struggling with your memoir?This free class can help.Follow a seven-step path to constructing your memoir. Receive your first video right after entering your e-mail address.
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struggling with your memoir?This free class can help.Follow a seven-step path to constructing your memoir. Receive your first video right after entering your e-mail address.
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A lot of writers who come to me have been at this for a long time. They know that one scene needs to flow logically into the next one, that the process of creating connections in their book is what creates a story.
Here is where the problem comes in: They connect the wrong thing. I see this time and time again: A writer will come to me confident that one idea seamlessly leads into the next one. And that very well might be the case. But this is not the way to create plot. Let me show you what I mean with an example. In the text below, one idea brings up the next one. But does this work to tell a story? There were so many things we had to do to get ready for Fernanda’s eighth birthday party. We needed to get two hundred balloons, all in pink. Pink was important for the party. It was Fernanda’s favorite color and it was the color of all her stuffed animals. She had a pink bear, a pink cat, a pink unicorn and a three-foot tall pink otter, which she loved. However, her favorite object was the photograph on her wall that her dad had taken when they’d visited the Grand Canyon. It had been a great trip even though Fernanda was afraid of heights. She was also afraid of spiders but she had managed to kill one on her own the other day by throwing a book at it. She hadn’t picked that book up since. Still, she loved reading. She also loved swimming and making cookies with her mom. But she was allergic to peanuts, so she needed to be careful when baking. Fortunately, she didn’t have any other allergies. Her best friend Sophia was allergic to wheat so we had to make sure not to serve pasta when she came over. Dinner at our house was usually a chaotic affair. It was also chaotic when it was time to clean out our garage. Did this feel like a story to you? I’m guessing that your answer is no. Why not? In this example, one idea picked up where the previous idea left off, but the result was ending up somewhere completely different from where we actually started. I began this text by talking about Fernanda’s eighth birthday party, but wound up talking about cleaning up the garage. What does this writer need to do instead? Connect all of their events in a chapter around a single idea. If the chapter is about Fernanda's birthday party, that's what the writer needs to talk about, not cleaning out the garage. (By the way, this is the outline of the chapter, not the written out version. I always have my writers figure out their structure at the outline level.) What I see far too often is writers who do understand the importance of making connections in their book, but they make the wrong connections. So the end result is much the same as if they had never even considered the concept of structure in the first place. I'll be giving tips for how to structure your book in my Memoir Engineering System class. This is also the gateway class for anyone who wants to work with me further. Enrollment opens on May 1 (May 2 for Kiwis and Aussies). Be sure to put the date on your calendar as the class always sells out in less than 24 hours. Official enrollment date: Wednesday, May 1 at 7 p.m. Eastern for North Americans Thursday, May 2 at 9 a.m. Sydney time for Aussies and Kiwis Here is the signup link: https://www.memoirwritingforgeniuses.com/may2024mastermind Wishing you happy writing! Till next week.
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How does plot in fiction vary from plot in memoirs? In theory, they follow exactly the same rules. However, finding your memoir's plot requires an entirely different approach than when writing novels. Flashbacks in memoir work differently than they do in movies. When writing a book, a flashback is not a memory. In this video Random House author Wendy Dale explains what a flashback really is, how to use them in your memoir and how to get out of a flashback and return to your main storyline. Today I want to start with a question. Do you know the difference between memories and a memoir? (Okay, if you speak French, they mean the same thing, but I’m talking about English here.) This question is a little bit like asking, “What is the difference between eggs, flour, sugar, and butter and a birthday cake?” Basically, in the first situation, you have all the necessary ingredients. You simply have yet to turn them into a finished dessert. The same is true with memoirs. So many writers think that their memories are all they need. Unfortunately, that is just the beginning of the process.
