Welcome to May! Hopefully, our northern friends are finally seeing some signs of spring, while here in Orlando, we skipped straight into summer.
In this week’s Life Writers Vlog episode, I introduce a creative new exercise from my book, Eating an Elephant: Write Your Life One Bite at a Time—drawing memory maps! Don’t worry, you don’t have to be an artist. This isn’t about creating masterpieces. It’s about unlocking memories.
Bite #118 in Eating an Elephant encourages you to sketch your childhood street or neighborhood and the layout of your home and yard, labeling everything you can remember.
As you create your map, old memories might float to the surface—jot them down for future story ideas! Also, I suggest keeping these drawings in your writing notebook to inspire future stories and serve as a reference.
I’d love to hear how this exercise goes for you. Was it easy? Did it spark forgotten memories? Do you have more story ideas added to your list? Tell us about your experience in the comments section below. For extra credit, include a photo of the sketch you drew.
But always remember, the only way to do this wrong is not to do it at all. Happy writing!
Thanks Patricia for mentioning me in your VLOG. I do remember a couple of homes along the way, only wish I could remember exact addresses.
I had a terrible time trying to draw my childhood home. It was a two story and my dimensions are not very good. It was interesting to try to get the spaces correct for each room. Many years later I had returned to my hometown for a high school reunion and drove past the house. The owner saw me and invited me in when I told him I grew up there. Not much had changed except paint and lots and lots of woodgrain paneling. He asked me if my family installed that, we didn’t. I went through every room, memories… Read more »
Although I’ve covered my hometown rather extensively in my memoir, and I have previously made a drawing of it, and my house at the time, illustrating it this time was pure joy. I have made only one attempt at it this time, but that attempt brought up a memory of neighbor, Billie Bridley and her chocolate popcorn balls. She made these scrumptious treats every Halloween to pass out to trick or treaters. Dressed in her signature pedal pushers, with rolled down hose in loafers, even at Halloween, she’d meet each one of us at the door, passing out those delicious… Read more »
We moved many times when I was a child. There are a few addresses that stay in my memory, like Wedgwood Circle in Pasadena, TX. I was four or five when we lived there. I don’t remember anything about the house plan, but I remember the open front porch had a trellis that I attempted to climb one day. One of the neighbors saw me fall. My only recollection of the excitement was my parents walking me around the living room to keep me awake, but it might be a false memory since I heard the story told several times… Read more »
This exercise helped me remember a hugh metal slide we played on at the school playground near one of my childhood homes. Our family black cocker dog, Suzy, would climb the thin metal rungs of the that slide’s ladder in front of me. I put Suzy in my lap when I got to the top and we rode all the way down the slide like that. When we got to the bottom, Suzy would jump to the ground then turn around wagging her tail like mad, tongue hanging out the side of her smiling face, then run to the ladder… Read more »
I made a map of my neighborhood but cheated a little. I looked it up in Google Maps to get the outline. The map did help me remember who lived where, and where we played. It is a great reference.
That’s not cheating. That’s pretty smart. I wish I had thought of that. Good idea.
We moved several times during my childhood and many of my memories blur together, but I did think of one new thing that I would like to remember more about. That was an old farmhouse next door to us at one stage in our moves. It had a very long lane and my memories give me a creepy feeling. Maybe I will dream about it.
I have not done this exercise but I have been journaling since 1971 and have a Rubbermaid tub full of these journals.