Posted by Kathleen Pooler/@kathypooler with Bryan Cohen/@bryancohenbooks

 

 “There is no fence or hedge round time that has gone. You can go back and have what you like if you remember it well enough.” -Richard Llewellyn, How Green Was My Valley

 

Please join me in welcoming Author, Creativity Coach and Actor Bryan Cohen in this guest post about triggering memories for memoir. Brian is the author of  1000 Creative Writing Prompts: Ideas for Blogs, Scripts , Stories and More.  He shares some useful lessons he learned from his acting days that have helped him retrieve distant memories. Think about how this can help you with memoir writing. This post ties in with  Memoir Writer and Blogger Sherrey Meyer’s recent post on Triggers for Releasing Memories. 

Bryan,  I think you’re on to something here.

Welcome!

 

 

Using Sense Memory to Remember Story Details

 

 

I’ve learned of many important tools for writing over the years, but one of the best for memoir writing came from my acting days. In college, I studied with Joan Darling, one of the first female directors on TV. Joan’s episode of the Mary Tyler Moore Show, “Chuckles Bites the Dust,” was once voted the funniest episode of television ever by TV Guide. The woman knew her stuff and one lesson that stuck with me was the practice of using sense memory.

 

Effective memory is accessed when you try to think back to a time in your life and you recall other events related to that time. Sense memory is different. Sense memory is when you employ your five senses to help you remember an event and the emotions connected with it. While both can help you to remember the details of an occurrence you’d like to write about, sense memory lets you go deeper into those memories than you imagined possible.

 

Sense memory requires that you make the effort to remember how something smelled, tasted, felt, etc. I recall doing an exercise in which we mimed playing with a favorite childhood toy. Instead of trying to make it look like we were playing with a toy, Joan told us to use our fingers and hands to remember the shape and texture of the toy. It took a few tries, but I remember feeling like I was transported back to my childhood room. I saw vivid details of my bed, carpet and toys. I also couldn’t help but feel different. I felt like I must have as a child playing with that toy. That emotion came from accessing the same part of my brain where the memory occurred through the sense of touch.

 

In my subsequent theatre performances, I would use sense memory to ground the characters I played in reality. As a writer, I’ve used sense memory to help me remember moments from my life that were long forgotten. Concentrating on one sense memory from a time I want to recall and using that sense to make the effort to remember has helped me to unearth a great deal. If you find yourself hitting a wall trying to remember a certain event for your memoir, sense memory could serve as a useful tool for your next writing session.

 

An important thing to keep in mind. Sense memory taps into some pretty raw emotions. Joan always recommended that after we used a sense memory, we should practice relaxing it out to get back to neutral.

 

If you want to use sense memory in your writing, make sure to practice getting out of the emotion through breathing, meditation and general relaxation as much as you do getting into the emotion.

 

Happy writing!

 

***

Thank you Bryan for sharing this valuable lesson on sense memory from your acting days. This is very relevant for memoir writers who are trying to retrieve distant memories to bring their stories alive and make them believable. Your book sounds like a beneficial addition to any writer’s library.

 

 

 

 

About the Author

 

In honor of his new book, Cohen is hosting the “1,000 Prompts, 1,000 Dollars” Writing Contest on his website. Click the link to find out how to enter!

 

Bryan Cohen is an author, a creativity coach and an actor. His new book, 1,000 Creative Writing Prompts, Volume 2: More Ideas for Blogs, Scripts, Stories and More is now available on Amazon in digital and paperback format. His other books include 1,000 Creative Writing Prompts, The Post-College Guide to Happiness, and Ted Saves the World. He has published over 30 books, which have sold more than 20,000 copies in total. Connect with him on his website, Build Creative Writing Ideas, on Facebook or on Twitter.

 

How about you? How do you retrieve distant memories? Do you think sense memory would work for you?

 

Bryan has generously offered a free copy of his book to a commenter whose name will be selected in a  random drawing.

 

We’d love to hear from you. Please leave your comments below~

 

Next Week:

 

Monday, 12/9/13 : “Memoir on Place: Memory and Personal History by Memoir Author Kristen Lodge”, Author of Continental Quotient.

 

Thursday, 12/12/13: ” How What We Learned in the ’60s and ’70s is Important to Women Today.” A Wow! Women on Writing Blog Tour with a guest post by Merimee Moffitt, Winner of First Honorable Mention, Poetry for the anthology, Times They Were A-Changing: Women Remember the ’60s and ’70s