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Byron Edgington

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Blogs by Byron Edgington

Memoir starts with 'Me.'
2/18/2013 5:21:42 AM

Why do we write? Did you ever go to camp?
At my recent book reading/signing, after I finished and closed my memoir, I opened the floor to questions. A young fellow jumped in and asked why I felt compelled to write my memoir, what drove me to put words on paper? It was a legitimitate question. After all, doesn't everyone have a story? Of course we do, so maybe the real question is why doesn't everyone write them down?

I rambled on in response, something about the marvelous life I'd led, the adventures I'd had, things I'd seen and on and on, concluding that I thought my story was worth telling.

Later that night it occurred to me what my real response should have been. Yes, we all have a story. We all tell our story in some way. Here's what I wish I'd told that young fellow. Did you ever go to camp? At camp, do you remember sitting around a campfire in the woods, crackles from the flames, sparks shooting into the night sky, heat on your face while utter dark surrounded you. What did you do there? Sure, you watched the fire, felt the safe comfort of friends, ate s'mores and toasted marshmallows. But mostly you told stories.

It's all writers, especially writers of memoir, do. We sit around the fire in the dark woods, protected by friends from the unknown and savage surroundings and we tell our tales. This is what happened to me. This is how I got through the day. This is what I saw. I've read numerous memoirs recently: John Young's 'Forever Young; Connie Shultz's '...and His Lovely Wife'; Moby Dick, which is memoir set in fiction and many others. There's a common thread: Here's what happened to me.

We tell our stories for a number of reasons, to impress others, to share similar experiences, to gain and/or deepen friendships. Mostly we tell stories to ourselves. We spin tales because we must hear them told, in our own words, just to hear ourselves say these things, to convince ourselves that what happened to us is important, and valued, and worthwhile. We tell stories because we need to know we were there--and that we are here.

So my answer to the fellow at the bookstore, or personal website--the modern equivalent of the campfire--was mostly right. I do think my life has been marvelous, meaningful, valuable. I do think others will enjoy reading about it. But I wrote my memoir for me because I cherish those memories, and I wish to stamp them with at least an aura of permanence. The word memoir does start with 'me'. We do spend a good deal of our lives around that campfire. Here's hoping you enjoy my story. I'd like to hear yours, too.

Here's a good place to start. As they say, less is more.

The evocative world of the six-word memoir: A Q&A with new TED ...

symes4u.wordpress.com12/21/12

Reblogged from TED Blog: Pause for a moment and imagine the grand, confusing and ultimately exhilarating drama that is the sweep of your life. Think you can summarize it into a half-dozen carefully crafted words?

