THE MYTHS OF CHILDHOOD

"You learn from the imagination what the real world is."
- Bernard Malamud

I'm going to give you an assignment today. I want you to dig out the old photo album left to you by your mother, or dig through those boxes of one's you've been storing in the garage or attic, never an album to see. Pick out a favorite photograph of you as a child.

Study it a few minutes. Now pick up your most trustworthy pen or place those long slender fingers (short and stubby work here, too) on the keyboard. You are now going to write about this picture from your past.

First, write down all the details you see in the picture--not your memories or emotions at this point--"jsut the facts, ma'am." Who is with you (if someone is)? Where are you? What are you doing? What is the expression on your face? When was the photo taken?

Second, write the story of the photo using some of these facts. As you remember it; don't worry about what your sister or brother remembers about the event, or what your parents may have told you about it. Write what you know in your heart was going on in that picture. Add the emotions--happiness, fear, uncertainity, whatever you felt before and after this photo was taken of you.

Third, write the story of the picture that you would like to tell if you hadn't sworn to "tell the whole truth and nothing but, so help you God."

Which story would you rather rely on? In the supposedly nonfiction tale, are there elements of creativity? Has the telling of the story over the years taken on aspects of fiction? By doing this assignment, you may find out what I have when doing this--a lot of our childhood is a myth.

I'd like to keep it that way, wouldn't you?

TIP: Watch the length of your paragraphs. Shorter makes for better reading, moving your readers along smoothly through your work.

PROMPT: Cut out pictures of interesting faces from magazines. Paste them on index cards. Draw one at a time and create a character sketch from them.