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!
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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
Thanks, Kathy, for having me on the blog today!
It’s my pleasure to feature you and all your creative ideas, Bryan!
Thank you Bryan for that fantastic example of “feeling” the dog. I just tried connecting with Panda. Wow! The sense I have the most trouble connecting with from memory is smell. Try as I might, I have never been able to summon smells without some other trigger. For example, I often danced with a certain young man at folk dancing when I was in high school. His pungent body odor was neither good nor bad, but distinctly HIM. For the life of me, I can’t recall that smell. Any suggestions on using this sense more fully?
And thanks for the tip on working our way out of sensory memories. That makes sense, LOL.
You’re welcome, Sharon! Here’s the best part about sense memory. You don’t actually need to remember the smell. All you need to do is make the effort to remember the smell and the memory will come back to you. Bring up the time you’re trying to remember in your mind and think about inhaling that body odor. You don’t have to actually remember the odor for the sense memory to work on getting you additional details. Try it out!
Love this post! It calls to mind another author/scientist who has ready access to all of her senses: Diane Ackerman, author of A Natural History of the Senses, excerpts from which I’d assign to students to summarize or review.
I like the idea that Bryan goes one step farther, giving the how-to as a writing tool. I’d like to re-blog this on my website, Kathy.
By all means, Marian. Thank you for reblogging Bryan’s excellent post on your site http://plainandfancygirl.com. Much appreciated. I agree, Bryan provided us all with some very useful tips on recalling memory. Thanks, as always for chiming in and being so supportive. 🙂
Thanks for sharing the post, Marian!
Thanks Bryan for sharing this tip. As a ghostwriter, this would be a great exercise for my memoir clients as they remember and relive their past. I encourage them to recall their five senses when retelling their stories. I’m excited to see the results.
Hi Sarah, I can see where this exercise could help you a lot in your work as a ghostwriter. I hope you’ll keep us posted on the results. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
I would definitely love to be kept in the loop on this as well. Thanks, Sarah!
Fascinating. Bryan has added new dimensions to my understanding of sensory-rich description. I think I’ll share with my college-student writers. Bryan is much closer to their ages than I am, and I think they will also enjoy seeing how he is crafting a career out of writing books.
Thanks for the introduction, Kathy, and for the great examples, Bryan.
What a wonderful idea, Shirley, to introduce Bryan to your college-age students. We certainly can all benefit from his sage advice. It’s my pleasure to feature Bryan. He has accomplished a lot and has learned to be very focused in his offerings. He presents some new and unique ideas. Creativity is always a hot topic for any writer or poet and especially for memoirists. Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting.
Thanks for the comment, Shirley. I hope your college students enjoy the post as well :).
I came by way of Marian Beaman (Plain and Fancy) and I’m sure glad I did!
Welcome, Laurie! I’m happy you stopped by via Marian’s post. Thanks for letting us know you enjoyed Bryan’s post.
Thanks, Laurie!
Thanks Brian and Kathy. A great post and a wonderful way to pull up memories. As for the deep, painful memories, be sure to leave them at the door before you renter today’s reality.
Good point, Joan-find a way to deal with the painful memories once they are dredged up. Thanks for stopping by!
Thanks, Joan! I always recommend learning to relax the memories out in tandem with learning to access them. Without learning how to release them, they’re bound to have an effect on the rest of your day.
Kathy, thanks for hosting Bryan and for the link back to my post on memory triggers.
Bryan, this is an interesting approach I am definitely going to try. I don’t have any trouble remembering smells or sounds, but often have difficulty with the visual perception of certain memories. Using the sense of touch seems to be a natural trigger for evoking the visuals around you at a specific time. Looking forward to reading more from you as I explore your site and your books.
Sherrey,My pleasure. As soon as I read Bryan’s post,I thought of your post. You each presented different angles of the same issue of recalling memories through the senses. Very interesting. It is a common issue for any writer. Thanks for weighing in here. Always a pleasure to have you.
Thanks, Sherrey! I hope this technique helps you to render the visuals of your memories more fully. Good luck!
I really enjoyed your post and you totally captured me with your quote: You can go back and have what you like if you remember it well enough.” -Richard Llewellyn, How Green Was My Valley
I’ve used that quote in the past to introduce an essay.
That book was one of the first high school books I read and I truly do believe you can go back and have what you like.
Your post is really interesting to me because I’ve never thought about using the senses other than sight while writing my essays and memoir. I will use it for new essays – for sure. Thank you and I look forward to reading your books.
Kristen
Thanks, Kristen! It really is amazing what the senses can do.
Great circle of knowledge going on here!
Many years ago, I had an English 101 exercise, that has kept me fully aware of blending the senses into my writing. I don’t even remember the exercise, but the resulting lesson hovers over my writer’s shoulder during my writing and editing.
Bryan’s post carried that to the next step.
Thank you all!
Very cool, Patti! Must’ve been a great English 101 instructor :).