A Memory of Light

[keppiehed]

Title: A Memory of Light
Author: keppiehed
Word Count: 2240
Prompt: winter gale
A/N: While I worked in the prompt here at MM, I am submitting this for a publication calling for true-life memoirs, and there is a hefty prize for the winner (I’d be happy to send details to anyone who would like details!). I would appreciate concrit on this, since I’d like to

Comments

[rubyelf]

I really can't give you anything except to tell you this is beautiful and heartbreaking and feels so deeply intimate and personal that if there were errors, I'd never have noticed them with how caught I was in the depth of what you've shared here about your family and yourself.

[keppiehed]

That means a lot to me to hear you say that. I was really worried that it was flat and focused on me saying I, I, I, and that no one would be able to relate to it, so I am glad that it seemed like it was engrossing instead of melodramatic. Big relief! :D Thank you!

[rubyelf]

That's what makes it so personal, though... it's about YOU and your feelings and reactions to these deaths. It's easy to write about things happening... it's harder to write about what those things do to you and how they change the world inside your head.

[keppiehed]

I don't know why I have such a hard time opening up about my feelings. It's much easier to write it through a lens of fiction!

[similiesslip]

Can I have details on what you are sending it too? I hate to compete with you, but if you are ok with it? The things people like the most that I have written are about my life.

I really like this and I'll come back to comment better. I'm moving again this week so ...sooooooo much to do.

[keppiehed]

I have been reading about all that's going on in your life, and I am amazed at your strength. I am sending good wishes your way! You have done so much and come so far in the time I have known you; you are truly and inspiration and I know you have invaluable experiences to share. I don't look at it as "competing", but rather us supporting each other as writers and I would love for you to succeed in this endeavor!

Here is the site, and they have a lot of other competitions, as well. https://www.creativenonfiction.org/submissions/memoir-issue In this competition, there is a "reading fee", which I don't necessarily endorse, but is somewhat common with competitions with a higher prize amount.

I would suggest joining the site musemuggers; not only does it showcase a lot of brilliant writers, but it has introduced me to some amazing publication venues. Thanks to that site, I have found the resources to be published over 20 times this year, many of them as

[bardiphouka]

Umm I am not sure what to say here. And it is not very often I am speechless. Everytime I think I have something to say I read it again and realise I was wrong.

What makes a good autobiographical piece? In this case it is getting so close to the epicenter of emotion that is...well I was going to say universal but that is wrong. Rather it is sort of a key, for the emotions each of us share in these circumstances.

I am sorry, this is supposed to ba a concrit. I would perhaps work on the hook a bit. Not because it is bad but because it is simply good, while the rest is so much more. In a way it is brutally honest, but in a gentle sort of way for the most part.

Proof once again, and wonderfully exposed, that death really is not about the dead. It is about the survivors.

[keppiehed]

The beginning could be stronger, I agree. I will think on how to improve that part.

Thank you so much for the time you spent reading this and for the very nice compliments you gave to me. I am honored that you feel so strongly about this piece, especially since it is so personal.

[pipisafoat]

I'd like hear about details, please!

I don't feel like I have anything useful to say about yours words. The realness is so there, and ... yes. I mean, everything you write feels this real to me. Because your words are about truth even when they aren't about reality, yeah? That's how I read your words.

[keppiehed]

What a lovely thing to say! I can't think of anything nicer; I feel like I live in a world made of words, and to have them feel like truth is exactly what I strive for, and the pinnacle of what I am trying to achieve. So I can't do better than that. :D

The site that I found this at is here: https://www.creativenonfiction.org/submissions/memoir-issue but they also have a medical challenge and all sorts of other prompts. The caveat is that everything you write, no matter the subject, be nonfiction. This particular contest has a fee to enter, though not all of them do.

[obleighvious]

Wow. Quite powerful.

I've got no criticism for it, I'm afraid. I'm just weighing in 'cause it is interesting to see how your feelings have evolved over time, and it is very nice of you to share that with me & the world.

It is just amazing to me because it really shows how the different we are, as much as we are alike, we are also very far apart in the way that we experience and process events. Just goes to show, I guess.

Very nice.

[obleighvious]

Now I am wondering if I remembered it totally differently and if none of that really happened that way at all!! Argh!

[keppiehed]

Also, that was me. Duh. I can't figure out the mobile LJ app if my life depended on it.