Tuesday, February 22, 2022

No one wants to stop reading to look up a word in a dictionary

 

“What does parsimonious mean?” my highly educated husband asked. Dave was reading Eisenhower in War and Peace, by Jean Edward Smith.

 

Parsimonious. I’d known of the word most of my life. It always reminded me of parsnips. But did I know what it meant?

 

Um . . . No, I didn’t. Neither did Dave, and we felt embarrassed.

 

I stood up, walked to my desk, and opened my thesaurus. Here’s what I read aloud to Dave:

 

not enough

retentive

mean

selfish

self-restrained

 

We were both still puzzled so I asked him to read me the sentence with parsimonious in it.

 

“Eisenhower . . . was parsimonious with the lives of the troops entrusted to his command. . . .”

 

Eisenhower was not enough with the lives of the troops?

Eisenhower was retentive with the lives of his troops?

Eisenhower was mean with the lives of his troops?

Eisenhower was selfish with the lives of his troops?

Eisenhower was self-restrained with the lives of his troops?

 

That last meaning, self-restrained, had potential, so I checked that out in the thesaurus: self-controlled, self-disciplined, restrained. Self-restraint also has to do with being frugal, temperate, not excessive, moderate, measured, limited.

 

We concluded Ike valued his troops’ lives and was frugal when it came to endangering them. He practiced self-restraint when it came to sending troops into harm’s way: He recognized the danger he could put them in but exercised restraint so no one would suffer or die unnecessarily. 

 

OK, that’s enough about parsimonious. My point is this: When you write your memoir, use words your readers will understand.

 

No one appreciates having to stand up, walk over to the bookshelf, take down the dictionary or thesaurus, and look up a word.

 

In fact, I suspect most readers simply won’t do it.

 

Your goal is to make it easy for everyone to read your memoir.

 

Many years ago, journalism instructors taught us to write for an eighth-grade audience. That’s not a typo. Eighth graders!

 

Recently I ran across that same advice.

 

And it’s good advice. It yields benefits:

 

We shouldn’t discount simple writing,

but instead embrace it. . . .

We should aim to reduce complexity in our writing

as much as possible.

We won’t lose credibility in doing so.

Our readers will comprehend and retain

our ideas more reliably.

And we’ll have a higher likelihood

of reaching more people.”

Shane Snow,

This Surprising Reading Level Analysis

Will Change the Way You Write (emphasis mine)

 

You can still use interesting, expressive, musical, graphic, textured, dazzling words—words that zing—as long as they’re familiar to your readers, effective words like:

 

skedaddle

befuddle

jolly

jovial

harrumph

hooligan

ruffian

rascal

scaliwag

scoundrel

paunchy

tattered

merry

beguiling

spirited

whimsical

 

Dear William Zinsser wrote about the importance of choosing words: “Banality is the enemy of good writing. The challenge is to not write like everybody else.” Writers should avoid a word that’s merely serviceable—useful, practical—or dull, he said, and instead strive for freshness.

 

I jotted down a few simple yet vivid words penned by Zinsser in his Writing About Your Life:

 

a sea of codgers, codging the time away

a courtly man

a lofty wicker chair

he listened . . . with exquisite courtesy

a cultivated man

a rangy, easygoing man

a compact man

he had a scholar’s face: intelligent and quizzical

 

A word of caution: Use your dictionary and thesaurus wisely. Janice Hardy blogged about “an episode of Friends where the dumb-yet-lovable Joey wrote a letter of recommendation. To sound smart, he used the thesaurus and replaced all his ‘dumb’ words with ‘smart ones.’” Janice continued, “‘They’re warm, nice people with big hearts’ became ‘They’re humid, pre-possessing homo sapiens with full-sized aortic pumps.’”

 

So go ahead and use words with sparkle and pizzazz—just choose words that most people understand. 




 

Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Pin down inner qualities that define your memoir’s main characters

 

The people in your memoir, the ones who shaped your life, for better or for worse, are the people your readers want to know.

 

Last week looked at developing your main characters from a sensory perspective (sight, sound, smell, feel, taste), and this week we’ll dig even deeper and tackle what’s even more important—we’ll work on your main characters’ inner qualities. (If you missed last week’s post, click on Write life into your memoir’s main characters.)

