Nichole: a memoir.
January 31st, 2010
I started Stephen King’s On Writing this evening after I got back from my parents’ house. We had a game night last night. Zach and Anne trekked up from their place and I came down from mine to meet half-way at my parents’. There’s always food. There’s always drink. I always end up on the floor in my sister’s room, sleeping in a little nest of sleeping bags and blankets.
I just passed page 40 of the book when I put it down to do laundry. I haven’t picked it back up, because… well, I guess I’m a little jealous of King’s story, his life, as silly and immature as it sounds. I need to nip this avoidance fault eventually.
Not that I have to write a memoir—there is no obligation to within these next four months—but if I ever find myself standing before that bridge to cross, I’m not sure if I will have anything profound to say.
It’s a “grass is always greener” thing. The story of someone else’s life is always better than your own. Harder than your own. I look at my friends who have had rough childhoods, in poverty or in a split home, moving from place to place to place, educated in a less-than-adequate school system, and see how they’ve become successes in their adulthood. Every single one is a beautiful rags to riches story, told each time in a way that doesn’t make it cliche at all.
I don’t know why I feel I have to focus on the “hard times.” Why do those stories make good stories?
I did grow up as a child whose parents sued a church. I guess that’s one not-so-common life experience I can set to paper… one day.
I want to hear the “parents sued a church” story!
BTW, I listened to the audiobook version of King’s On Writing in the car on some road trip years ago. It was very interesting hearing him read it in his own voice. Maybe that would help you with those avoidance issues? You could pop it into your headphones while you work out at the gym!
A couple of my friends are into audio books, saying they are perfect for car trips. I need to look into getting some myself.
I can tell you the story tomorrow if you like.
The library has TONS of audiobooks, both on CD and cassette. (They’re just past the movies, on the shelves along the outside wall.) It’s perfect, because you get them for 2 weeks, plenty long enough for almost any road trip. You can use that new library card!
And I’d love to hear that story whenever you feel like telling it. :)