, 2014 at 1:56 pm
I took the #BiteSizeMemoir plunge this week with the Fairies & Magic prompt: http://bit.ly/RWSExc
It was fun! I look forward to checking out everyone else’s posts. 😀
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May 22, 2014 at 2:35 pm
It was also moving and romantic, Tui – thank you for sharing so much in 150 words! Lisa x
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May 22, 2014 at 11:14 am
Hello Lisa!
I tried to leave a comment here a few days ago but I was having a lot of problems with getting all my comments to go through. Hopefully that problem has now been resolved!
I found you from Irene and had intended to join in with your ‘bite size memoir’ challenge before now but as always seems to be the case, other distractions come along!
I think I’ve made it just in time for week 3! I hope you like my entry, here is the link, I hope you enjoy it: http://sherrimatthewsblog.com/2014/05/22/bite-size-memoir-number-3-magic-and-fairy-tales/
I love what you are doing here on your blog and I would like to thank you very much for this opportunity to take part. I look forward very much to participating as often as I can. I am writing my memoir so this drew me right in!
Lovely to meet you… Sherri 🙂
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May 22, 2014 at 12:58 pm
Hello Sherri! Lovely to meet you too and introducing Twink! I recognise you from the Writing Process Blog Hop Irene kindly passed on to me. (My post now so overdue!) Really glad you could bring this along this week. We share similar ideas of fairies but yours are more vivid. I totally love the idea of fairy songs being so beautiful they can slow up a hedgehog. When they’re trotting about they move surprisingly fast and do seem rather single minded! Lisa x
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May 22, 2014 at 1:49 am
1. I remember scaring a ghost more than it scared me — a old, very short nun,
attempting to waken my roommate (who hadn’t slept well for months).
2. I remember how my cousin would make room in his bed for his Guardian Angel.
3. I remember meeting my mother’s parents who died decades before I was born.
4. I remember feeling suspended in air over a puddle broader across than I
should’ve been able to clear by myself, and four other 11 year-olds not clearing
it.
5. I remember encountering four boys wanting my key to a private beach gate
warily looking at “someone” above my head and respectfully backing away.
6. I remember barely missing a tree in a fog-socked suburb of Los Angeles the
third time the steering wheel was yanked left away from my grip.
7. I remember Julia Roberts as “Tink” in “Hook”.
8. I remember Uncle Johnny passing quarters through our dining room table.
9. I remember hearing my mother moving through the house for as long as we
lived there after her death.
10. I remember finding things in the very places I’d already looked for them over
and over.
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May 22, 2014 at 10:33 am
Wow Twink! Lovely to meet you and thank you for bringing these memories along. Some of them are really powerful and make my hair stand on end. You’ve reminded me of a cat we had when I was growing up who would look over my head at something no-one else could see. And I still find things in places I’ve already looked for them and wonder what or who is playing with me! Thank you for joining in, Lisa 😀
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May 21, 2014 at 11:15 pm
OK, I took my first Bite Size Memoir blog challenge on my blog Memoir Crafter. Hope I am submitting the link the right way. http://memoir-crafter.blogspot.com/
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May 22, 2014 at 10:43 am
Definitely! Thank you Jeanne for such a supportive and generous post. Your site looks amazing and I just left a great big comment which I think, failed to go through. Do I need to subscribe? Lisa xx
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May 22, 2014 at 4:30 pm
Hi Lisa. I found your post “awaiting moderation.” It should be there now. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to actually participate in blog hopping like this. BTW, Twink2 is my twin sister, a nun in North Dakota, the mystical and faithful one of the YinYang set that we are. She once sent me some Hostess Twinkie cakes when I was away at college, and I started calling her Twinkie. I have often envied her supernatural experiences.
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May 21, 2014 at 12:40 am
Oops, meant to just put the link. I took some liberties with the prompt this week, and did an adult memory instead of a childhood one:
http://wantonwordflirt.com/2014/05/20/kaleidoscope-more-bite-size-memoir/
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May 21, 2014 at 12:37 am
“Kaleidoscope” Suzanne – Canada 1961
Women’s Words writing week has been like looking through a kaleidoscope.
I look in and see so many different pieces of color.
Emerald green, cobalt blue, “yellow like the sun” as my toddler son used to say, scarlet red, a dark purple hue like the shadow of a prairie sunset, the true orange color of a sun ripened mandarin fruit. I do not see black or white, nor any shades of grey in any space, just total vibrant color.
Tiny shards and specks tumble. Chunks of color; blending, falling, rising, moving, changing places. Different permutations and combinations, all coming together in turn after turn of enchanting energy. Gorgeous, vibrant, ever changing patterns.
