Writers' retreat

I spent last weekend in Round Top, TX at Festival Hill. This is a place where fairies play with muses and our retreat leader Susan Wittig Albert regularly sent us out to play with our words amidst the butterflies and buttercups.

We each brought a short narrative piece, and over the weekend we added dialogue, speech tags and even a meaningful flashback and a metaphor or two that added meaning and interest to the piece that merely "telling" did not do.

Is it possible to remember conversations accurately? Susan says no. She points out that most of us can't remember even our part of a conversation that we had a breakfast, never mind a conversation we had with our mothers twenty years ago. If we do remember a part of a conversation ("Because I'm your mother, and I said so.") it is probably because we've heard that sentence repeatedly. (Oh, yes.)

Even though entire conversations can't be recollected, we can use dialogue to make a memoir more interesting. For example, instead of writing My parents were so proud of me, you could create dialogue:

"Feel how heavy it is," I said as I handed my dad the first place medal.

"I couldn't be any prouder if I'd won it myself," Momma said slipping her arm around my waist.

Dad ran his thumb over the engraved brass. "You ran a fine race, kiddo." His eyes gleamed with pride.

Momma hugged me. "She's got the fastest feet in the family."

Okay, now you try...

Prompt: Write about a time when someone said "I love you," and meant it.