2000 words each - Reading to Write

            A writer should read 2000 words for every 2000 words written. This ideas was suggested by a presenter at the LUW Conference in Sept. I think it was Sophie Littlefield. Sophie is from northern California and writes in several genre. Her post-apocalyptic AFTERTIME series is a thriller for YA

I read 11 memoirs and a couple of novels in 2 ½ weeks in preparation for my presentation on memoir. I had more time, but I admit I got burned out so quit.

The World’s Strongest Librarian - Josh Hanagarne

My Father’s House – Sylvia Fraser

Hoda – Hoda Kotb

Year of Learning Dangerously – Quinn Cummings

Boy – Roald Dahl

Blackbird – Jennifer Lauck

Catchcr In the Rye – J. D. Salinger - a novel

Driving With Dead People – Monica Holloway

An Innocent, A Broad – Ann Leary

Homesick: My Own Story - Jean Fritz

Lean In – Sheryl Sandberg – not a memoir but I like this book

Red Midnight – Ben Mikaelsen - fiction

All-in – Pete Hautman - fiction

How Starbucks Saved My Life – Michael Gates Gill

I chose the books by going through the library shelves and picking out the smallest book I could find. I wanted variety and a quick read. It worked. My two favorites were among the first I read.

The vault is unlocked. I heard on the radio that Salinger's works that have not been seen by others after publication of Catcher—although he kept writing for 26 years—are now available.

   
I love covers and will comment more on my bias at a later date. But I have to admit I didn't like Cather in the Rye. Too much foul language for me (and I'm not easily put off) and too much whining. Took that boy forever to think he might need to be responsible for his behavior - come to think of it I don't think that happened in the story.

         Lately I’ve been going to town on MG and YA books – looking for style. Should I continue to write alternate chapters in a male and female voice. Several of the books I picked up, did just that.

            But was I doing it the way it needed to be done? On occasion my story needed to go forward with the female voice in succeeding chapters. No problem according to Sharron Darrow and her book, The Painters of Lexieville.

            And there was the question of length. Years ago I’d attended a workshop where the presenter suggested that chapters needed to be of similar length. Since then I’ve discovered that very good writers on occasion throw in a one page chapter. Yeah.

            This also happened in The Snake-Stone by English author, Berlie Doherty whose book had the same subject as my The Dead Man’s Gold Watch – adoption. 

On Creativity

Blog – On Creativity

My daughter Caryn has decided to try for her MBA so is taking a night class to test the waters. The focus on this course is creativity – the idea being that the business world needs more creative thinkers.

            I began to wonder if non-creative people think that those they consider creative will come up with solutions easily. That with a snap of the fingers, a moment of furrowed brows, and an “aha”, the answer will appear. Problem solved. That’s not the way it works.

            In clearing out some files, I ran across material that points 

to the process. Pat Cummings wrote something entitle, Talking with 

Artists. Cummings described the process of six authors who won 

Caldecott medals (the award given to the illustrator of children’s books).

            I’ll share just one example.

            Robert McClosky wrote and illustrated the famous book, Make Way for Ducklings, receiving the Caldecott in 1942.

            The interesting thing is how he came to draw his characters. McClosky studied ducks for two years, eventually bringing 16 ducks to live with him. He made hundreds and hundreds of drawing and the text changed as he worked on the illustrations.

            He first named the ducks, Mary, Martha, Phillys, Theodore, Beatrice, Alice, George, and John. Then, Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack and Quack.

The ducklings in a Boston Park.

No quick and easy solution there.

            One more example. Ernest Hemingway wrote 39 alternate endings to his WWI novel, A Farewell to Arms. Thirty-nine!

            Creative people may have an “aha” moment. But then comes the work. The rethinking, the revising, the starting over.

            Years ago when on sabbatical (this must have been in 1976) I did some research on creativity and wrote a paper I was proud of. I have no idea where that paper is now, but I remember listing five levels of creativity starting with the spontaneous art work of children, and ending at the genius level – the level few manage to achieve.