Captivated by the strong yet gentle, courageous women surrounding me, I am entranced.
I am fascinated by the power in their spoken words, their passionate voices.
I am grateful to be here, to be present, to have heard.
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May 20, 2014 at 8:29 am
Thanks Irene for the ping back to yours with the beautiful picture of you ‘having a story in bed’ – magical times in themselves 😊
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May 20, 2014 at 3:22 am
The Magic of Childhood
My stuffed animals were alive. They talked and had feelings. I held birthday parties for them and made cards with markers and stickers on bits of coloring book pages. I understood them. Because I had ESP, it was easier for them to communicate with me.
Before I grew out of it, I could move things with my mind. It took a lot of concentration and made me tired. And, because of my precognition, I came home from the carnival every year with a giant panda or teddy bear for guessing which color the prize wheel would land on.
I miss the fairies in our yard, the brownies in our house, and the mermaids who swam to me when we visited the ocean. I do not miss the malevolent creatures that lurked about in corners and closets. I would deal with them now, though, if it meant having that magic again.
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May 20, 2014 at 3:23 am
Okay, this was my first attempt at flash memoir. It was much more difficult than flash fiction. Thanks for the challenge!
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May 20, 2014 at 9:02 am
Hello Sarah, thanks for joining us this week. I had that ‘precognition’ , a sense that too many things were as I wished them. I was always ‘lucky’. Great til I wished someone ill and it happened – I’ve NEVER done that since. Disturbingly I told all my friends at school I wouldn’t make 40 and was then diagnosed with terminal cancer in my 30’s. Fortunately I was able to reinvent the future and I’m still here, but do you have a sense too that we really should be careful what we wish for?
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May 20, 2014 at 7:10 pm
There is such a sense of magic that we believe in as children and sometimes we do grab at it again in adulthood. Writing, for me, has brought back a sense of that wonderment and belief. I think a terminal diagnosis could, too. But we also fear the disappointment more as adults and chide ourselves into only believing in “reality.” I love the image of the stuffed animals and hosting them birthday parties.
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May 21, 2014 at 6:01 pm
Lisa: I’m so happy I tried this. It was difficult but a fun challenge. I am pleased beyond that you used your powers to reinvent your future. I think “be careful what you wish for” is always good advice.
Charli: That tired saying “the magic of childhood” is so over-used (which is why I chose it–there was REAL magic afoot) but, yes, there is a sense of magic that we believe with all our little hearts the unbelievable. I’m so glad your writing has brought some of that back for you. (The birthday parties were fun.) 😉
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May 19, 2014 at 5:48 pm
This was a fun one, Lisa. Thanks. Here is my contribution: http://thelunamatrix.wordpress.com/2014/05/19/bite-size-memoir-3-magic-and-fairy-tales/
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May 20, 2014 at 8:19 am
As ever, I’ve not put words to what this exercise has done for me but you sum it up beautifully, Cypress “Oh, to be young again, with no notion of reality’s constraints upon one’s future self”. Thanks for sharing this – I see that posture in your blog photo!
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May 19, 2014 at 5:20 pm
I loved this, and found it entirely overwhelming. Apparently, almost all of my memories are touched by this topic. So I pared it down to simple things. Thanks again for this project! http://littlemissgonewild.blogspot.com/2014/05/magic-and-fairy-tales.html
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May 19, 2014 at 8:45 pm
Ruby, I hear you “I remember believing “… I could cry!
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May 19, 2014 at 10:56 am
This was difficult, Lisa, but I’ve had a go…
http://geofflepard.wordpress.com/2014/05/19/here-be-dragons/
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May 19, 2014 at 8:44 pm
You seemed to come up with loads so maybe not so difficult? Do you think perhaps my wording around magic and fairies is a more feminine prompt?
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May 21, 2014 at 8:25 am
Yes perhaps. Perhaps I associate magic and fairy tales with happy entranced faces of my own kids when we regaled them with the classic stories whereas fantasy tended to the Brothers Grimm school of terror in my young life. Like you I was behind the sofa for Doctor Who (a definition of ageing is I remember the first Doctor Who episode).
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May 19, 2014 at 12:46 am
Okay, Lisa, I actually felt inspired to try one of each style that you offer. I like how each one feels different in approach and results. Posted on Carrot Ranch:http://carrotranch.com/2014/05/18/bite-size-memoir-no-3/ Thanks for getting me hooked on a genre I thought I’d never even try (even as flash)!
