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At the August 2019 Los Angeles SCBWI Conference for children’s writers and illustrators, award-winning author Meg Medina shared a terrific writing tip she uses to draw on her history. She takes 6 minutes every morning to write about a specific childhood memory.

So I set my timer and wrote. What a great way to uncover and reveal the time, feelings, sights, and sounds of a specific memory. Meg said you might use it in your writing (she has) or not. Either way, you have a collection of memories, just for you–and maybe for use in your work.

First Memory

My first memory for this exercise is running along the irrigation ditches of the cherry orchid behind my house. We’d carefully stay on the tops of the dirt trying to avoid falling into the mud or the owner catching us.

Cherry Orchid Irrigating Ditches Mid Century
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