I come from a family of storytellers, and the stories we tell are of our lives. My younger sibling and I were my grandmother's youngest grandchildren, and on our birthdays, she would write letters of what she remembered of her life at the same age. Her mother handwrote a short autobiography, which sadly, was never finished, but it stops at the point where her daughter's letters begin. My substack writing is essentially the stories from my life.
Thomas De Quincey, who is best known for his brief memoir 'Confessions of an Opium Eater', has this to say about writing about oneself:
‘You will think perhaps that I am too confidential and communicative of my own private history. It may be so. But my way of writing is rather to think aloud, and follow my own humours, than much to consider who is listening to me; and if I stop to consider what is proper to be said to this or that person, I shall soon come to doubt whether any part at all is proper.
‘The fact is, I place myself at a distance of fifteen or twenty years ahead of this time, and suppose myself writing to those who will be interested in me hereafter; and wishing to have some record of time, the entire history of which no one can know but myself, I do it as fully as I am able with the efforts I am now capable of making, because I know not whether I can ever find the time to do it again.’ - Confessions of an English Opium Eater, 1821
Excellent insight. Looking into future implications is essential, especially when writing for posterity. When I'm doing my video training, I use a slide of Prince Harry's book Spare, to show some of the sobering effects of "telling all."
Thank you for your comment. I was thinking about what you said-- the cards can indeed burn down -- but unless history is represented in some way, it dies with you. What do you think?
My realization is that the information, facts, accounts of events that I know are probably available from the sources where I found them. My contribution to other people as a writer, reader, speaker, historian is primarily as a 'search engine' to point out where to look for it. But, paper does burn and streaming data can be destroyed. We still need fire extinguishers to protect libraries.
I come from a family of storytellers, and the stories we tell are of our lives. My younger sibling and I were my grandmother's youngest grandchildren, and on our birthdays, she would write letters of what she remembered of her life at the same age. Her mother handwrote a short autobiography, which sadly, was never finished, but it stops at the point where her daughter's letters begin. My substack writing is essentially the stories from my life.
Thomas De Quincey, who is best known for his brief memoir 'Confessions of an Opium Eater', has this to say about writing about oneself:
‘You will think perhaps that I am too confidential and communicative of my own private history. It may be so. But my way of writing is rather to think aloud, and follow my own humours, than much to consider who is listening to me; and if I stop to consider what is proper to be said to this or that person, I shall soon come to doubt whether any part at all is proper.
‘The fact is, I place myself at a distance of fifteen or twenty years ahead of this time, and suppose myself writing to those who will be interested in me hereafter; and wishing to have some record of time, the entire history of which no one can know but myself, I do it as fully as I am able with the efforts I am now capable of making, because I know not whether I can ever find the time to do it again.’ - Confessions of an English Opium Eater, 1821
Excellent insight. Looking into future implications is essential, especially when writing for posterity. When I'm doing my video training, I use a slide of Prince Harry's book Spare, to show some of the sobering effects of "telling all."
I have thought about those notes on 3 x 5 cards. The library does not burn down. Only the card catalog.
Thank you for your comment. I was thinking about what you said-- the cards can indeed burn down -- but unless history is represented in some way, it dies with you. What do you think?
My realization is that the information, facts, accounts of events that I know are probably available from the sources where I found them. My contribution to other people as a writer, reader, speaker, historian is primarily as a 'search engine' to point out where to look for it. But, paper does burn and streaming data can be destroyed. We still need fire extinguishers to protect libraries.
Great advice.
Thank you! Makes writers out of non-writers!