Let me give you an example of how a poorly written memoir is laid out. In fact, this is what almost all writers, even experienced ones, do when they first try their hand at memoir: When I was 20, I got married for the first time. He drank too much and was out late every night. Our marriage lasted two years. After our divorce, I decided I wanted to travel. So I went to Jamaica with my best friend Lola. It amazed me how the sun seemed to heal my pain, how piña coladas took away the sense of loneliness I felt as a divorced woman. A few years later, I decided to go to college. Michigan State was where I met Seymour. He was the tallest man I ever met. He was captain of the college swim team and always seemed to be in a good mood. I was a senior at Michigan State when my first child was born, a little girl named Lily. Being a mother was something I never counted on to change my life. However, when I stared at Lily for the first time, I knew that nothing would ever be the same. Two years later, we had our first son, a six-pound baby we decided to name Jacob. Jacob was so different from Lily. He never slept through the night and by the time he started walking, he got into everything. I was so worried he’d find some bottle of bleach I’d forgotten to store away or stick his little fingers into a light socket. So maybe this isn’t driving you crazy yet, but if the writer crafted a whole book this way, basically recounting the history of their life, you wouldn’t be able to stand it for more than five pages. Even if this writer expanded on each of these ideas with rich prose and let me live through all of these events, that still wouldn’t solve the structural problems that already exist here. Why? Because the writer is working with a bunch of memories instead of turning those memories into a story. A reader is not interested in the memories you have of your life. A reader will only pay money for your book if you give them a good story. Why do we watch movies and read novels? Because we want a good story. So your task as a memoir writer is to take these memories and turn them into plot. How do you create plot (or structure, as it’s usually called in memoir)? I'll give you an example in next week's email. Stay tuned. You might also be interested in my upcoming Memoir Engineering System class, where we will talk about the right way to turn your memories into memoir. Official enrollment date: Wednesday, May 1 at 7 p.m. Eastern for North Americans Thursday, May 2 at 9 a.m. Sydney time for Aussies and Kiwis Be sure to put the date on your calendar as the class always sells out in less than 24 hours. Here is the signup link: https://www.memoirwritingforgeniuses.com/may2024mastermind Wishing you happy writing! Till next week. "Show, Don't Tell" is probably the most misunderstood advice ever given to writers. And if you use it wrong, it will likely make your writing much worse. So what does it really mean? Random House author Wendy Dale answers this question, explaining that there are very specific cases when this advice should be followed. Today I wanted to talk about theme because it's a topic so many people are worried about when it comes to their memoirs. Honestly, I hate it when my students get hung up on theme — this usually happens because they came across this advice in some book or youtube video. "Figure out the theme of your book before you do anything else" is a great way of selling books on writing because at first it resonates instantly with someone trying to craft a memoir. Why? Well, theme feels like something you can do to make progress. It sounds like a concrete step to take.
In fact, think of what your theme is right now. Finish this sentence: “The theme of my book…” I imagine that finishing that sentence was pretty easy to do. The problem happens when a writer is asked to take the next step. “Okay, now make sure that this theme is reflected in your chapter.” That’s when I see writers get stuck. For good reason too. Theme will never get you to plot. Whatever advice regarding theme you have already come across, I want you to forget it and instead tattoo this on your hand (or just writing it on a post-it note will do): Theme will not get you to plot. If you don’t believe me, just try it out. Think of the theme of your book. Then think of how you’re going to turn that theme into a story. Stuck yet? It’s not your fault. Theme is important to your book, but it’s so important and such a critical part of your life that theme happens automatically — once your plot is in place. In other words, plot will get you to theme and not the other way around. Theme is rich and wonderful and deep and something you cannot get away from. You cannot not write your book without your theme coming out because this theme is so much a part of your life that you breathe it every day. So don’t worry about it. It’s one of the easier parts of this process. Coming up with your structure, on the other hand, takes a bit more thinking. Worry about structure, not theme. If your next question is, "So how do I create structure?" I have good news for you. I'll be holding my next Memoir Engineering System mastermind in May. This is a live class over two days that teaches you the essentials of structuring your book. I meet so many interesting people there and it is a lot of fun (and you also get tons of critical information). I will be opening signups in a few weeks. I'll announce the official signup date in next week's email. Be sure to put the date on your calendar when I announce it next week as the class always sells out in less than 24 hours. If you want more information, click below: https://www.memoirwritingforgeniuses.com/may2024mastermind Wishing you happy writing! Till next week. Writing dialogue can be hard. In this video, Random House author Wendy Dale offers five tips for what NOT to do. In last week’s post, I covered dialogue and why you shouldn’t solely rely on it to tell your story. You need to use dialogue with narration so the reader gets a deep understanding of what is actually going on in the scene. Now you might be wondering: What should I include in my narration? In today’s email, I talk about exactly this: the kind of information that should follow lines of dialogue. 1. Interpret what your characters really mean.
