How I wrote my memoir

August 21-26, 2011This thing happens. Even in the midst of it, I know I’ll want to write about it.

August 28, 2011I do a 1,876-word freewrite:

September 28, 2011I make a series of false starts:

Then I reluctantly open the freewrite I did a month earlier. It’s useful! I begin copytyping:

September 29, 2011During an in-class freewrite, I rewrite my introduction from memory:

September 30, 2011I try another introduction, then transcribe what I wrote in class:

October 1, 2011Surfing aimlessly, I find inspiration:

I spend a couple hours on the first part and make an attempt on the second part.

October 2, 2011I scrawl in my journal in a café:

October 3, 2011I listen to an interview with Ursula K. Le Guin and find inspiration:

“[Literature] always works a lot better if you don’t really know what it’s talking about.”

October 5, 2011Aimlessly Facebooking, I find inspiration:

October 7, 2011I do some tinkering, but I’m too tired to really go for it:

October 9, 2011A little scribbling before bed:

Relevant Google searches (Sept. 30-Oct. 9)

dog eye; cat eye; dog eye diagram; chrome gut; “chrome gut”; veterinary supplies; covidien animal healt (sic); cat leg; cat body; graceful antonym

Soundtrack (in alphabetical order)

Julianna Barwick, The Magic PlaceChristine Fellows, Paper AnniversaryMariah Carey, E=MC2

The Field, From Here We Go To SublimeFugazi, Repeater +3Make Believe, Of CourseModest Mouse, The Lonesome Crowded WestModest Mouse, This is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think AboutJoanna Newsom, Have One On Me

RED = loudBLUE = backgroundGREY = barely audible