A good friend of mine, artist Jeremy Couillard, recently unveiled a new website about memories and personal stories. It Happened Here and the interactive Memory Map give participants the opportunity to place their memories in a specific location throughout the world. The map itself is a Google Maps API, allowing one to zoom in and pinpoint exactly where the story happened. Users are encouraged to keep their entries short and sweet, getting to the heart of the memory rather than embellishing, and while there are only a handful of stories on the map currently, this is definitely something with great promise to grow.

It Happened Here reminds me a lot of Andrew Zornoza’s novel Where I Stay; in Zornoza’s novel, a nameless narrator wanders the country through short journal entries outlining where he’s been, who he’s encountered, and what he’s learned. Couillard’s project does almost exactly the same thing, only with as many people and as many memories as the internet can hold.

The great thing about It Happened Here, especially from a writer’s perspective I think, is that as it builds, as more people join and contribute, it will offer a wealth of earnest, real-life stories to pull from and adapt for one’s own writing. The greatest writers steal, as they say, and there’s no better place to steal from than the collected memories of many.

So I recommend checking out Couillard’s It Happened Here as well as his blog, which showcases his recent work inspired by memory, the Revolutionary War, and Super Mario Brothers.

Related posts:

1. Interview with Andrew Zornoza, Author of Where I Stay

Tags: andrew zornoza, google maps, it happened here, jeremy couillard, memory, revolutionary war, super mario brothers, where i stay