What people say and what people mean are often two very different things. In a movie, we can hear a character’s tone and can deduce what it is they really mean. But this isn’t true when all you have is the written word on the page. Take the dialogue, “You look sick.” Is this being said by a surfer telling his girlfriend she looks incredible? Or is this being said by a worried parent talking to his daughter? The tone is very different. Here is where narration becomes incredibly important for your reader to actually understand what is going on in the scene. See how the narration completely changes the meaning of the dialogue in the following two examples: “You look sick!” Bart always had a way of making me feel incredible. And I appreciated that he noticed the effort I’d put into getting dressed that day. “You look sick!” Bart felt his daughter’s forehead. There was no way she would be going to school today. Without the narration, there is no way to know what Bart is actually trying to say in these two examples. 2. Interpret what you really mean. In the same way that people don't always say what they really mean, the same is true of your narrator: You too often say one thing and mean something else. Take the phrase, “It’s so sunny out today.” This could mean so many different things. Here are just a couple of examples: “It’s so sunny out today.” After six days of snow, I can’t believe that winter is finally over. “It's so sunny out today.” I want Josh to think that this is a good thing, when in fact, it's putting me in a sour mood. I can already feel the freckles starting to form on my cheeks. Here is another example: “I just love hamsters.” I’m hoping that Jorge will take the hint and buy me one for my birthday. “I just love hamsters.” I don't really. I think they look like little rats. But I can tell Stephanie this the first time I'm meeting her. I don't want to break her little five-year-old heart. 3. Tell us how a character's comment affects you emotionally. When a character speaks to you in your memoir, it can often be important to let us know the effect that this dialogue has on you. Sometimes you will read into what another person is saying. Or sometimes you will think something unexpected in response, something you would never have the guts to say out loud. Let me give you a few examples. “You doing okay?” my boss asks. No need to tell him about the pain in my ankle that has since spread to my knee. No need to tell him I'm having trouble making it to the bathroom on my own. “Are you going to eat that entire piece of cake?” I'm going to eat it. I might have another one too or maybe a slice of cherry pie. “I think it's sugar-free.” It's not really but he doesn't need to know that. It's not like he's diabetic. “Why don't you take some leftovers?” I know that the guacamole will turn brown before I even get it home. But you don't have the heart to tell Mrs. Gonzales no. I hope you're getting a sense of how important narration is to your book. So, how much narration should you include? You don’t always have to include narration between every line of dialogue. It's a matter of style. As a rough guideline: the more narration you have, the more literary your book becomes. Happy writing! People tend to have strong feelings about writing dialogue. Some writers love it. Others worry that they are terrible at it. Whatever your opinion on adding dialogue to your book, keep this in mind: Dialogue isn’t as important as you probably think it is. Think of dialogue as spice. It can add flavor to your book, but you can’t make a meal out of only spice. One of the biggest mistakes I see writers make is putting important information in dialogue. The writer uses tons of dialogue to create a scene and tell a story. Here is an example of what I mean by this:
“The trail ahead of us looks steeper than in the picture,” I say. “We should be fine,” Ari replies. “It's a hike of just two miles. Thousands of middle-aged German tourists climb to the top every year.” “Wasn't this a place where two hikers fell off the cliff last year?” I saw it on the news. “You are thinking of Devil's Canyon. It's in Wyoming, hundreds of miles away from here,” Ari explains. “Is that the place where there was a landslide two years ago?” “Yes. Twenty-two people were killed.” In this version, we get lots of info, but how much of what you just read did you actually remember? Honestly, I felt like I just overheard a very boring conversation. But I didn’t know what I was supposed to take away from it. I was bombarded with information. *** Here is the same story with all of the dialogue stripped out. Instead, I get information across by using narration. See if you feel how much richer and more interesting this is: The trail ahead of us looks steeper than in the picture. Suddenly, I'm not so sure about this whole excursion. I imagine myself taking one wrong step and plunging into the ravine below. Ari tells me that it's fine, that I have nothing to worry about. He has been doing this for years, and no one has ever gotten hurt, not a single one of the thousands of middle-aged German tourists who climb to the top each year. The place looks strangely familiar to me, which seems ridiculous. After all, this is my first time in Colorado. I tell myself that all forest trails look the same. And then I remember I saw it on the news. Two teenagers were hiking here last year, and one of them lost her footing and plunged to her death. Ari looks at me like I'm making a big deal out of nothing, and informs me that I've confused this place with Devil's Canyon, which is located in Wyoming hundreds of miles away from here. Of course I've heard of Devil's Canyon. It was an hour drive from my house and everyone talked about it in hushed tones. There was some big accident there when I was a kid, a landslide plowed through trees and boulders and wound up taking the lives of twenty-two people. The image has stayed with me for weeks. And I get the same uneasy feeling now, is this the right thing to do? A little voice is telling me to turn around and go back to the car. That I can come back and do this anytime that it shouldn't happen today. *** Narration, in general, is a lot more interesting than dialogue. If you have to pick one, I would always go with narration. In fact, dialogue on its own doesn’t provide as much information as you might think. Let me give you an example to show you what I mean. As you read the lines of dialogue below, think about how much you actually learn about the two people in this scene. What is their relationship like? How do they feel about each other? “You look terrible,” Diego told me. “I tried to put makeup on,” I replied. “Yeah, didn't work.” “I should just give up.” “If I were you, I would just stop looking in the mirror.” *** So from this dialogue, you might assume that Diego isn’t a very nice person. But are you sure? Take a look at how adding narration totally changes your opinion of Diego and of what is going on in this scene. (I haven’t changed a word of the original dialogue.) “You look terrible,” Diego told me. Noah had passed away a day before and I'd spent the night crying and downing Xanax. I knew my eyes were puffy and red. But I also knew that Diego could take it. He had seen me at my worst and it never made me feel like I needed to pretend that everything was okay. “I tried to put makeup on,” I replied. And I had. But it only made the situation worse. Now that the Xanax had worn off, my hand would stop trembling. I was suddenly like a five-year-old who couldn't paint within the lines. My lips were less Coco Chanel, and more Bozo the Clown.” “Yeah, didn't work.” Diego was stating the obvious, and it made both of us laugh. “I should just give up.” I couldn't help but play along with the game that Diego had started. I didn't know how he did it, but I was already feeling a little bit better. “If I were you, I would just stop looking in the mirror.” Diego wiped the lipstick off my face with the hem of his T-shirt. It was such a loving gesture that I knew that everything would be okay. *** Still worried about writing dialogue? You shouldn’t be. You should only be worried if your dialogue is drowning out the narrator’s voice in your book. Happy writing! |
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