There were many standout messages in a webinar I attended this week by bestselling author Janet Fitch, hosted by Memoir Nation (www.memoirnation.com/about-memoir-nation).

This is one of my favorites.

Fitch spoke about stimulating memory to recreate time and place. How to do that?

A clue: Stimulating memory stimulates something inside you as well. It is, as Fitch calls it, “a gateway to memory.”

In my memoir, which publishes in fall 2026, I needed to recreate time and place as far back as 1964, when I was four years old. Important events in the arc of my narrative occurred at that time. Fortunately, I have vivid glimpses of memory to draw from. Still, to build context I needed to write a fuller scene. I had to drop down and find sensory details to go beyond the facts I knew. Depending on facts alone would have resulted in a narrative telling about instead of a recreation of to take readers there with me.

That is where stimulating the gateway to memory comes in. The key to the gateway is sense impression.

To get sense impressions, you have to go “back there” and open to the information your senses have for you. This is particularly helpful if memory is absent for the time you’re writing about.

You may have heard of method acting. Method acting is an emotion-oriented technique in acting used instead of action-based acting. With method acting, an actor aspires to encourage sincere and emotionally expressive performances by fully inhabiting the role of the character.

Here, we have “method writing.” You need to fully inhabit the role of the character you’re writing about (yourself in an earlier time). If, for example, you’re writing a scene that takes place in a car on a hot day in an era before air-conditioning was common in cars, go take a ride in yours with the air-conditioning turned off to get a sense of being in that car you drove in. Roll down the window and get a feeling for that, get some language for it. This is a felt sense of the experience, or method writing.

In my memoir there is a scene in 1964 that takes place in a forest. There is a second scene in a forest in 1974, also important in the story. To recreate time and place for both, I went to a forest when I was writing the book—nearly 50 and 60 years later—to get details for the scenes and stimulate memory of the times I was writing about. Sure, I know what a forest is, but what does morning light do inside of one? What scents come up on a summer breeze? How does pine duff sound underfoot?

Go to the gateway to memory as often as you need by visiting a similar scene in current time. And remember: the key to get in is the senses.

About Suzanne

I’m dedicated to helping writers put their good words into the world.

– Suzanne Sherman

For 40 years, Suzanne has helped hundreds of writers find their voice, strengthen their skills, and complete their salable books. Her clients have published with Wiley & Sons, Chronicle Books, and Ten Speed Press, and others. Many have successfully self-published. Suzanne’s next memoir class is on Zoom, October 6-November 24 (suzannesherman.com/writing-life-memoir-workshop/). Her memoir publishes in fall 2026. For updates and preorders, sign up for her newsletter at suzanne@suzannesherman.com.