The Glass Castle Blog #3

Some of the biggest problems memoir writers face are trying to recall little memories in their life and sometimes over exaggerating or not always telling the truth. When writing a memoir, you have to remember the little and big events that happened to you and write them in great detail. For example, in Walls writing she constantly talks about the clothes she is wearing in great detail including things like torn at the edges or it's a bathing suit she got a thrift store and tried to piece together. When I look in my closet, if you asked me to tell you about where, what day, and what time I got a certain outfit, I would be clueless. I also feel that another hard part about writing a memoir is being able to recall most of the truth and limit your use of exaggeration. Walls writes with tons of details and sometimes you can see where she tried to exaggerate what her mom said to her when she was trying to get a dress or when her dad is drunk. I believe all these events happened to her, and believe me I would not have been as strong as her, but sometimes it is really hard to tell what is true and fake. For me, I'm curious about how many steps it took to get to the final product. Walls has a terrific memoir and it probably took her years to write the book. I think the first step she probably took was to remember what exactly happened to her, which was probably easy since most of her life would be unforgettable. She(Walls) had such a hard time growing up from moving from house to house to having perverts try to come at you from all directions, I feel as though she could probably bring up those memories faster than a normal human being like me. I think for me some of the biggest hang-ups are going to be describing my life. I can barely remember anything before 5th grade let alone my entire life. I think the things I remember most are the things that meant the most to me emotionally. For example, when I was in preschool I got a huge splinter in my stomach and had to go to the emergency room to get it removed. Also, between third and fifth grade, my best friend started to have anxiety and would put all her emotions on me. It was almost like internal bulling because I had to hear everyday how bad of a friend I was to her since I did not want to spend every waking moment trying to calm her down. I feel as though that when you put your heart out there on to these pages your afraid of what others might think. Walls in the book talks about how strong she was when she was younger but sometimes when she writes you can see her insecurities about how her dad is constantly drinking or the fact that her mom won't get a job and won't leave her dad. When I write about serious things I really think will anyone listen to my life and mistakes and try to make a difference in a someones life.