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More Blogs by Byron Edgington
• Off Ramp: Weekly Short for 12/01/2014 - Saturday, December 6, 2014
• Weekly Short Story - Saturday, November 15, 2014
• The Sky Behind Me, a Memoir of Flying and Life, $1.99 for Kindle - Tuesday, November 4, 2014
• The Sky Behind Me, a Memoir of Flying and Life, 99 cents for Kindle - Sunday, November 2, 2014
• 99 cent sale starting 11/7 - Monday, October 27, 2014
• Interview: Mike Petersen, Killer Book Marketing - Tuesday, October 14, 2014
• Audio Review_The Unheralded King - Sunday, October 5, 2014
• Audio Book Reviews - Wednesday, October 1, 2014
• SkyWriting: Essays on the Art and Craft of Aviation - Tuesday, September 16, 2014
• Silent Sky: From 9/11/202 - Thursday, September 11, 2014
• Great stories and a chance to help - Monday, August 25, 2014
• The Sky Behind Me, a Memoir of Flying and Life, $4.95 for Kindle - Saturday, August 23, 2014
• SkyWriting: Essays on the Art and Craft of Aviation - Monday, August 11, 2014
• Book review: There I Wuz - Monday, August 4, 2014
• Lip smacking mystery - Tuesday, July 22, 2014
• Book review: The Silver Star - Saturday, July 5, 2014
• Book Review: Per Petterson's Out Stealing Horses - Sunday, June 29, 2014
• Free author promo - Monday, May 19, 2014
• Looking for flying tales - Wednesday, May 14, 2014
• Nerds of Ohio unite! My review of Best of Ohio - Friday, May 2, 2014
• Pilots/Crews I need your stories - Tuesday, April 29, 2014
• FREE Download--excerpts from SkyWriting - Monday, April 28, 2014
• I'll publish your flying story - Monday, April 28, 2014
• E-book just .99 cents - Saturday, March 8, 2014
• My aviation memoir is on sale this weekend, March 8/9, just .99 cents Saturday! - Friday, March 7, 2014
• e-book sale this weekend - Wednesday, March 5, 2014
• The Sky Behind Me, 99 cent sale - Tuesday, March 4, 2014
• Call for submissions - Thursday, February 13, 2014
• Catching up - Thursday, February 6, 2014
• Brrrrr! - Monday, January 6, 2014
• Radio Interview tonight - Wednesday, December 4, 2013
• Is it done yet? - Wednesday, November 27, 2013
• Writing a memoir? Check into this: - Friday, November 15, 2013
• From where I sit - Tuesday, November 12, 2013
• Daily Very Short Writing Tip - Thursday, November 7, 2013
• 'To be' or to find a better verb... - Monday, November 4, 2013
• Take a hike! - Thursday, October 31, 2013
• to publish or not to publish - Wednesday, October 30, 2013
• The Sky Writer - Friday, October 25, 2013
• Free sample of The Sky Behind Me... - Thursday, October 17, 2013
• The new world of PCS - Wednesday, October 16, 2013
• Hump Day--Getting over the himp from writer's block - Wednesday, October 2, 2013
• The Three 'tells of book promotion - Monday, September 30, 2013
• We're all mad here--writers take heart - Thursday, September 19, 2013
• How to get the writing off dead plumb: The Writer's Tool Box - Monday, September 16, 2013
• Smashwords author interview 9/5/13 - Thursday, September 5, 2013
• writers, you may want to stand up for this - Tuesday, September 3, 2013
• Writers: Rights, responsibilities and reinventing the flat tire. - Thursday, August 29, 2013
• How to write good - Monday, August 26, 2013
• Book trailer: The Sky Behind Me... - Friday, August 23, 2013
• Author (Self) interview - Thursday, August 22, 2013
• Common Core Standards: Back to Literature? - Tuesday, August 20, 2013
• George W. Bush and other mistakes - Thursday, August 15, 2013
• welcome home - Wednesday, August 14, 2013
• Book review: Bargain With Fate Book RTwo Sage trilogy - Tuesday, August 13, 2013
• I love Harry Reasoner - Thursday, August 8, 2013
• Readin', Ritin' and Wreal Estate--book selling & uts challenges - Tuesday, August 6, 2013
• Book review Friday: Dementia, by Hans Peter Braendlin - Friday, August 2, 2013
• I'm a writer--I write. Sometimes I rant. - Thursday, August 1, 2013
• Memoir as travelogue - Monday, July 29, 2013
• Small presses are back - Thursday, July 25, 2013
• New Book Project: The Emergent Sky - Tuesday, July 23, 2013
• The book biz--short version - Monday, July 22, 2013
• What do you want? - Thursday, July 18, 2013
• The Sky Behind Me at half price--add value - Tuesday, July 16, 2013
• Lies, Damned Lies & Statistics - Monday, July 15, 2013
• Blog is my co-pilot - Thursday, July 11, 2013
• ridiculous to sublime - Wednesday, July 10, 2013
• commo, criticism & culture in Asiana 214 crash - Tuesday, July 9, 2013
• Asiana 214--poor weather might have prevented this accident - Monday, July 8, 2013
• Book Binding - Friday, July 5, 2013
• Notable deaths 4th of July - Thursday, July 4, 2013
• The Blue and the Gray - Wednesday, July 3, 2013
• Life Du Soleil - Monday, July 1, 2013
• takeoff part 2 - Friday, June 28, 2013
• Takeoff - Thursday, June 27, 2013
• Decorative English - Tuesday, June 25, 2013
• To leak, or not to leak... - Monday, June 24, 2013
