Why I Wrote Life Flashes: A Memoir and Writing Process

Why I Wrote Life Flashes: A Memoir and Writing Process

by Merrie Reagan

I do not fully know why I wrote Life Flashes: A Memoir. I did not intend to do so. I do not know why I again began writing a journal in diary form that three years later became Life Flashes: A Memoir book manuscript. I do remember beginning to write the manuscript for the book right after undergoing a profound spiritual awakening in early 2007.

As a result of internal conversion, I began to truly live again, through having re-established connection with God, accepting uncertainty, realizing that conflict happens in all relationships, and that division is essentially an opportunity for growth, not an obstacle, and that goodwill—kindness, respect, and cooperation—is what holds relationships together in delightful, devastating, and everything in between times.

I remember the first short story I wrote in elementary school. It was entitled the Deer Hill Fire. Sitting at one of the desks in the fifth-grade class homeroom, I wrote about the fire—as it was happening—at a farm located on Deer Hill, which was situated directly behind Deer Hill School. To this day, I can recall the excitement I experienced while writing the story. I can also remember being thrilled when receiving the completed story back from homeroom teacher Mrs. Bancroft, who marked the paper in red pen with an A or an A minus grade.

Shortly after I left the education field in the mid-1970s, I began writing freelance news and feature articles for two local newspapers. Writing feature articles about people, places, and things especially interested me. I do not know why I loved writing from the start. I remember the internal freedom and peace I felt after finishing the first freelance article I wrote.

I had done something that I was not expected to do and did not expect myself to do. Writing or playing with ideas, including observing behavior of people, places, and things with words was personally fascinating and rewarding, for reasons that I did not fully understand. I was discovering —in a new way—that it is just as normal to work in a profession that is different from what family members or friends have chosen, as it is to choose the same profession in which family members or friends are employed.

I was rediscovering that life is essentially about passion, not proving self-worth. Through the years, writing has been one of several passions that has helped me to endure not yet being ready to be in a permanent relationship and not being capable of being a teacher or a mother. No worries. Opportunities for love abound in this life and in the next.

When I began writing in a journal again in 2007, I decided I was not going to do so in the same manner as I had in the past. This time, I was not going to ruminate about difficult situations. I was not going to sugarcoat challenging matters. I was also not going to wallow in self-pity about anything.  I became committed with not writing a tell-all memoir; I chose to write Life Flashes: A Memoir in diary form because doing so helped me to discern what was going on within me—heart, and soul.

A writer is a person who utilizes as few words as possible to convey clear and concise thoughts, as well as to stimulate new thinking. The writing style of Life Flashes respects existing grammatical rules; it also challenges some of the rules. Why? As an author, I want to energize and empower readers in new ways. Doing so was accomplished in several ways.

First, balancing the use of first-person active voice and third-person passive voice is intended to provide writing equilibrium. When writing is essentially personally focused, through continual employment of the first-person tense, I, or possessives, growth of the writer is delayed. Connection between the writer and readers is delayed.

Second, infrequently using possessives and not continually using articles or prepositions was employed as a means of moving readers away from observing relationships with persons, places, or things as being primarily equated with personal possession or connection; not focusing primarily on possession enlivens interactions with these entities.

As a means of intellectually stimulating readers, prepositions and articles, which are connecting words, were intermittently omitted. Readers are regularly encouraged to connect words without the grammatical aids, and in doing so, to be intellectually challenged, as well as physically invigorated. From time to time, improper nouns were converted into proper nouns as a means of animating a person or animal and giving the person or animal equal representation with additional subjects in an anecdote.

The writing style of Life Flashes was modified, yet not fully omitted, after I consulted with several professional editors and proofreaders. Unanimously, the wordsmiths respected the unusual style of the memoir manuscript. The literary professionals also advised me, that when a writer initiates significant writing style changes, it is important that the changes are introduced in small doses.

Instituting writing style changes without properly discerning what level of writing style change potential readers are ready to accept is a recipe for literary failure. At the same time, being a successful writer involves accepting risk—acknowledging the possibility of failure, as well as success. Experiencing contentment as a writer also means accepting that responsibility for writing quality rests primarily on the shoulders of the writer, not an editor or proofreader.

Writing, editing, and proofreading of Life Flashes found me remembering words someone, whose name I cannot remember, uttered. “Do not ever write anything that you would not want to read on the front page of a newspaper.” This is sage advice. A writer who seeks excellence re-examines written material on a regular basis, as a writer who wrote material that he or she believed was relevant, may subsequently discover that the writing was immaterial, inaccurate, or inappropriate. Published or not, writing which does not demonstrate literary limits damages author credibility and relationship between the author and readers.

Writing is not an essentially solitary process. While writing, an author is continually interacting with people, places, animals, and things that he or she is examining. After writing for several hours, writers generally experience considerable physical as well as emotional fatigue. Why? While writing, authors privately engage with people, places, and things, sometimes as intensely as in person.

During the past fourteen years, I have consistently discovered that social life that I have missed while I have been living alone and writing, rewriting, or editing for much of the day—mostly at home or in libraries or coffee shops—has been active within me. Solitary and social interactions are remarkably similar; the two communication methods are not mutually exclusive.

No endeavor, including writing, is conflict-free. As a rookie laptop computer user, I lost sections of the manuscript on several occasions, without warning. The manuscript text could not be rewritten; passing time can render a writer unable to recreate experience, mood, and atmosphere. Authors continually learn how to grieve and move beyond literary losses.

***

Former educational tutor, small business owner, and part-time freelance news and feature article writer, Merrie H. Reagan resides in America, in the state of Massachusetts. She savors reading, writing, ballroom dancing, singing, homemaking, and yard work. Merrie watches varied public and network television programs, including All Things Bright and Beautiful, Call the Midwife, American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, CBS Sunday Morning, and Funny You Should Ask. Her new book is Life Flashes: A Memoir (Stillwater River Publications, February 2022).

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: On Writing