Memory Whack-A-Mole

Lately, I’ve been focusing on revising my first e-book, tentatively called Old School Blogging: Getting Back to the Art of Journal Writing. The purpose of that book is to help people put a greater emphasis on journal writing—regularly keeping a journal and improving upon their writing.

After floundering with the manuscript at the close of 2015, I found new inspiration in February by attending RootsTech 2016 in Salt Lake City, Utah. With this year’s conference theme being story-telling, I had a fresh spring to draw ideas from for not only Old School Blogging but also my personal history business.

During his keynote address, former Utah governor Mike Leavitt (1993–2003) polled the audience on governor-era stories they wanted to hear him tell. Those anecdotes included the time the governor’s mansion caught on fire, when he was chosen by Pres. George W. Bush to serve as the EPA administrator, when he informed his female lieutenant governor she would be the first female governor of Utah, and experiences revolving around the 2002 Olympics. Some stories were humorous while others were poignant to the point of bringing the audience to tears.

It was all thanks to his Thousand Stories project.

It started the day Leavitt realized he drew on the same well of stories for his speeches. One Sunday afternoon, he took out a pad of paper and starting filling the page with anecdotes from his life. Instead of painstakingly writing down explicit details, he just wrote a few words for each story—making up only a line. He reported that a few words would remind him of events in his life. After about ten minutes, he felt like he was going somewhere.

“That was fairly easy,” he thought. “I wonder if I could do a hundred?”

After a short period of time, he reached a hundred stories. Then he decided to shoot even higher by writing down a thousand stories from his life—thus giving birth to his Thousand Stories project. For inspiration, Leavitt drove through the city of his birth—Cedar City, Utah—where he found himself flooded with memories of stories to write down.

“Before I knew it,” he says, “I had a thousand story lines.”

He put the project aside for a while, letting the stories marinate a bit, until he returned to the project and started categorizing the stories. As a result, Leavitt says he “tricked” himself into writing his own personal history, which has been an enjoyable and rewarding experience for him—especially as he hears his grandchildren treasure his lifetime stories as their favorite bedtime stories.

In my own journal writing—which has added up to a ballpark number of 10,000 pages of entries in thirty-eight years—I’ve had to play “catch-up” most of the past twenty years. I’ve found that’s been the easiest when I don’t try to catch up on strictly one day, but rather write down a line or two about each day that I remember and then go back to days I've written about. Suddenly, more memories pop into my head about a particular day, and I write it down. Then memories from another day pop into my head and I furiously write those down. Then it happens again with another day. Next thing I know, I’m playing Memory Whack-a-Mole.

Games are no fun when you don’t have anyone to play with, so my challenge to you all is to join me for Memory Whack-a-Mole next week.

Before Monday, google “February 2016 calendar” and print out the one you prefer. Make sure to use a calendar that gives you plenty of room to write a few words for each day about something you remember, whether an event, how you felt about something, or what the weather was like. And no excuses on it being the worst month of the year. On Leap Day, I asked my children around the table what their favorite part of February was. My eleven-year-old daughter said, “Dr. Seuss Day.” My nine-year-old daughter said, “Groundhog Day.” My seven-year-old said, “Valentine’s Day.” I said, “President’s Day,” because our family hit the road for a quick trip to Utah for the day.

Starting on Monday, March 7, and continuing through Sunday, March 13, make the time to sit down at a table or desk with your calendar and start writing a few words about each day, Gov. Leavitt-style. Once you’ve filled each day with a few words, go back and start expanding on them as memories pop into your mind. Once the entire calendar is filled up, migrate it all over to a more permanent format, such as a journal, a digital note-taking app like Evernote, word processing software like Word, or even a blog—some format for your budding stories to continue growing. Leavitt mentioned in his keynote address that “it wasn’t pretty,” so don’t expect your stories to be worthy of sharing in front of an audience of thousands. Just expect it to be by bringing it to life.

On Monday, March 14, join me on Facebook to report how it went. Was it fulfilling? Did you remember events you’ve already forgotten? Did it bring up memories you wanted to bury, or was February a better month than it seems?

I look forward to hearing from as many people as possible. If you haven't been keeping a journal, now is your time to start.

See you all on Monday!