If you were writing your autobiography, what title would you give it? It’s an interesting question, isn’t it, perhaps more interestinging than the contents of the biography, since most of us live mundanely ordinary lives. Like Sands through the Hourglass… a long ago daytime soap, though those ordinary lives were spun up with drama, calamities, and (sometimes) crime.
Memoir is important, even if the rumination only occurs in your mind. After all, you are the person you most often talk to in your daily thoughts.
A memoir’s title is elemental, a key as much as the cover to prompt someone to purchase and read. But, before those tertiary acts, the title makes you, the writer, focus on who you are and what you hope for, asnwell as your view of the world. Bruce Springsteen‘s memoir is called Born to Run, and that is perfect. Mahatma Gandhi’s is The Story of My Experiments with Truth. And Christie Brinkley’s, of course, is Uptown Girl.
Mine would be ‘My Life as a Miracle’ and I already wrote it, published it, and put it out into the world. To write it, I mined my thousands of blog posts, extending back to 2012, when I began this writerly dance, my weekly shout-out to the blogosphere. I’d written many posts on the theme that became the title, because I readily recognize that many incidents and happenstances of my life were miracles.
I’ve felt blessed to instantly recognize and acknowledge the miracles of my adult life.
Though we spend our entire lives with ourselves, how many of us know ourselves well… Perhaps, as you ponder your lack of essential self-knowledge, you could write your autobiography… Better for you to write your story, than another who might slight you, blight your memory, or tarnish. the good life you’ve lived.
Recent Comments