Flash Memoir: Writing Prompts to Get You Flashing

by Jane Hertenstein

We begin with a sudden memory, follow it to see where it leads. Yet so many of us tend to ignore these flashes. We think later yet later on we might have forgotten or lost the relevance of the moment, the urgency that led us there. I recommend a process I call write right now. In the amount of time it takes you to brush your teeth, you can jot down the memory and an outline which can be filled in later. The prompts in this book are designed to spur memories, to get you writing. I’ll also direct you to resources, authors to read and study, and places to submit. A number of the flash prompts included in this eBook were harvested from my blog: http://memoirouswrite.blogspot.com/

121 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 22, 2017

About the author

Jane Hertenstein is a Pushcart nominee whose work has been recognized by the New York Times. She is the author of over 100 published stories both macro and micro: fiction, creative non-fiction, and blurred genre. In addition she has published two MG novels and a non-fiction project, Orphan Girl: The Memoir of a Chicago Bag Lady, which garnered national reviews. Jane is the recipient of a grant from the Illinois Arts Council. She teaches a workshop on Flash Memoir. Her life motto is Do Everything with your One Wild and Precious Life.

Reviews

[Savy Leiser · Rating 5 out of 5]

great book -- lots of great ideas to get you motivated!
read my full review on my blog: http://www.savyleiser.com/2017/07/boo...

[Ophelia Julien · Rating 5 out of 5]

While Jane Hertenstein’s book Flash Memoir is ostensibly geared toward writers, this book is a must-have for anyone who is creating art of any kind. Filled with amazing historical factoids (check out Hemingway’s lost valise or Wordsworth’s almost-permanent houseguest, Samuel Coleridge) as well as the writer’s personal examples of following her own advice, the main thrust of the book is to get the reader’s creativity flowing, and boy howdy, the author succeeds at that.

Each little chapter or section describes something that can be used as a prompt for creativity, be it old postcards, newspaper headlines, websites filled with breathtaking photos, or basic, evocative stimuli such as certain smells or sudden memories. The author then gives an example of how this prompt can be used, frequently using her own posts to illustrate her point. And what a collection of riches she offers, from exploring deserted or “ghost” houses, as she calls them, to thinking back to old TV commercials that can jog a specific memory loose and give rise to a slew of unexpected and forgotten memories.

As a writer, I found this book to be an amazing discovery. I have had my own methods for getting past writer’s block, or the brief moments of panic I always experience when starting a new work and having nothing to look at but a blank screen and a flashing cursor. But this book offers a startling and insightful way of looking at the world we live in, as well as the worlds we carry within.

I would highly and enthusiastically recommend Flash Memoirs for writers, artists, photographers, fabric-art creators, poets, gem artisans, musicians, and everyone else who is using their creativity to explore and understand the world. Creating is tough. It’s hard. But Ms. Hertenstein hands anyone who reads her book a skeleton key to the treasure chests of imagination that all of us possess.