Let’s create a checkpoint piece. You can use the memoir opener you’ve just created as a starting point (we’ve pasted it below) or you can write something completely new. (Your teacher may have a preference).
It should have all of the memoir ingredients we’ve talked about over this lesson. Your passage needs to:
- use personal pronouns and past tense
- the narrator is remembering a past event from their point of view
- include feelings, judgments and/or explanations to show why these events are important (you don’t need all three, but some would be good).
- have a situation, development and a reaction that gives your readers an idea what the larger story would be about if they kept reading.
If you feel it’s missing something, it’s okay to edit or add more to the passage—your checkpoint piece doesn’t have to strictly match the snippet.