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May 19, 2014 at 8:13 am
Both are really rich in history, Charlie and fascinating. I always thought ‘Tommy Knockers’ was a phrase invented by Stephen King! Never occurred it was US vocabulary! Somehow much more scary than our bogie-man !
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May 19, 2014 at 3:09 pm
Tommy Knockers are specific to mines and the phrase always gave me chills! Those old mine shafts emit eerie noises!
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May 18, 2014 at 7:36 pm
Love that phrase ‘land of the survivors’ – makes me wonder how visible is the border?
I remember persuading my older brother and two friends of ours – twins – to run away, though I can’t remember how I managed that at eight years old. We made it several miles – though I’ve no memory of that part, but I do remember going into a police station and telling them we wanted to go home. My parents were not at all pleased when they came to get us! I blame Enid Blyton as I loved her books and that word ‘adventure’ still fires my imagination.
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May 19, 2014 at 7:49 am
I think the Land of the Survivors is a bit of a twilight zone with sliding doors. Who knows how long you’re staying or even how and why. More in a book.. when it’s finished..
Meanwhile, I hope I make the most of my adventures! I wanted to go to boarding school because of Mallory Towers and I was often in a den, pretending I was living wild like the Famous Five!
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May 18, 2014 at 2:18 pm
I loved The Borrowers and Bewitched, although I remember Enid Blyton in terms of The Famous Five and Secret Seven as opposed to magical animals etc. In my personal experience, belief in the supernatural has not been helpful, although perhaps there’s a fine line between that and the suspension of disbelief which I’m very happy to do in reading and writing fiction. And I’m wondering if you are hinting at another difference between fiction and memoir in that with the latter you might write in order to transmit a “message” whereas with fiction, while it might be awash with meaning, there’s no expectation of persuading people to a particular point of view?
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May 18, 2014 at 9:11 pm
My brain hurts tonight! Can I think about that and get back to you?!
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May 19, 2014 at 7:59 am
A tricky one to answer, particularly as I haven’t thought about categorising my opinions before writing them: I don’t believe in the supernatural and I’m hinting at something other than the suspension of belief, more that beliefs / assumptions / accepted ‘wisdoms’ are not always truth and can therefore be very unhelpful. At a biochemical level in the body, belief affects your chemistry and therefore with health, I believe, affects the outcome – to how much of an extent really needs investigating. Science is only just becoming able to do this but, as history shows, the belief paradigms our thinking operates in, can hamper change for a considerable amount of time! (thinking Flat Earth Society etc) Standing aside from the crowd therefore takes considerable imagination. So, I’m glad I’ve got one – we’ll see what my fiction-writing is like in a few years time! I don’t consider myself in one camp or another, merely expressing myself on the page – in time, I hope – through any genre.
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May 18, 2014 at 6:49 am
Great post and interesting challenge. I look forward to reading all the responses when they are in. 🙂
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May 17, 2014 at 2:06 am
I grew up with Enid Blyton also. I think she had a huge impact on many of us. Even my husband 11 years older and in another continent grew up with Enid Blyton. The Bionic man I missed out on. Glad your beliefs got you through. I’m a firm believer in creative visualisation. Have to see what I can come up with. Cheers Irene
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May 17, 2014 at 12:48 am
I believe there is also a difference between writing non-fiction (including autobiography) and memoir. Non-fiction needs to be 100% factual whereas memoir is the facts to the best of one’s recollection.
Memoir should be mostly factual, but there may be details you forget, so memoir allows you to fill in the missing details with what you think might have been accurate.
A good example would be an incident that happened in a family, later when the children are adults they might each retell the story in a slightly different way, with a few varying details, yet each would be writing their “memoir” of the event.
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May 19, 2014 at 8:04 am
Yes, I like for example, Stephen King’s approach – he’ll say things like “I want to say we were there because x,y,z but it was probably more to do with Mom needing a,b,c etc” It adds to and informs his memories with hints of other things he was aware of but cannot categorically put together with the memory he’s describing.
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May 20, 2014 at 10:37 pm
I like that!
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May 16, 2014 at 8:33 pm
I remember ghosts, the Bionic Man and the tooth fairy (but she packed quarters in the USA), too! It is vital to our existence to believe in things we don’t know. I’m happy it got you through to the land of survivors! Your prose flash is poignant, shifting from those things you remember believing in to declaring your survivalhood.
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May 16, 2014 at 8:37 pm
Hey thanks Charlie, both for popping by and your observations. Working on shifting and twisting for that flash fiction challenge back at your ranch!
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May 16, 2014 at 11:45 pm
And I’m working on dredging up old ghosts!
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