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.
|
|
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.
|
|
Anytime something that happens in your book, your reader wants to live through that event in the form of a scene. But what if you don’t remember? Your first instinct might be to just leave it out? Here’s why leaving it out might not always be the best option. Take this example. Let’s pretend you wrote this in your story:
That was the day Hakim and I broke up. Two days later, I was feeling better. And a week later, I went for an interview at a new job. *** Wait, you and Hakim broke up? Even if you don’t recall exactly what happened, writing it this way makes your reader feel left out because it was mentioned in passing. It also feels like your story is moving too quickly. Anytime something happens in your book, you need to include a scene. Your scenes allow a reader to be transported, allowing them to become part of the story and forget they're reading a book. But back to the question—what if you don’t remember? The solution is simple, but most people miss out on this because they’re thinking of their scenes in the wrong way. They feel the need to include everything that happened. You don’t need to do this. Instead, the way to “remember” is to cut straight to the main event that gives your scene a reason to exist in the first place. Going back to the example about being broken up with, let’s say it took place at a party. You don’t need to include that you drank too much, ate the worst pizza of your life, overheard two women talking about you, or ran into an old friend from high school. Here’s how to rewrite this and cut straight to the main event. It was at Jessica's party that Hakim decided to break up with me. One minute I was sipping on a margarita. The next I was staring at Hakim dumbfounded, trying to take in what he had just said. I repeated his words back to him, “You're moving to Mauritania? And you don't want a long-distance relationship?” Apparently, along with his new job, he was starting a new life, one that would not include me. *** This wasn’t a long scene. It only took six sentences to have you live through the moment with the narrator. Here’s one more example. My mother came to visit and we got into a huge fight over Soren’s education. Later that week, she called and we reconciled. *** Again, this example isn’t letting the reader live through the story with the narrator. If you don’t recall the details of this moment, go to the main event and create the scene: I had hoped for a peaceful visit with my mother. However, it only took two hours for us to begin fighting. I made the mistake of bragging about Jenna's straight A's which gave my mother the chance to bring up Soren’s education. We hadn't thought much about nursery school. Jim was busy with his new job and I'd been working on a new oil painting of a baby kangaroo trapped in its pouch, which some might have seen as a metaphor for a daughter's relationship with her mother. But my mom was adamant that we start on the application for Norton Preschool as soon as possible before the enrollment period closed. All of her friends had kids who had been there and apparently those kids were now grown up somebodies. From her point of view, it was either Norton Preschool's guaranteed future or life on the streets fishing dinner out of grocery store dumpsters. *** Notice there is no dialogue or description of the furniture in the living room and what anyone is wearing. Instead, there’s plenty of subjective writing, which puts the reader in the narrator’s head and makes the scene more interesting and relevant. To recap, remember these three rules: 1. Anytime you mention an event in your book, include a scene. 2. Scenes are where readers are transported and live through an event with the narrator. 3. Scenes don't have to be long. Sometimes it's better to jump right to the event instead of having a long setup that recounts every little detail. I hope this makes your good writing even better. Happy scene writing!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorA Random House author offers tips on writing your own memoir. Archives
February 2025
Categories |
|
© 2025 by Memoir Writing for Geniuses, LLC.
All rights reserved. |