Creating an e-Memoir
Gore Vidal shares his personal stories.
Photo Credit Flickr User: Asterix611
For this assignment, you'll be crafting a chapter of your own personal memoir. We'll be using the online book-publishing tool, Blurb to create and share our eMemoirs. Please review the following instructions and short videos before starting the assignment.
What is a memoir, you might ask?
Gore Vidal wrote in his own memoir, Palimpsest, that "a memoir is how one remembers one's own life, while an autobiography is history, requiring research, dates, facts double-checked."
So in other words, a memoir is a personal story focusing on memories and the experience as a whole.
Your memoir chapter should focus on a personal experience, one that 20 years down the road, you would not want to be forgotten. It can be a vacation, special conversation or even a day-to-day moment.
Let's review some memoir excerpts for ideas and inspiration:
What stuck out to you in these excerpts? What was similar amongst the three excerpts? What was unique? Write 2-3 short paragraphs and turn it in via e-mail or Google Docs.
What is a memoir, you might ask?
Gore Vidal wrote in his own memoir, Palimpsest, that "a memoir is how one remembers one's own life, while an autobiography is history, requiring research, dates, facts double-checked."
So in other words, a memoir is a personal story focusing on memories and the experience as a whole.
Your memoir chapter should focus on a personal experience, one that 20 years down the road, you would not want to be forgotten. It can be a vacation, special conversation or even a day-to-day moment.
Let's review some memoir excerpts for ideas and inspiration:
What stuck out to you in these excerpts? What was similar amongst the three excerpts? What was unique? Write 2-3 short paragraphs and turn it in via e-mail or Google Docs.
Creating Your eMemoir
There are several planning steps that you'll want to complete before starting you book in Blurb.
- Write down the Who? What? Where? When? and Why? for your selected memory.
Example: Playa Del Carmen Mexico, August 2011, with John for a week long vacation to get away from it all. - Next, gather any photos or artifacts that relate to your memory. Have some souvenirs, maps, drawings, letters or other items that relate? Scan or take a picture of them and organize them into a folder on your computer.
3. After gathering your artifacts, think about where you want your story to come in and where you want your readers to leave. If you get stuck, think about the introduction to your favorite movie- How were the setting and characters introduced to the audience? Now think about the ending, did the director leave you wanting more or was the story neatly tied up?
4. Now it's time to get writing! Create you story in Google Docs or a word processor. Your story should be at least five pages single-spaced, with enough artifacts to bring the total to at least eight pages. It is recommend that you swap stories with a classmate and help proofread one another's papers.
4. Now it's time to get writing! Create you story in Google Docs or a word processor. Your story should be at least five pages single-spaced, with enough artifacts to bring the total to at least eight pages. It is recommend that you swap stories with a classmate and help proofread one another's papers.
Laying Out Your eMemoir Using Blurb
Photo Credit: Flickr User Publicenergy
You will have two options for sharing your story with the class:
- Bookify Online- Bookify is the online book creation tool available for free on Blurb's website. You can create custom layouts, share your book with you own personal author's page and even purchase a physical copy of your book if you would like!
- Blurb Mobile- Blurb Mobile is a free app available for download on iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone. You might select this option if the majority of your media is stored on one of these devices. This app makes it very easy to share your books and you can even add audio captions. The only disadvantage is that, as of right now, there is no option to turn what you create on the mobile device into a physical book.
Watch this Video to Learn the Basics of Bookify
To learn to use Blurb Mobile, please download the app and complete it's interactive tutorial.
Sample Book
Please flip through the pages of my sample book to get an idea of what your finished product may look like.
Wrapping up and Sharing
As you navigate through the pages of your book, be sure to save frequently and to proofread before hitting the "publish" button. If you used the Bookify option to create your book, hit the order button. Don't worry, you can cancel out the order as soon as it appears, but this will transfer the book to your author page.
Once finished with you book, please share in on the discussion boards in Moodle. To find a sharable link, simply click here and find your book under "Most Recent Books." Click on the share option to the right of your book and copy the link. If you have a blog, you can use the embed option and your audience won't even have to leave the page to browse you book!
Once finished with you book, please share in on the discussion boards in Moodle. To find a sharable link, simply click here and find your book under "Most Recent Books." Click on the share option to the right of your book and copy the link. If you have a blog, you can use the embed option and your audience won't even have to leave the page to browse you book!