Aimée's November 20, 2021 Newsletter--The Memoir Edition
Hi Y'all!
So, I've been dragging my heels on getting this newsletter written and out to you. The big bad beast of Perfectionism has been mocking me at the draft entrance. In order to get on better terms with the PB (Perfectionism Beast) I've invited her in for some tea and to peruse this draft. I've also informed Her that I'm not perfect and neither is she. Perfectionism is an illusion.
She puffed out a big sigh of relief and sipped her cinnamon tea while letting her scales shed glitter on my living room floor. I made sure she knew I enjoyed her festive touches and invited her to dance with me in the middle of the glitter.
We kicked up glitter, dust, old baggage, and new mind-meanderings. They synthetized into something new and magical.
I'm chest-deep in memoir revisions and do you know what I've realized? I'm not in charge of this book. Well, not completely anyway.
A lot of my writing takes place on an intuitive, subconscious scale. It happens when I'm day and nightdreaming. It happens when I have phone calls with my parents or dates with my husband. It happens when a friend offhandedly mentions that the human consciousness is similar to mycelial consciousness and I nod vigorously and take another toke from my vape pen.
Because honestly, y'all, this memoir is bubbling forth at a level of honesty and healing that wouldn't be possible without this combination of mind-altering substances, self-healing, and the healing of my family and close relationships. When my mom mentioned yesterday that she believes my dad (they're divorced), she, and I (and I'd add my dad's wife, my step-mom, Lil, which she may very well have meant) are all lightworkers, I knew she was right.
So that's where I am in writing the memoir. About 1/3 through revisions of the trillionth degree because that's how longform often works. While my goal is to finish revisions in November 2021, November is dwindling away quickly. I'm trying to strike a balance between what the healing whole-consciousness of my memoir looks like along with my own egoic desire to birth this baby into the universe.
Some days, I put my body into socially acceptable clothing and head to the most fantabulous free office space I've ever used--Tulsa's The Gathering Place Lodge. The view is stunning and there's free wifi.
Plus, the PB is a little less judgy there because she's so happy skipping around the building, gazing out the window at the koi fish, and having her creative spirit tended to. Win-win.
In this newsletter's Aimée's Articles section, I've included links to pieces of written that are either directly memoir or a reflection on the memoir-writing process.
There's also a bonus to a meditation series that The Daily Cuppa is publishing. I intuited these short nature meditations in one of the earlier iterations of my memoir. I can now tell that they don't fit in my memoir, so I'm releasing them to the world now.
Books! Books! Books!
Listened to Lust and Wonder and LOVED it!
In a way, there’s a part of me that’s always been a collector. I remember when I was a little kid, after it snowed I would go around the yard and find the best clumps of ice, and save them in a little pile, icicles from the roof or deck or whatever. Memoir is a way for me to do that with experiences. It’s a way for me to put it away, and keep it, but also let it go.–Augusten Burroughs
Augusten Burroughs on Writing a Memoir and Falling in Love With His Agent | Vogue
Augusten Burroughs’s latest memoir, Lust & Wonder, takes on life, love, and sex since getting sober.
I may or may not (may) want Augusten Burrough's agent's representation now.
I'm currently reading Simon Dillon's Children of the Folded Valley and gobbling up the creepy crescendo towards what the heck is going on in the Folded Valley and how our protagonist navigated his childhood there and why in the world he's going back. I'm on the edge of my seat and it's quite enjoyable.
On Writing and Contests
I dusted off my Clippings.me portfolio and I love how it turned out. I highly recommend you also create one of these free portfolios. Click “portfolio” for a free link to how I utilized Clippings.me when I first found it. Here’s my freshly dusted link in case you’d like to take a look: https://www.clippings.me/aimeegramblin
I subscribe to Freedom With Writing. They send out a weekly newsletter with contest and submissions opportunities. Here’s a link to a recent list of contests and submissions possibilities: https://www.freedomwithwriting.com/freedom/uncategorized/28-free-writing-contests-fellowships-with-cash-prizes-up-to-72000/?2
A Selection From Aimée’s Article Arsenal | Free Links
I remember being on my parents’ bed. Being informed they were splitting up. My brain, at four, processed this information in a way to protect me, I think. I quickly sped to two of everything! I was smiling, happy. My parents were taken aback. This is not the reaction they were expecting.
How Writing a Memoir Is Shape Shifting | Curious
Lyric essay
Throughout my life, I was scared in my various homes, and I was scared in my own skin. My first childhood home had a sign on the door, “No Solicitors!” If anyone dared knock, my dad would boom them away with his pounding voice, “Did you read the sign? No Solicitors!”
How Fear Cornered Me Like a Malevolent Ghost | Aimee’s Writing Shenanigans
Until I let love vanquish it
A haggard woman smoked a cigarette; we knew she was a prostitute. We saw her soliciting a haggard drunk man. Heartbreak is an old haggard woman. I felt sad and scared. How unfair that life could take anyone down that path.
On Being a Clove-Smoking Teen of the 90s | The Bad Influence
*Smoking is bad for your health
Submerged, the noise and scents fading away, I’d let my stomach almost touch the bottom and glide, glide, glide across the width of the pool, until I was on the other side, coming up for breath and taking in again the scenery, noise, and scents.
A mermaid. A twelve-year-old. A nobody among somebodies. A loner. A body among bodies.
Swimming Coming of Age Personal Essay | Curious
Of public pools and adolescence
New Nature-Intuited Meditation Series
Over the next few months, The Daily Cuppa is graciously publishing a nature-intuited meditation series that I basically channeled in 2020 while writing my memoir. This story has links to all of the… - The Daily Cuppa - Medium
This story has links to all of the SoundCloud recordings to the meditations.
PB DANCE PARTY!
If the PB (Perfectionism Beast) is an issue in your life, I highly recommend reading this article by cartoonist David B. Clear:
Dear Perfectionist Blogger — Stop Being so Precious about Your Blog Posts | by David B. Clear | Nov, 2021 | The Writing Cooperative
One blog post is not your life’s work!
Happy Reading and Writing!
Aimée
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PS. Soon, I’ll be adding in a section to promote editors I highly recommend hiring. Off the top of my head, I recommend Sarah Paris, Danielle Loewen, and Nia Simone McLeod. You can find them all on the Medium platform.