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Your Memoir’s FocusWriting About Yourself by Writing About the World
Presenter: Emily [email protected]
Why is memoir so freakin hard?• Cruise ship director and captain in one
• Adam, Eve and the hand of God, OLD vs. NEW testament God
• The director and the star
• The traveler and mapmaker in one
• The ship and your emotional life is the sea
YOU ARE THE LIVED EXPERIENCE AND THE ONE WHO MAKES SENSE OF IT
How does it happen?
Michelangelo’s David: It was always there, the artist just whittled away the excess.
Pantsing vs. Planning
Caveat: Your process is your process
OR: Why you won’t catch me telling you there is only one path to writing a memoir
Your lens is your lens
Your style is your style
Memoir vs. Autobiography
Autobiography is a book detailing the entirety of an author’s life from birth to end.
Memoir is a selected time of life, a slice of the piece, the author decides how large or small that slice is.
Structure
“I’d like to raise a quiet hand in defense of structure. Indeed, it has always seemed to me that structure defines memoir — elevates it above mere autobiography, distinguishes it from journalism and essay, rescues it from narcissism. Structure releases the larger, universal story inside the particular this-happened-to-me. It signals an author’s willingness to think not just about events, but about themes.” – Beth Kephart
Theme and Category
Theme: The great truth and wisdom imparted to the reader. Examples: resilience, gratitude, the persistent evils of man, forgiveness, love, constant reinvention, the saving graces of nature, etc.
Category: Hints at some of the built-in audiences for your memoir; parenting, travel, coming-of-age, dysfunctional family, religious, grief, divorce
What structure does
• Allows you to take an aesthetic stand on what has happened to you
• Provides a narrative framework for the story/stories you are going to tell
• Connects lines between seemingly disparate events
• Generates interest – a “way in” for the reader• Adds a layer of meaning to the story
GOALS
• Investigate structure and organizing principles for memoir• Discover compelling examples of
structure and focus• Complete simple exercises to clear out
the brush on this path• Build the confidence to take the next
steps
Finding Memoir Structure
•“I wrote a book about my family”
•Structured around the contests the mother entered
•Themes emerge organically from the structure
•Structure carries inherent ups and down that propel the story
What have I learned about life that I want to share in memoir form?
What does my narrator want?
“I always ask myself what my narrator wants. Once the narrator wants something there is automatically conflict.” -- Wendy Dale
narrrative want: n. The thing your main character desires most -- whether it is an idea, a feeling, an object or a person
What does my character need?
What he/she needs is the subtext and may be in conflict with the character explicitly wants
For the slice of life you are interested in writing about, what did you want? What did you need?
The Subtleties of Structure
•“I wrote a childhood memoir.”
•Chronological events from birth to whenever
•OR IS IT?
•Baby Book, Hair, The Lion, Involving Animals, Julie Hit Me Three Times, Daniel, There She Is, Blood of the Lamb, Unexpected Injuries
Write a scene in which we meet an important person in your memoir.
The Subject Creates the Structure•Each chapter named after a yoga pose, with the levels of difficulty mirroring the narrator’s quest
•The narrator is called to an activity as a disciple, out of a need. Ie. Thoreau, and his quest to live deliberately.
•Themes emerge from the focus of the book
What is an activity that you know deeply that your body was called to do? Is there a moment you can walk us through where something you did caused you to reflect on the rest of your life? Write.
The Play-by-Play
•The structure is time-based, advantages and disadvantages to that approach
•A year, for example, is a structure, but you’re making a value judgment
•Can be popular in the marketplace and fits with a culture that likes resolutions
What is the season you are writing about? What is the specific frame you are using to bookend your memoir?
The “What Happened After”
•The pivotal event happens BEFORE the book starts and launches the character on the journey
•The story catches the narrator in a particular moment of emotional upheaval and transition
•It’s all about the FALLOUT
Pinpoint a moment in your life when everything changed in an instant. Who were you before? Who did you become?
Expert and Hybrid Memoir
•An established expert in the subject matter of the book, but the relationship between the author and subject is the story
•The narrator’s personal journey is paramount to the book’s existence
Am I the expert or does my memoir show me becoming the expert? What is my chosen field and how does it offer a “way in” for the reader? If I’m not the expert, just as expert in my own life, what is the journey my narrator is on?
Blogging While Writing Memoir
Not necessarily talking blog-to-book projects
Demographic Profiles:Who they are
Psychographic Profiles:What they care about
What is your memoir about?
The hardest question of all. Give me your one sentence description of what your memoir is about.
Connect with EmilySend hate mail to:
Find me on Twitter:
@emilygrosvenor
Instagram: @emilygrosvenor
