The Art Of Memoir By Mary Karr

My mother, Amy Neuzil, has grit because she works hard everyday to get things done. She is the reason the word grit was invented. She stumbles out of bed every day at six a.m. Then she retrieves my sister, Madison, from her sleeping quarters and dresses her in the fanciest get-up you’ve ever seen. While she is completing that task, she also has to dress for work or college. While cramming a turkey sandwich, blueberries, and five or six bulky blocks of frosted plastic ice into a teeny tiny black insulated lunch bag. After she has finished that magic act, she is practically late for whatever she is trying to get to. So, she frantically gathers Madison into the Buick. Then she starts rushing back and forth through the front door, to grab

I’m sure many have shared stories of their high school experiences and can relate when I say those four years have taught me many lessons. During this time, I’d come face to face with the fraudulent friendships, temporary romances, and other high school dramas that my parents once warned me about—those of which I simply brushed off as myths. It wasn’t the 90’s anymore— times have changed and people are different—or at least, that’s what I thought.

While reading I start to relive that night and opening my door to my boyfriend, hidden behind a giant teddy bear. That night we went out to my favorite restaurant, unfortunately, the waitress took almost an hour to come, but we were too enticed in each others company to mind. The second one is from my birthday; my friends and I ended up going to McDonald’s because our reservation to a high-end restaurant “disappeared”, ironically it became to be the best birthday I had. Both stories reminded me that some of my favorite memories are the imperfect moments in

William Zinsser is the person that wrote “How To Write A Memoir ”. William Zinsser gave us some advice to write a memoir. These specific advices are “Be Yourself”,” Speak Freely”, and “Think Small”. In Bad Boy, Walter Dean Myer memoir uses Zinsser advice but not in a exact way Zinsser wrote his memoir. Zinsser give us suggestions such as “Be Yourself” , ”It Your Story”, and “Think Small”.

When written properly, memoirs can tell life stories in interesting ways. William Zinsser wrote an informative essay called "How to write a memoir" which gives tips and guidelines on its namesake. The book, Boy Tales of Childhood, follows a multitude of Zinsser's tenance from "How to Write a Memoir" because Roald Dahl writes from one perspective and tells his true opinions about people, but he does not center the story around solely himself.

The story of my history as a writer is a very long one. My writing has come full circle. I have changed very much throughout the years, both as I grew older and as I discovered more aspects of my own personality. The growth that I see when I look back is incredible, and it all seems to revolve around my emotions. I have always been a very emotional girl who feels things keenly. All of my truly memorable writing, looking back, has come from experiences that struck a chord with my developing self. This assignment has opened my eyes, despite my initial difficulty in writing it. When I was asked to write down my earliest memory of writing, at first I drew a blank. All of a sudden, it became very clear to me, probably because it had some

In Zinsser’s “How to Write a Memoir” he gives you three pieces of advice, be yourself, speak freely, and think small. I’m going to be comparing these three pieces of advice to my memoir I’ve read ”Guts”. I will be writing at least 5 paragraphs minimum for my essay. Now that I told you what I’m going to be doing, lets get right to it!

Many times, we have memories that we would like to forget, such as an unpleasant or traumatic experience. My memory of my first internship was something that I always tried to forget, along with a lot of other negative experiences in my life. However, now that almost two years have passed, and after reflecting on it time and time again, I began to reclassify that memory as a learning experience rather than a negative experience. In life, we are faced with many obstacles, sometimes on a daily basis. Our society values stories of overcoming life’s obstacles because they are inspiring, interesting and may lead to personal growth.

Final minutes of the first half winding down, my team was marching down the field with a purpose. Across the gridiron was our rival team, Mayfield, who we had beat the previous year in the state championship game. It was a cold November night and the stage was set, playing on their home field, “The Field of Dreams,” in Las Cruses, New Mexico in the semi-finals of the state tournament. Up 14-0, we had the ball and were trying to score before going into halftime. I was handed the ball for a running play and then it happened. Falling to the ground as if I had been shot, I had completely torn my hamstring. I was in complete shock as I lay on the ground. As the pain

Lauren Rezac- My weekend did not really start off to exciting. Right after my Fast-Pitch game I was picked up by my dad in our 1962 jeep. When we got home we had supper and we all stayed up for a little bit and went to bed. On Saturday I had the house to myself, my dad was helping our neighbors while my mom and sister were in ST.Cloud.So When I was at home I was pretty bored so I did what most bored kids I know would do turn up the music and make a little mess, basically I made slime. When mom and Alexis came back my sister got a call from my dad to go help out so I went with her.I helped by steering the tractor when she got bored and she did the speed and stuff like that. On Sunday we gave mom her gifts then we got ready to trapshooting me

I told mess-up, my son was trying to set up my reader for my disability for the course and I accidentally started the Ch. 1 - Investigation An Answer Form. It said no Time Limit does that mean I can go back. I am so sorry, I promise not to be a pain. I am just trying to get everything set up and got to know the website.

About six months ago, my grandma was diagnosed with stage four colorectal cancer. Last month, a family member of mine from Vermont called to tell me that she died. The only thing I could do was ask myself “Why? Why did such a terrible thing happen to such an extradentary person?”. I mean I guess it’s natural to assume all things happen for a reason, to think there is a greater intention for our suffering, but I simply can’t think that.

In “How to Write a Memoir,” William Zinsser gives us very useful tips on how to write a memoir. Some of these useful tips are “Be yourself,” “Speak freely,” and “Think small” (Zinsser 12, 16, 30). These tips influence many other writers to create their own memoirs like Bethany Hamilton. In her memoir, Soul Surfer, Bethany Hamilton uses Zinsser’s ideas through his use of a child’s perspective, an honest story teller, and a structure of small memories.

Over the last few years, my Mom and I have sort of run our own cat rescue. I say “sort of” because we don’t have any real organization, but rather it consists of our three-story house, my Mom, me, and a bunch of homeless cats we picked up from the streets.

Giving an Account of Oneself, a compelling piece of work written by Judith Butler, digs deep into what it means to give an account of oneself and how it is nearly, if not entirely, impossible to do such an activity without becoming “a social theorist” (Butler 8). Butler states “the story of my origin I tell is not one for which I am accountable, and it cannot establish my accountability,” (Butler 37) since the story is always changing. We are not able to give our accounts as the accounts we give will always be told in different lights and we, as beings, are always changing as the norms around us change. The sense of being ties into us not being the same person we were when we came into being, and nor are we the same being as when we begin to tell the story of our origin of being. However, other notable influences, such as Levinas, believe that fully exposing our origin of being would act as a sort of “surplus” (Levinas 79) meaning those we expose our origin of being to will be so overwhelmed with the situation that we would never be able to give an account of ourselves overall. Levinas’ views coincides with Butlers’ on the topic of norms and how we will never be able to act outside of norms when he states, “the moment I realize that the terms by which I confer recognition are not mine alone… I am, as it were, disposed by the language that I offer” (Levinas 26).