 

Readers want to feel like they are alongside you, looking into the same faces you’re looking into. They want to experience what you experienced, hear what you heard, feel what you felt. They want to feel familiar with your main characters.

 

To achieve that, you need to go beyond a physical, sensory description: Develop a multi-dimensional person.

 

Which specific dimensions of your main characters significantly impacted you?

 

  • What mattered most to her?
  • What did he believe was his life’s purpose? What did he live for? What motivated him?
  • What were his values?
  • Her convictions?
  • Was he selfless or selfish?
  • Touchy or grace-giving?
  • Faithful or fickle?
  • Patient or impatient?
  • Forgiving or bitter?
  • Brave or cowardly?
  • Nurturing or aloof?
  • Confident or insecure?
  • Gentle or abrasive?
  • Generous or stingy?
  • Was she domineering?
  • Was he humble?
  • Was he quick-tempered?
  • Was she arrogant?
  • Manipulative?
  • A peacemaker?
  • What was endearing about her?
  • Annoying about him?
  • Comical, scary, heroic?
  • What did she obsess over? And was that a good or bad obsession?
  • What did others say or think about that person?

 

For example, Frederick Buechner writes, “Like her father, my grandmother had little patience with weakness, softness, sickness. Even gentleness made her uncomfortable, I think—the tender-hearted people who from fear of giving pain, or just from fear of her, hung back from speaking their minds the way she spoke hers.” (The Sacred Journey)

 

A word of caution: Readers don’t need to know everything about your main characters.  As Roy Peter Clark says, “To bring a person to literary life requires not a complete inventory of characteristics, but selected details arranged to let us see flesh, blood, and spirit.” 

 

Know what information to include and what to exclude.

 

For example, if your memoir focuses on your grandmother’s commitment to nurture her kids and grandkids, develop her from that perspective. Readers probably don’t need to know that she struggled with insecurity or impatience or lack of courage.

 

Peel back layers. Readers want to know what was happening between the lines. What was happening beneath and beyond the sensory details? What was going on inside? What were that person’s thoughts?

 

You don’t need to flesh out every person in your memoir, but readers want to feel connected to your main characters. Your job is to create realistic characters—to accurately portray those most important people without overdoing it.

What was it about the person’s beliefs,

goals,

fears,

experiences,

successes,

failures,

quirks,

character

or values

that impacted your life?

 

Revise and polish your memoir in those places

where your main characters need to come to life.

 

Develop characters your readers can visualize,

but go beyond that:

Create living, breathing, vibrant,

memorable characters

people who are believable, knowable, and well-rounded,

people readers can relate to.



 

Tuesday, February 8, 2022

Write life into your memoir’s main characters

 

Invite readers into your memoir by bringing life to key people in your stories.

 

Roy Peter Clark, one of my favorite writing mentors, says:

 

“In the best of cases—when craft rises to art—the author conjures a character that seems fully present to the reader, a man standing against that very light post waving you over for a conversation.” (“Keeping it real: how round characters grow from the seeds of detail”)

 

I like that: characters that seem “fully present for the reader.”


 

Write so the central characters become more than a shadow in the corner.

 

Develop your main characters so readers feel they’re in the scene, reliving your experiences and conversations alongside you.

 

That’s often easier said than done.


In his webinar entitled “They Walk! They Talk! Secrets to Writing Engaging Characters and Vivid Dialogue,” Dinty Moore said:


“Characterization in memoir is always a challenge:

how can we make the people we know

feel as real and alive for readers as they do for us?

As writers, we must remember that our readers

have never met the people in our memoir;

they know only what we tell them.

And sometimes, we know our characters—

family, friends, enemies—

so well that we forget we need to introduce them

in all their complexity. . . .”


How do you make your main characters feel real and alive? By including specific details about them.

 

For starters, pay attention to sensory details. If your reader had stood with you in the presence of that person—a pastry chef, for example, or a dairy farmer—what would your reader have seen, smelled, felt, heard, and tasted?

