Is your family talking about it today?

Is your family talking about what happened sixty-nine years ago today? I hope so.

Much of the world honors what happened on this day in 1944, D-Day, when American, Canadian, and British troops invaded Normandy, France. The event started the liberation of France and western Europe and led to the downfall of Nazi Germany.

Military and civilian casualties were stunning.  Melissa Marsh, World War II historian, describes that day as “a bloody, horrific and terrifying day.”

Melissa urges us to consider real people who experienced D-Day. Think about it: Whether you knew them or not, probably some of your ancestors were involved in one way or another. Be sure your children and grandchildren know their stories.

“Sometimes, we need to take a step back,” Melissa says, “and look at the individuals who made this invasion possible—the infantryman, the paratrooper, the tank drivers, the landing boat drivers, and on and on.

“It wasn’t just about military strategies and generals and officers,” Melissa continues. “It was also about the common soldier.

“It’s easy to group these individuals into one entity: the military. But,” she reminds us, “each one represents a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a sweetheart. Each one had a family, a friend, a wife, a sister, a brother, a daughter, a son, a lover.”

In my family, for example, on D-Day, almost every young man my mother knew lost his life. Almost every boy she dated, almost every boy who pulled a prank on her, went to church picnics with her, flirted with her: gone.

Her sister’s boyfriend, heading toward shore, in the face of enemy fire, jumped overboard. The boat’s motor blades took his life. (Read more and see a photo at Your Family and D-Day.)

What are your family’s stories? Where did they live during World War II? London? Canada? Germany? The US?

Today I have a treat for you. Take a couple of minutes to read this account of a French girl who was age six when the war started and twelve when the war ended. During those years, she and her family suffered severe hardships, food shortages, air raids, and bombings.

They also experienced D-Day. It was no dry material in a history book for them!

Recently, more than sixty years later, she wrote to her grandson, Alec, “Ah, unparalleled joy when, on June 6, 1944, we heard that the Americans and Allied forces had landed in Normandy.… What an incredible feat they accomplished that day. Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of them!” (Be sure to read Lest We Forget: D-Day, June 6, 1944 at the blog, French Girl in Seattle. Her collection of photos is superb.)

If you include D-Day accounts in your memoir, keep in mind that this genre includes digging for deeper lessons.

You’ll need to ponder, examine, and unravel. How did D-Day impact your family, both positively and negatively? Why? What benefits do you enjoy today because of the sacrifices of so many on D-Day?

If you lost a loved one or friend, what did God do to comfort and provide for those left behind?

For those whose family members returned home after the war: In what specific ways did God protect them and give them courage and stamina?

How did the experience change their lives? Strengthen their faith? Change their lives’ directions?

What was God doing in the midst of D-Day—for your family, your parents and grandparents? Your nation? This world?

Those involved in D-Day and World War II experienced events that shaped them, and they in turn shaped their children and grandchildren, and they still shape who we are today. God uses such events to form important family values and attitudes that run through the generations.

What stories can you pass on to your children and grandchildren? They are important!

Here are excellent resources for you:

Melissa Marsh has her MA in History with a special interest in World War II. Her blog, The Best of World War II, has photos and a wealth of information.

The World War II Data Base includes photos and information about numerous countries.

For inspirational reading, “The Hardest Decision I Ever Had to Make,” by Erwin A. Thompson, World War II Hero. 

How long will your memoir’s readers stay engaged, charmed, and beguiled?

Dick Clark’s American Bandstand.

Pop beads. Pedal pushers. Poodle skirts.

Full skirts, straight skirts, pleated skirts.

Car coats and cat-eye glasses.

Bobby socks and saddle shoes.

Girdles. Nylon hose with seams up the back, held up with garter belts.

Sputnik. Transistor radios. Rock 'n' Roll.

Friendship rings. Going steady.

(Pssssst. You're reading one of my lexicons.)

Remember lexicons? Last Wednesday I said I've been working on a second type of lexicon Priscilla Long recommends,* a word book for an era. I've listed those words in my 1955 - 1962 lexicon.

My lexicon from another era, 1950 - 1955, lists air-raid drills, pocketbooks, halter tops, Dwight D. Eisenhower, the GI Bill, trikes, two-wheelers, and penny candy. Unicume's Variety Center at North 4609 Nevada. Woolworths. Tea towels made from cotton flour sacks. Barrettes. Bobby pins. Spit curls.

Collecting them is so much fun! I'll enjoy working some of them into my WIPs (Works In Progress—rough drafts).

But such words serve a function beyond fun.

They have to do with keeping readers "engaged," according to Priscilla in The Writer's Portable Mentor, and keeping them "charmed, seduced, and beguiled." 

Last summer I wrote, "Your story is important, but will anyone read it?"*

Here's the issue: Your memoir's potential readers have many distractions.

Consider the lure of the Internet, texting, tweeting, and TV.

And hobbies.

And how many of us have a stack of books on our bedside tables just waiting to be read?

So what can you do to entice people to read your memoir?

