In one of my recent “Monday Memoir Motivation” videos (that we’re now posting each week on our YouTube and TikTok channels)—the special “Nooks and Crannies” episode—I talked about how I’d started to make lists in those stray pockets of time that are sprinkled through a day, those annoying periods of waiting when most of us addictively pull out our phone to quell the slightest hint of boredom.
I made a list of embarrassing moments. I made a list of first kisses. I made a list of everyone I could remember from my high school graduating class. I made a list of the states I’ve visited (and when and why). I made a list of the birthdays I could remember (and was alarmed by how many I couldn’t remember).
Now, I’m addicted to lists. I want to write an entire memoir that is structured around lists. But beyond that, my list-making became more than being just a fun exercise to pass the time—it started opening up memories for the memoir I’m writing.
I thought about what making lists like this can do for your writing. It pulls disparate things together and holds them there. In everyday life, we generally use lists to organize tasks, but the list-making I was doing was an act of excavation, a form of attention, a lens to find pathways to forgotten memories—and it was all as painless as daydreaming.
 | A guest post by
|