CRAFTING THE LEGEND OF YOUR LIFE
Our speaker for the day was journalist and “legend crafter” Francine Brevetti. Francine is a San Francisco native who worked for over a decade as a freelance journalist in Hong Kong, writing about subjects such as finance, foreign trade, and travel. She also worked for over a decade as a business reporter for the Oakland Tribune. She wrote a history of America’s oldest Italian restaurant, Fior d’Italia called “the Fabulous Fior—Over 100 years in an Italian Kitchen” and a second edition called “The Fabulous Fior—over 125 years in an Italian Kitchen” which is available on Kindle and Nook. She has been writing or assisting clients in writing their personal memoirs for years and offers courses in how to write personal memoirs or corporate histories.
Francine explained that she consults with individuals and assists then in writing their own memoirs, or ghostwrites their memoirs for them. Some of her clients include Barbara Snow, daughter of Sydney Snow, the founder
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of the Oakland Zoo, John De Luca, former president of the California Wine Institute, and Pat Mahoney, former guard at the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary.
Francine encouraged everyone present to start writing their own memoirs. She explained that there are many reasons to sit down and start writing one’s own story. Some persons do so simply to tell their story. Others write in order to “purge their souls” of matters that the need to get off their chest. Whatever the reason for starting, Francine encourages all of us to get started on our own memoirs.
To get a sense of the process she uses to help clients evoke their pasts, Francine asked the assembled Rotarians to close their eyes and imagine themselves back in the first living room that they can recall being in. What sounds do you hear? Who is there with you? What aromas/smells do you smell? What material is the couch made of? Is there a party? Are you with your loved ones? The exercise helped us visualize and revive childhood memories.
Francine then encouraged everyone to simply start writing “gibberish” if necessary, in order to start the flow of thoughts that can eventually be your memoirs. Just write, preferably by hand, for twenty minutes about anything you wish, and the memories will begin to flow. Tell the “little voice” in your head that wants to stop and edit that you will do this later, after the ideas have flowed and your memoirs are under way.
George Block noted that we are all individual pebbles on the beach of life….