Hey there, everyone! It’s good to be back at the Storybelly page. I’m deeply into my Charlottesville draft right now, and I’m finding it hard to tear myself away in order to attend to the pleasure that is Substack and the Writers Lab.

So today I’m going to send you to some links.

The Links:

I want to direct you to the very first Storybelly post — here, called “Introductions.” An origin story, sort of.

And here, written in December 2007, is an early post (the third one, I think) I ever wrote on my “Field Notes” blog at Blogger — here — called “I Got Married Today.” I was 18 on the day I chronicle. Another origin story.

Before “Field Notes” I wrote a blog for Harcourt, at their request, about The Aurora County All-Stars book tour, and you can find that (also at Blogger) — here, called “The ‘07 Book Tour,” although it started out as “One Pomegranate.” (Nancy Johnson will remember it that way!)

I loved this blog. It was the most authentic look at who I was, and was one of the first generation of blogs that came with photographs in 2007 — a brand new thing on the Web and a real delight at the time. I remember sitting on my bed at the Sir Francis Drake hotel in San Francisco, trying to figure out how to upload a photograph! THAT is an origin story as well.

And before THAT, way back in 2005 — before there were blogs, but when Harcourt asked me to write about the Each Little Bird That Sings book tour from the road — you can read the daily account that Harcourt sent out to booksellers every day for two weeks — here, compiled and called The Each Little Bird That Sings Tour Journal, all text, no photos. And… an origin story.

Ways of Telling

In various ways I have catalogued my life, just as we all do, in whatever ways work for us — ways that morph and change as we do over time. My Spotify song list is one way I’ve catalogued my life, as are the recipes I’ve saved over time, and the photographs that are way, way too disorganized, and that every year I say THIS will be the year I make photo album books for all of us. Sigh.

I catalogue my life in my books, too, even though they are fiction. I always say, “I take my life and turn it into stories,” and that is exactly what I do. Every one of my books has an origin story and is about a pivotal moment in my life.

Charlottesville

Right now, I am facing the most challenging origin story of sorts, as I write about The Lost Cause of the Confederacy AND the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. I grew up (as I often say) in the lap of the Lost Cause, and there is so much to share about that time, as well as The Lost Cause, period.

Alejandro Alvarez, News2Share,via Reuters

When you combine that (because they belong together) with the Unite the Right rally — which I did not attend — well, I’m faced with an origin dilemma.

However, I was not at Kent State in 1970 and I wrote about that as well. I was adjacent to it, though, at a pivotal time in history and in my life — I write about my connection to Kent State in the backmatter of that book.

I’m bridging a lot of time with Charlottesville as well, which is why I’m using time folding in this book — a structure I’ve never attempted before, and which I hope I can pull off.

All to say that there are many different ways to write about your life, to catalogue your life, to learn about your life, your history, your biography… and it seems, when you are deep into it, that everything is research, everything is part of your origin story. We are always beginning again, eh?

Research

I’ve catalogued lots of my research for Charlottesville both here at Storybelly in various posts, and at Pinterest where I have some Charlottesville boards. My current research is mostly structural at this point and includes:

There There by Tommy Orange

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

24 Hours in Charlottesville by Nora Neus

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

AND the PBS “The American Revolution” series that started last night, another Ken Burns offering which will feature soon Thomas Jefferson, who is a player in my book, believe it or not. I almost can. :>

Now, YOU:

How are you cataloguing your own life? I would love to hear. You could make it your “Write it (or don’t)” this week, to think about ways of telling, ways of seeing, ways you make sure to say “I was here,” and leave that trail of breadcrumbs for whoever comes behind you, searching for meaning, for truth, for love. For proof of life! For kindness. For… what? What is your origin story?

Tell me. Tell me one of them at least!

What I’ve learned, in my quest for understanding, is that every origin story carries more than one truth: who we were then, and who we’re becoming now. And I’ve learned, too, that it takes real courage to do the hard work of change… and, sometimes, the equally hard work of enduring.

xoxox Debbie, heading back to it