The Advantage of Aging for a Writer

For a writer, one of the advantages of getting older is memories. A writer has many memories, both good and bad, of his or her childhood. The writer can use these memories as starting points for essays, poems, flash fiction, short stories, or novels. It does not matter what genre a person works in, because you can use the memories for the characters in the story.

These memories come back to use at the oddest times. This is why a writer needs to carry a pen and paper journal at all times, when an incident or food brings back a memory note the incident or the food with the memory. For instance, I went to the Feast of Words (Kalimat) yesterday. The lady who provide the refreshments served cake and whipped cream, both made from scratch. Watching my friend make the whipped cream brought back memories of my Grandma, who made whipped cream from scratch when I was a child.

I am not sure just yet how I am going to use the memory. I will probably write a poem about it, but I could as easily use it in a piece of flash fiction or a short story. True I write mostly science fiction and fantasy, but I can use a memory like that in either genre. That is the beautiful thing about memories; you can apply them any way you want.

I enjoy writing about my grandparents. In fact, I have several poems about them, which I am going to compile into a chapbook. I just do not know what to call that particular collection of poems. I am going to have to pray about a title for that collection. I have found that when I cannot think of a name for a story or poem, prayer helps and I soon receive inspiration.