BITE SIZE MEMOIRHurray! We’ve made it to Ten Bites out of our Memoir Elephant and so far we have recorded and explored snippets based on a variety of prompts: School at Seven, Jinks and Japes, Magic and Fairy Tales, Sports Day, Camping, First Jobs, Childhood Illness, Dressing Up and Cycling!

Some of you have been here since the start and amazingly Irene, Geoff and Tracey have managed to participate every week with a good few others being stalwart regulars – particularly Suzanne, Sherri and Charli. For everyone though, a huge big thank you for sharing a bit of yourself. I think the variety and diversity helps each of us examine our own lives anew.

If only I could sing.. but this chap will have to do it for me


Looking for an obvious prompt for this tenth week, I pondered the significance of Ten, but I’m not much of a numerologist nor did I have the time or patience to trawl the sheer volume of stuff that comes up in an internet search for “Ten” – I got lost in my discovery that Pythagorus was a vegetarian and an early feminist.. Which led me to Π of course and then..

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Fourth Form – Oh dear..

.. around to maths and then the school report for Max that has just landed on the mat – I was thinking of scores. I didn’t want to go with school reports as my 10 x I remembers would all look the same, like lines for detention..

“I remember Lisa must try harder, B- / C+”

“I remember Lisa must try harder, B- / C+”

“I remember Lisa must try harder, B- / C+”

There have been a few weeks where the prompt has constrained a few so tightly, they were unable to participate, so this one is especially for Luccia – I hope it’s broad enough and abstract enough to mean something to everyone.  And let us focus on the positive this week: here’s a chance to blow your own trumpet, take the mick out of yourself or quietly let us know something we would otherwise not guess is special about you.

10 out of 10 is our theme but I’ll leave it to you to pick anything you excel at, be it a hobby, academia or even a certain strand of trivia. We’ll be glad to hear of the ordinary as much as the extraordinary or if you want to take a funny look at an obsessive part of your life or character, choose a trait you ‘excel’ at. (Anne Goodwin highlighted one or two of mine in her article this week on procrastination and precrastination..)

At the moment I’m torn between writing about my perfectionism or uber-ability to fly by the seat of my pants or my childhood beliefs I really was a Dr Doolittle. I’m sitting back to ponder though.. I don’t want to influence the outcome this week by going any further, just yet!

 

If you’re new to the Bite Size Memoir Challenge, this project is designed to help anyone record and share some personal memoir in small manageable bites. I post a prompt every week and welcome contributions from anyone – you don’t have to be a writer. For ideas on how to participate please read the post introducing the challenge here.

Here’s how you join in:

A REMINDER OF HOW THE BITE-SIZE MEMOIR CHALLENGE WORKS

  1. 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 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:

    1. 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.
    2. Please keep others anonymous to protect their privacy and dignity – change names or use initials etc.
    3. If you’ve got an axe to grind, please do it somewhere else.

    4. 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.

      Remember to submit your bite for “10 out of  10” by 2pm BST Thursday 17th July 2014