You can write stories readers want to read more than—or at least as much as—they want to play with Facebook, iPods, and Smartphones.

You can enhance people’s reading experiences by doing away with ho-hum words and, instead, choosing descriptive words, specific words that create images in readers’ minds and help them step into your world alongside you. You can immerse them in your story.

“Every childhood has a lexicon,” Priscilla says. Such words capture a specific time and place.

“Place names, certain trees and buildings, the toys of 1934 …,” Priscilla says, “they all make vivid a particular place, a particular era, a particular person, a particular experience.”

Here are words from Priscilla’s childhood lexicon: “greenbriar, dirt road…, 4-H Club, teats, stanchions, silage, milkers, mastitis, calf barn, gutter, manure pile, manure spreader, marsh grass.…”

You have to admit those are good words: they capture a specific place, images, and even smells. 

Now it’s your turn! Compile your own childhood lexicon. Choose words that will engage, charm, seduce, and beguile. Choose words the describe "a particular place, a particular era, a particular person, a particular experience. " 


Look over your WIPs and find places to include words from your childhood lexicon because they will enrich your memoir and keep your readers reading.

You’ll find fun resources and memory-awakeners at the following:

Melissa Marsh’s blog, The Best of World War II, at http://bestofww2.blogspot.com

Reminisce magazine online (1930s through early 1970s) at http://www.reminisce.com

I Remember JFK includes photos, most of which you are free to download, at http://www.irememberjfk.com

“The Libraries of Our Childhoods,” from I Remember JFK, http://www.irememberjfk.com/mt/2011/04/the_libraries_of_our_childhood.php

Touching reflections on family life in the 1960s, from the Winston-Salem Journal,  
http://www2.journalnow.com/news/2011/nov/17/wsopin02-circus-of-family-values-ar-1617072

The Graphics Fairy has 2500 free images and vintage printables that will (a) help your old memories to surface (b) provide fun illustrations for your memoir. Here’s the link: http://www.graphicsfairy.blogspot.com

Share some of your lexicon’s words with us: leave a comment below.

And if you know of additional resources that will help others create their childhood lexicons, leave a comment below.

*Resources and links:

Priscilla Long, and my blog post, Gather “crackly” words for your memoir,

http://spiritualmemoirs101.blogspot.com/2012/01/gather-crackly-words-for-your-memoir.html

“Your story is important, but will anyone read it?” 

http://spiritualmemoirs101.blogspot.com/2011/06/your-story-is-important-but-will-anyone.html

Two types of memoir writers: Which are you?

A few of you are aiming for a professional, published memoir with book-signings and speaking engagements and press releases.

Others plan to make a few photocopies of your memoir for friends and family; you’re not dreaming of making it onto the New York Times Best-Seller list.

I applaud both kinds of memoirs! I’ve written both types and found equal joy and fulfillment in them.

If you’re not sure which type your finished memoir will be, let me ask:

Are you in the Tweaking is Torture camp or the Polishing is Pure Pleasure camp?

You’re in the Tweaking is Torture camp if you view grammar as an ambiguity and proofreading as punishment.

Toiling to include details* discourages you and writing leads* leaves you dismayed.

You’re in the Tweaking is Torture camp if you can't stand editing and revising your stories.

A few of you would rather have a tooth pulled without anesthesia than to fuss with a manuscript.

If you prefer writing your memoir in a less-than-rigorous manner and if royalty checks are not your goal—that’s OK! Really!

Your readers will treasure your memoir and you will have achieved your ultimate goal: Telling future generations what you’ve seen God do in and for you and your family (Deuteronomy 4:9, Deuteronomy 6:4-9).

On the other hand, if you’re in the Polishing is Pure Pleasure camp, you’re downright giddy working with words and sentence length and rhythm.

You stay up late into the night reading books and blogs about writing.

You get fired up over new writing tips and can’t wait to fine-tune your rough drafts.

You’re in the Polishing is Pure Pleasure camp if you lose track of time sitting in front of your computer screen: reworking and honing and rewriting.

You spiff up your manuscripts and welcome comments from your critique group.

Melissa Marsh’s words will resonate with you:

“When you're writing,

do you ever get that feeling of pure joy deep in your gut?

Like this is what you're supposed to be doing with your life?

Like this activity completes you?”

(Melissa Marsh, 

http://grosvenorsquare.blogspot.com/2011/06/agony-and-ecstasy-of-writing.html)

So, in which camp are you: Tweaking is Torture, or Polishing is Pure Pleasure?

If Tweaking is Torture describes you, and if stress and frustration bubble up when you face the craft and art of writing, I hereby give you permission to ignore my suggestions about those topics.

I’m serious!

Instead, focus solely on getting your God-and-you stories in writing. Always remember that’s your most important goal.

In my memoir classes, I say: Placing your stories in friends’ and relatives’ hands is your most important goal even if your memoir is not a literary masterpiece.