            On a whim I googled levels of creativity and came upon Lelie Owen Wilson’s site. She lists those same five levels, giving as her source Irving A. Taylor and his book, “The Nature of Creative Process”. Aha, I thought. I remember that name. That was one of the books I read when I was doing research way back when. Wilson describes the levels differently that I did and now claims ownership of her words, as she should. But she can’t claim ownership to the idea of the five levels.

            More internet research brought me to a great article by Jeff DeGuaff, from Fortune.

            Then I came upon an entirely different approach, the idea of creating techniques for measuring creativity. Here it gets too technical for me. I want to focus on the idea of allowing oneself to break barriers, ignore boundaries and go for whatever form or genre makes sense to you as the creator.
That's why I like learning about what people are doing with memoir - combining recipes or setting up a mystery. Why not?

Memoir vs Novel

Blog #4

I’ve embedded a part of my own story in an adult novel I’m still working on. If I ever put this novel out there, it will be under an anonymous name because my immediate family would be uncomfortable about certain parts of the book – the parts I didn’t take to my critique group. The spicy parts that make it an adult read.

            As with most authors, part of my past triggers certain scenes – but they go on and on from there. The reader will never know how much of the story is me and how much is fabrication.

            I’ve used my sisters in the book, but even Jane, who has read the manuscript, can’t decide which sister she is. That’s because there is a part of a neighbor and a cousin, and made up traits that are all part of the character. It was, however, helpful to have a starting point.

            And I did have a boyfriend in Tucson many years ago. I didn’t ever go back to visit him as an adult. And, a far as I know, he wasn’t in a car accident where his wife and children were killed. And he doesn’t move in and out of reality because of a brain injury.

            From chapter 27

"A . . .a . . . a . . ." the man stammered as he squinted her direction. "Oh yes, I think you were . . . that girl, the one who liked to dance.” He touched the side of his head where his ear should have been. “I'm surprised you recognize me. I was . . . a. . .  in an accident.” As though bearing his testimony, he continued, his voice growing higher in pitch and volume, so no one could doubt the truth in his confession. “I was driving. It was my fault. My five . . . all my five . . . my children and my wife were killed, gone, dead."

His one eye dulled and Holly wondered if he revisited this memory often. She remained silent, standing in the doorway, trying to keep her breathing even.

Slowly he returned to the present and with a sort of old-world graciousness, stood up from his swivel chair and gestured toward the one straight back chair in his office. Realizing it was stacked with papers, he carefully gathered them up, placed them precariously on top of another pile on his desk, and gestured again for her to be seated.

In a rush of words to cover her embarrassment, Holly said she had thought of him over the years, had always remembered him with fondness, wondering how his life had been. Then, realizing this was a major gaffe, said quietly, "I'm so sorry to hear of your loss." She hated those clichéd words, but what else could a person say?

His life had been filled with tragedy, something she hadn't anticipated. She had, in a dark corner of her mind, hoped that his happy marriage had not been happy. That his wife had grown fat and lazy and that his smug self-righteousness had made him a man to avoid. She didn't wish that now. She wished to be out of this dreadful office, this morass of despair.

Memoir #3 - Red Hot reads

Blog #2

Memoirs have been red hot reads since 1996 when Frank McCourt published Angela’s Ashes – which won a Pulitzer.

Having accepted the assignment to talk about memoir, I felt myself pulled. What I wanted to share was the idea that an author should consider whether his/her story would be better told as truth or fiction (and how much truth is in fiction?) I wasn’t prepared to say which genre was better. Only that an author ought to give it some thought.

            And the fact is, all the elements of good fiction need to be used by the writer of a memoir. There must be emotion, even passion, conflict, and resolution. There will likely be creative non-fiction dialogue to bring life to the telling.

More:

I want to give credit where due and I think the following theme list came from writer Jack Remick of Seattle. Or the list could have come from Michele Weldon. I’ll try to check before posting this.

