How to Write a Pet Memoir
The fun of writing a pet “memoir" rather than a biographical sketch is that you let yourself walk in your animal’s paws. You write in the first person as if your dog or cat were dictating his thoughts to you. The memoir is a great exercise for student writers—but it is also an entertaining activity for any pet lover.
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Instructions
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Decide what time period you would like the memoir to cover. For example, you might want to start at the very moment you first saw your pet and write an overview of his life. Another method of writing a pet memoir is to think of it more like a journal entry and write only the details of, for instance, the past week.
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Decide on the length of the memoir. This will help you organize the project. For a life memoir of an older pet, 2,000 words would be adequate (you can always add more); a week’s worth of a pet's life could be covered in as few as 400 words.
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Divide the number of words to get a handle on how much you should write for each part.
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Make an outline with titles, increasing or decreasing the number of words accordingly. For example, let’s say you are writing a life memoir about your cat Fluffy who is eight years old:Finding Fluffy at the Park: 200 wordsFluffy’s Days as a Kitten: 400 wordsFluffy’s Adventures at our New House: 400 wordsFluffy Getting Adjusted to the New Puppy: 400 wordsFluffy Gets Lost for a Day: 200 wordsFluffy as a Senior Citizen: 400 words
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Begin writing the first section. Use your imagination to think through what your cat would have been thinking had she been able to think like a human and then express those thoughts. For example: “It was so cold in the park and I had been looking for somewhere I could get warm. I was huddled under a little bush, and I guess I didn’t even realize how much I was shaking until I heard a small girl’s voice say, 'This bush is shaking.'”
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Continue writing through each section. Stop and read your work aloud every so often, perhaps even to a willing listener.
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7
Keep the memoir in a special folder, or, if possible use a photo album with a clear covering for each page. Including appropriate photos adds a special touch.
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