Writing an Unforgettable Memoir

Each time I attend another class at Lighthouse Writer’s Workshop, I realize how much more effort I must put into the writing my memoir. This most recent class, taught by Candace Walsh, was probably the best so far.

After about nine months of typing away at my computer, I realize I have recorded about half the stories of growing up at our family cabin in northeastern Minnesota. Once I get all the stories in place, I think the real work will begin as I edit, rearrange to make the story flow well, and work on the craft of writing. People like to read memoir because they like to see how others solved their problems.

The best memoirs include an obstacle that must be overcome. Examples.

• The Glass Castle—How can the author accept that her parents don’t act like parents should?

• Between the World and Me—How can the author prepare his son for an unjust society where they are in constant danger?

• Licking the Spoon—How can the author learn to feed herself, nurture her soul, and figure out how to give and receive love, when she grew up in a house where she felt her parents did not see her?

Some of the concepts I will need to incorporate are

• The impact of loss through people dying, divorce, and neighbors no longer coming up to the lake.
• Tension, suspense, and conflict dealing with nature and with people.
• Personal reflection—what I saw/experienced and what those experiences really meant. How did they drive my future behavior? How did they transform my life?
• Being at the cabin was such a happy time, and it was lost as I became an adult. How can I resolve the loss of the innocence of childhood?
• Are there other internal and external conflicts I need to explore?

I will also need to flesh out the story through

• Details, details, details, including lots of sensory images. The reader should feel not only a sense of place, but of time.
• Relating the senses to emotions using similes and metaphors. (i.e., “He felt out of control like a …..”)

There are certain universal themes on which I want to build. If you are at a loss for ideas, do an Internet search on universal themes. Some that I want to explore are

• Mortality
• Perseverance

• Family

• Freedom

• Friendship

• Innocence

• Love

• Nature

• Change

• Self-awareness

• Self-reliance

• Coming of age

 Questions to consider while writing memoir.

• How much of the story should be embellished?

• Am I able to admit that this is my story of what happened, which might be quite different from the memories of others who were there?

Books to read that will help me to better understand memoir.

• The Art of Memoir, by Mary Karr
• The Faraway Nearby, by Rebecca Solnit
• So Long, See You Tomorrow, by William Maxwell
• Love Medicine, by Louise Erdrich—good example of bookending a story