 

Think about sitting on your dad’s lap when you were a little kid. Did you smell his aftershave? Or the beer on his breath?

 

Kathleen Pooler, in her vignette Seeds of Faith, writes of the smell in her great-grandmother’s room: “I sat on the edge of the bed and she pulled me close. . . . ‘God bless, God bless,’ she whispered. The musty scent of age lingered as she gently rubbed my back.”

 

Kathleen also writes, “Her tiny hands felt smooth, like a soft leather glove.”

 

Let your readers in on a person’s idiosyncrasies and gestures. Did she live life at a half-run, or did she plod through life? Did he make people uncomfortable by standing too close when he talked to them? Did he make a funny little noise in his throat when he was nervous?

 

Incorporate a person’s facial expressions. What did your boss’s eyes look like when he was mad at you?

 

When you hid in the woods and smoked cigarettes after school, how could you tell, when you got home, that your mother had already found out? What did her face look like—her eyes, her mouth? Did her nostrils flare? What was her voice like? Did she yell, or did she give you the silent treatment? Did she pinch your ear? Did she cry? Or laugh?

 

Look over your rough drafts and 

breathe life into your memoir’s main characters.

 

Pull your readers closer . . . into a sensory world

that you and your readers can inhabit together.

(Judith Barrington, Writing the Memoir)

 

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Tuesday Tidbit: We will die one day, and what will we leave behind?

 

“We will all die one day. That is one of the few things we can be sure of,” Henri Nouwen wrote.

 

“But will we die well? That is less certain,” Nouwen continued.

 

“Dying well means . . . making our lives fruitful for those we leave behind. The big question . . . is . . . ‘How can I prepare myself for my death so that my life can continue to bear fruit in the generations that will follow me?’ . . . .

 

Dying can become our greatest gift if we prepare ourselves to die well.” (Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey)

 

Let’s think about what Henri said.

 

If you’re like me, you’re concerned about influences on your kids, grandkids, and great-grands—influences that lure them away from your best hopes and dreams and prayers for them. Away from God’s best for them.

 

Less-than-stellar influencers bombard young people, enticing them to live and believe in ways that could diminish them morally, spiritually, personally, mentally, and relationally.

 

Today’s kids are listening to the stories of movie stars, athletes, singers, podcasters, comedians, the press, educators, politicians, authors, friends, and paranormal characters in books and movies.

 

If you worry about the stories your kids, grandkids, and great-grands listen to, how about telling them your stories?

 

There’s a good reason the Bible is full of stories. There’s a reason Jesus told parables.

 

Never doubt the power of stories!

 

Kathy Edens writes,

“Research proves that stories and anecdotes

help people retain information better.

Forbes reported most people only remember

about 5-10% of statistics you cite.

But when you accompany your stats with a story,

the retention rate bounces up to 65-70%.

 

Wow! Did you know that? That’s impressive. Read that again!

 

That means that if you want to teach your grandkids the importance of telling the truth, you can tell them, “It’s important to always tell the truth, and you can get yourself into tons of trouble if you lie,” but your words will probably go in one ear and out the other.

 

OR, you can tell them a story

a story of how you, or someone you know,

learned the importance of honesty,

and the consequences of dishonesty.

 

Your stories can teach your kids, grandkids, and great-grands many important things—about keeping a commitment, being faithful, working hard, being kind.

 

Your stories can teach them to handle tragedies with tenacity and faith.

 

Your stories can help them choose courage over fear, generosity over stinginess, compassion over meanness, thankfulness over ingratitude, and so much more.  

 

 “The world’s greatest wisdom passes through stories,” writes Kathy Edens.

 

Think about what Kathy says:

The world’s greatest wisdom

can flow through your stories!

 

There’s a good reason Jesus said,

Go tell your family everything God has done for you.”

(Luke 8:39)

 

Remember what Henri Nouwen said: We need to prepare ourselves so that after we die, our lives, experiences, and faith will continue to bear fruit for future generations.

 

Dying can become our greatest gift if we prepare ourselves to die well.” (Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey)

 

That means you need to tell your stories!

 

There you have it, your Tuesday Tidbit.