Common themes for the memoir:

Abusive relationships

Incest

Dysfunctional families

Living in Poverty (The Glass Castle)

From Poverty to Riches

And the reverse (How Starbucks Saved my Life)

Tell Alls – juicy secrets mostly from celebs

Courage – war stories

Pets – My Life with Snooky – I made up this title but not all memoirs are high                         drama. Some are about the wonder and love of a devoted pet.

            And there are Happy Family memories – 700 Sundays by Billy Crystal

Memoir #2

I want to give credit where due and I think the following theme list came from writer Jack Remick of Seattle. Or the list could have come from Michele Weldon. 

Common themes for the memoir:

Abusive relationships

Incest

Dysfunctional families

Living in Poverty (The Glass Castle)

From Poverty to Riches

And the reverse (How Starbucks Saved my Life)

Tell Alls – juicy secrets mostly from celebs

Courage – war stories

Pets – My Life with Snooky – I made up this title but not all memoirs are high                         drama. Some are about the wonder and love of a devoted pet.

            And there are Happy Family memories – 700 Sundays by Billy Crystal

 What I liked about Crystal's book was that it was about family - his love of his father and the 700 Sundays they had together before the father died when Billy was 15. I'm not much interested in reading about celebrities and how they found fame. Families, I care about.

 Reading memoirs

I decided, after collecting odds and ends, quotes and first chapters to include in my power point, that I ought to spend a little time reading memoirs. So I went to my local library, and I must confess, looked for the shortest ones on the shelf. I was going for quantity, not necessarily quality. My reading list:

Year of Learning Dangerously – Quinn Cummings

An Innocent, A Broad – Ann Leary

The Dali Lama’s Mother – didn’t read, not well enough written

The World’s Strongest Librarian

My Father’s House – Sylvia Fraser

Hoda – Hoda Kotb

Boy – Roald Dahl

700 Sundays – Billy Crystal

How Angel Peterson Got His Name – Gary Paulson

Blackbird – Jennifer Lauck

Driving With Dead People – Monica Holloway

Homesick: My Own Story - Jean Fritz

Lean In – Sheryl Sandberg – not a memoir but I throw it in anyway

Red Midnight – Ben Mikaelsen – fiction that reads like memoir

All-in – Pete Hautman (fiction that reads like memoir)

How Starbucks Saved My Life – Michael Gates Gill

            Interestingly, the first two on the list were my favorites. Not because of subject matter, but because I loved the writing style, the bits of humor and learning something I had no way of knowing I wanted to learn.

            I had another week to go, but suddenly I was done, burned out. No more reading of memoirs. Not forever, but for now.

Hello, world

Dancing Grandma when she was young, age fifty maybe.

I was never much of a dancer. More a dance educator but I did put together a one woman show entitled, Mide-Life and Beyond: a woman's view. Performed a few times in the mid-west but when we retired to Southern Utah, I was looking for another creative activity. Writing fit the bill. You sit when you write, unless you have a back problem and need to stand.

Me doing the Charleston wearing a replica of a dress my mother wore when she was sixteen. There was fringe and a hot pink lining tot the color.

#1 LUW presenter

 I was pleased and flattered to be asked to be a presenter at the annual League of Utah Writers conference this September. My assigned topic – the memoir. Whoops. I hadn’t written a memoir – or only sort of. 

 But I said yes, because I’d recently attended a workshop in Cedar city by Michelle Weldon who teaches journalism at the University of Chicago. Her material was excellent. I’d share some of that. 

And Jack Remick of Seattle had come to St. George in the spring and offered some great info including tips on writing memoir. 

Then comes serendipity. I’m sure you’ve noticed that when a subject comes to your attention, say butterflies or apple strudel, info about that subject pops up in the oddest places. This was true regarding memoirs. One quote I latched on to came from Mary Pols in the Feb 28th, 2011 Times magazine (don’t ask me why I still had this issue—I don’t even subscribe): “The best memoirs of loss and tragedy teach us universal truths. The worst just teach us suffering.”