I meet with my thesis advisor tomorrow to talk about the first draft of the first letter I'm supposed to have written for my epistolary memoir. It's now 11:59 PM. I've sat in front of my computer for 79 minutes. I can't get past this:
"(Dear) Abigail,
Posted by ghetto monk at February 15, 2005 11:58 PM | TrackBackI like to start with a dash. for instance,
Jeremy--
or comma and then dash:
Jeremy, friend--
I hope you finally got something...
The japanese magnolia in front of the bakery is about to start blooming.
Posted by: emily jane at February 16, 2005 10:04 AMi do like the japanese magnolia--best viewed with a 20 oz. cup full of ice and chocolate milk.
Posted by: jeremy at February 16, 2005 10:17 AMice AND chocolate milk?
Posted by: emily jane at February 16, 2005 12:04 PMJ, what's the idea for these letters?
Posted by: daniel silliman at February 16, 2005 12:35 PMI prefer a cone of their butter pecan ice cream. Ann and I still miss that stuff.
Posted by: barlow at February 16, 2005 02:11 PMDaniel, are you asking why I'm writing an epistolary memoir rather than the standard memoir?
Posted by: jeremy at February 17, 2005 10:59 AMYeah, what's the idea of an epistolary memoir?
Posted by: daniel silliman at February 17, 2005 04:56 PMbird by bird jeremy - hope the damn breaks soon!
Posted by: bobbie at February 19, 2005 05:06 AMthanks, bobbie. for me, it's a matter of hubris. a matter of being willing to write crap for two weeks, trusting that one or two sentences in there will stand up.
Posted by: jeremy at February 19, 2005 12:17 PMdaniel, i'm not sure exactly yet what the "idea" is, since i've never seen it done. there are collections of letters out there, and books of correspondence, but a memoir composed entirely of letters? there are a number of significant reasons i've chosen the epistolary form over standard memoir form, and i won't bore you with them here (if you really want all the reasons, i'd be glad to e-mail).
Posted by: jeremy at February 19, 2005 12:19 PM