Memoirs and Novels - Personal Ramblings

I just committed to a outrageously large goal of writing a first draft of a memoir in sixty days. I used this strategy before to write a script in thirty days and I achieved it. I'm in the process of laying the ground work for my writing by outlining the chapters and brainstorming different ideas for my book. As part of this process I am reading a bunch of memoirs and urban novels before I get started to just inspire myself and to think about how others have told their stories. I've read many memoirs and novels over the years and I plan on immersing myself in them to focus my writing over the next few months.

Some of the memoirs and novels I intend to reading over the next couple of weeks are the following:

Tis - Frank Mcourt
A Drinking Life - Pete Hamill
All Souls Day - Michael Patrick MacDonald
Honky - Dalton Conley
Bodega - Ernesto Quinonez
Sleeping Arrangements - Laura Cunnigham
Fist, Stick, Knives - Geofrrey Canada


Some of the books deal with life in the Bronx, some deal with the Irish American experience, some deal with the New York experience and all deal with the urban experience. I can see pieces of my life in all of them which is why I've chose to read them before embarking on my own writing.

I am determined and committed to having a first draft by the end of 2008. Let the writing begin....