Monday, February 27, 2006
Welcome!*
Our new home for weekly anamnesis is up and running! Everyone bring over a potted plant or a bottle of wine, and we can celebrate!
We’ve been doing anamnesis for over 3 months; it was time for it to get its very own blog. Part of the reason for the move was that I thought it would be a good way to involve more people. If you’re new to the game, you might wonder what a “weekly anamnesis” is, exactly.
A few months ago, my friend and I thought it would be interesting to post a different word each week. The word would be something broad, but not cliched: something like difference, or indiscretion, or smoke (all of which have been past prompts). Then, bloggers-turned-writers would post personal anecdotes inspired by the prompt, incorporating the word somehow. At the end of the week, all the participants could read each other’s recollections. We figured, isn’t that the point of blogs? To write about ourselves and somehow make a connection?
So that’s what we’ve done. Each Monday (usually in the morning), we post a new prompt word. After that, you get to writing. There are only a few simple guidelines that we came up with, in the spirit of keeping everything cohesive and purposeful:
1. Unless you’re going to open yourself up, don’t bother. It defeats the entire purpose of it, if you’re going to make shit up, or pretend that something is what it isn’t. You don’t need to give super specific details, or anything like that. But, you have to give something of yourself into this.
2. Think about the topic seriously. If it’s a funny topic, that’s fine. if it’s not, take it seriously, and really think about an interesting, deep, wonderful, painful, glorious, infamous, whatever story.
Don’t simply read the topic, and decide right then and there what to write about. You’ve got a week. Use as much time as you need.
3. Post a link in your entry to this site, so that your readers can find out how they can also participate.
4. Comment at this site with a link to the post so that we can keep track of them. This way, people can see what everyone writes about. At the end of the week, we’ll post them all in one entry on both sites, and let people take that post, and make it for themselves. It’s a collaborative writing project.
The next prompt will be on Monday, March 6. Visit then and write with us! I look forward to sharing in everyone’s memories!
Comments
It is going to be my new goal to write on each and every one of these, especially because you have put so much work into it… but it’s also a great way to get thinking and get writing on topics that don’t always come easily. Good practice for papers and such. This site looks great!!
I just posted mine here