• Separation of church and state - Friday, June 21, 2013
• Plus ca change... - Thursday, June 20, 2013
• book promotion - Wednesday, June 19, 2013
• Tom Wolfe was right - Monday, June 17, 2013
• ...can't treat stupid. - Friday, May 31, 2013
• Birds do it, bees do it... - Thursday, May 30, 2013
• Aviation & Medicine--safety last? - Wednesday, May 29, 2013
• Happy Birthday GKC - Tuesday, May 28, 2013
• day of remembrance - Monday, May 27, 2013
• Lady Hooker, my initiation ceremony in Vietnam - Friday, May 24, 2013
• distribution - Tuesday, May 21, 2013
• Marriage Equality: Cleared for Takeoff - Thursday, May 16, 2013
• dead monk seals in Hawaii - Monday, May 13, 2013
• Free download - Thursday, May 9, 2013
• Free sample - Tuesday, May 7, 2013
• May 4th 1970 - Saturday, May 4, 2013
• Entitle-tude - Thursday, May 2, 2013
• dateline Columbus OH: 5/01/2313 - Wednesday, May 1, 2013
• How to Fly Good #4 - Monday, April 29, 2013
• aviation--a very small club - Thursday, April 25, 2013
• Traveling Light - Tuesday, April 23, 2013
• Marathon Bomber - Monday, April 22, 2013
• women in aviation - Friday, April 19, 2013
• Aviation and life: Shared conundrums - Wednesday, April 17, 2013
• Misperceptions & helicopters--How to Fly Good #3 - Monday, April 15, 2013
• Helicopters: A Primer - Thursday, April 11, 2013
• Justitia - Wednesday, April 3, 2013
• You gotta laugh - Tuesday, April 2, 2013
• opening day 2013 - Monday, April 1, 2013
• Fearless - Friday, March 29, 2013
• Equality under law - Monday, March 25, 2013
• Once a missionary, always a missionary - Friday, March 22, 2013
• ten years--and for what? - Wednesday, March 20, 2013
• come to the hills - Monday, March 18, 2013
• stones - Thursday, March 14, 2013
• Lucy & the football - Wednesday, March 13, 2013
• Separation of church & state - Tuesday, March 12, 2013
• Escape Fire - Monday, March 11, 2013
• Cycles are things we ride, like it or not - Friday, March 8, 2013
• Iraq + 10 years - Thursday, March 7, 2013
• A book at the public library - Wednesday, March 6, 2013
• A Radical Idea - Monday, March 4, 2013
• Power Rangers - Tuesday, February 26, 2013
• Take a starving writer to lunch - Monday, February 25, 2013
• Our legal code is 200,000 pages--Cyrus Cylinder 1,000 words - Friday, February 22, 2013
• A note on a napkin - Thursday, February 21, 2013
• New Book Project - Wednesday, February 20, 2013
• TWSB The World's Shortest Blog, Post #1 - Tuesday, February 19, 2013
• Memoir starts with 'Me.' - Monday, February 18, 2013
• Violence against women - Friday, February 15, 2013
• Reading - Tuesday, February 12, 2013
• Three months from today is S.A.M.E. Day - Saturday, February 9, 2013
• Drill baby, drill! - Friday, February 8, 2013
• Richard III found in parking lot! - Thursday, February 7, 2013
• Of Ice Cream & Imagination - Wednesday, February 6, 2013
• Couples - Tuesday, February 5, 2013
• Packing to leave - Sunday, February 3, 2013
• I was a Cub Scout once. - Saturday, February 2, 2013
• Why I write - Friday, February 1, 2013
• February is Heart Month - Thursday, January 31, 2013
• Go with your gut - Wednesday, January 30, 2013
• Current events - Tuesday, January 29, 2013
• Challenger-- "...a major malfunction." - Monday, January 28, 2013
• This old house - Saturday, January 26, 2013
• Child abuse in literature - Friday, January 25, 2013
• No Sex Riding Rockets - Thursday, January 24, 2013
• Happy Birthday Derek Walcott - Wednesday, January 23, 2013
• Cure for blank sheet syndrome - Tuesday, January 22, 2013
• Inauguration Day 2013 - Monday, January 21, 2013
• Pending book - Saturday, January 19, 2013
• Branding - Friday, January 18, 2013
• Book reading/signing - Thursday, January 17, 2013
• Writing is the easy part - Wednesday, January 16, 2013
• Writing contests--Scam or Opportunity? - Tuesday, January 15, 2013
• The Big .99 Cent E-book sale - Monday, January 14, 2013
• Unintended consequences - Saturday, January 12, 2013
• The power of words - Friday, January 11, 2013
• Boys will be... Excerpt from Chapter 11 The Sky Behind Me, a Memoir of Flying and Life - Thursday, January 10, 2013
• Why we write memoirs - Wednesday, January 9, 2013
• The Big TSBM 99 cent sale! - Tuesday, January 8, 2013
• Nobel Prize for Literature - Tuesday, January 8, 2013
• Air Medical Accidents - Monday, January 7, 2013
• Byron Edgington Bailey Prize winner for prose in 2012 - Sunday, January 6, 2013
• Looking Back--Looking ahead - Saturday, January 5, 2013
• OOOPS - Friday, January 4, 2013
• Featured New Release - Thursday, January 3, 2013
• Whither Serials? - Wednesday, January 2, 2013
• HNY '13 Don't 'should' on yourself - Tuesday, January 1, 2013
• Hauoli Makahiki-ho (Happy New Year in Hawaiian - Sunday, December 30, 2012
• Old man and the scythe - Thursday, December 27, 2012
• Excerpt from The Sky Behind Me, a Memoir of Flying and Life - Wednesday, December 26, 2012