Recently the mailman delivered Sharon Lippincott’s The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing.* She preaches the same message. Take a look:

Sharon writes:

“… Writing even a little bit, even a single letter or story, is better than writing nothing.… None of my forebears wrote lengthy stories, but however short, I treasure them, and they are better than nothing.

“Don’t worry about what to say, or whether it’s worth the effort, or whether you have time to write a document the size of a James Michener novel. Anything you write will be better than nothing!” (Sharon Lippincott, The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing*)

Whether you’re like me—I enjoy puttering around in my rough drafts and refining, adding this and deleting that—or you belong to the “Anything you write will be better than nothing” camp, sign up as a Follower of this blog (top right), or follow on e-mail (below the Followers’ photos) and I’ll dump heaps of tips and ideas on you in coming months.

“Whether or not you write well, write bravely."

Bill Stout

Next time: More on Polishing is Pure Pleasure

*Related posts:

Details:

http://spiritualmemoirs101.blogspot.com/2011/06/your-story-is-important-but-will-anyone.html

http://spiritualmemoirs101.blogspot.com/2011/06/saturday-snippet-what-sights-will.html

Leads:

http://spiritualmemoirs101.blogspot.com/2011/07/leads-part-one-please-dont-get-mad-ive_20.html

http://spiritualmemoirs101.blogspot.com/2011/07/leads-part-two.html

http://spiritualmemoirs101.blogspot.com/2011/07/saturday-snippet-leads-part-four.html

In the right column, you’ll find a link to Sharon Lippincott’s blog, The Heart and Craft of Life Writing.

You can buy Sharon’s book, The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing, through her blog.

Your family and D-Day

.

Monday was the 67th anniversary of D-Day. Melissa Marsh* describes it as “a bloody, horrific, and terrifying day.”


This week the TV news, newspapers, and Internet made, for the most part, only brief, general references to D-Day.


For example, according to Canada Remembers* on Facebook, the Canadian forces’ “courage and skill helped lead the Allied advance and soon, the Canadians had captured three shoreline positions.”


But Melissa reminds us not to settle for brief and general. She urges us to consider real people who experienced D-Day:


“… Sometimes, we need to take a step back and look at the individuals who made this invasion possible—the infantryman, the paratrooper, the tank drivers, the landing boat drivers, and on and on.


“It wasn't just about military strategies and generals and officers...it was also about the common soldier.


“It's easy to group these individuals into one entity: the military. But looking at those men's faces reminds us that each one represents a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a sweetheart. Each one had a family, a friend, a wife, a sister, a brother, a daughter, a son, a lover.”


Your relatives probably played a role in D-Day events. Perhaps some served as soldiers while loved ones remained home.


Has your family recorded those stories?


My mother chronicled vivid memories of World War II. She and many women carried out both women’s and men’s work by day and huddled around radios by night, eager for news from the warfront.


On D-Day, June 6, 1944, my grandparents, mother, and aunts lived in Ontario, Canada.


On that day, almost every young man my mother knew lost his life.


Almost every boy she dated, almost every boy who pulled a prank on her, went to church picnics with her, flirted with her—gone.


The boys and young men whose pictures fill Mom’s photo albums—almost every one died.


My aunt’s boyfriend might be in this photo. Allwyn was among Canadian troops heading toward shore on D-Day.

In the face of enemy fire, rather than engage in horrors awaiting him on the beach, Allwyn jumped overboard. The boat’s motor blades took his life.

We can only speculate why he jumped. Perhaps he was terrified of being killed.


On the other hand, maybe he recognized he did not want to kill.


What are your family’s stories of D-Day?


If you include D-Day accounts in your memoir, remember: As a memoirist, look for deeper lessons. Pondering, examining, unraveling, musing, wondering, and retrospection are necessary ingredients in memoirs. Looking back, what is your understanding of D-Day’s impact on your family? On you?


If you lost a relative or friend, how did God comfort and provide for those left behind?


If your loved ones returned home, in what ways did God give them protection, courage, and stamina?


How did the experience change their lives? Was their faith strengthened?


Whether or not you lost someone, in what specific ways did God act on behalf of your family?


What lessons can you pass on to your kids and grandkids?


Write your story!


Here are excellent resources for you:


Melissa Marsh has her MA in History with a special interest in World War II. Her blog, The Best of World War II, has photos and a wealth of information. http://bestofww2.blogspot.com


The World War II Data Base includes photos and information about numerous countries. http://ww2db.com/index.php


For inspirational reading: “The Hardest Decision I Ever Had to Make,” by Erwin A. Thompson, WWII Hero. Who to choose for a dangerous night patrol? And, how to get back alive?
http://www.riehlife.com/2011/06/06/the-hardest-decision-i-ever-had-to-make-by-erwin-a-thompson-wwii-hero-who-to-choose-for-a-dangerous-night-patrol-and-how-to-get-back-alive

*Since links still aren't working, copy and paste this link to Marsha's blog post about D-Day:  http://bestofww2.blogspot.com/2011/06/67th-anniversary-of-d-day.html

and here's a link to Canada Remembers on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/CanadaRemembers