YOU’VE PROBABLY HEARD the mantra, “Show don’t tell,” a million and one times, and though exposition and summary play important roles in memoir and should not be excluded entirely, a book that is all summary and no scene is a yawner at best. Imagine going to the theater to watch […]
WHAT IS “PACE,” and why should writers care about it? According to the dictionary, pace is “the speed or rate at which something happens, changes, or develops.” In writing, pace refers to the speed or rate at which the story is told and the readers are pulled through its events. […]
You know how it is, when you’re reading a really good book, you become so immersed in the story that you forget you’re reading? It’s like you’re inside the story, experiencing its events vicariously and viscerally — your body tensing and heart pounding during suspenseful moments, or tearing up when […]
WRITING MEMOIR IS A LOT LIKE WRITING FICTION — only with all the made-up parts left out. You have scene (place and time), which is inhabited by characters, dialogue, and action. You have a point of view, usually first person, through which the narration occurs. In addition, memoir also includes reflection, in […]
CONFESSION TIME. This week, I had planned to write about a topic that stymies many memoir writers — how to write about family members. When you write about your life, you will, at some point, wonder how much to include about your family members. In order to tell your story, you may […]
A good writer can conjure a landscape and its peoples to live inside you, and the best writers make you feel they’ve disclosed their soft underbellies. — Mary Karr, The Art of Memoir WHEN YOU READ A MEMOIR, what about that author’s story evokes emotion in you? What makes the […]
What could be simpler to understand than the act of people writing about what they know best, their own lives? But this apparently simple act is anything but simple, for the writer becomes, in the act of writing, both the observing subject and the object of investigation, remembrance, and contemplation. […]
Journal writing is a powerful tool for capturing significant events and memories. For future memoir writing—or if you just want to capture the memories as fully as possible—you’ll want to do more than just write about what happened. You’ll want to go beyond recording the emotional impact of an event […]
HAVING JUST RETURNED from my oldest son’s wedding in Florida, I’ve been thinking a lot about family this week. Images of the bride’s family and of mine keep flashing through my mind—a grand mix of ethnicity, language, and age. Traditional images of family are turned upside-down when our children and […]
