Back to Basics: Your memoir’s all-important story arc

 

“When I began work on my memoir . . . I didn’t know a thing about arcs,” writes author Adair Lara.

 

“I thought, I lived this story. I’ll just write it down the way it happened. . . .

 

“It was as if I decided to build a house and just started nailing together boards without giving a thought to blueprints. I put up some strange-looking houses that way, in the form of inert drafts filled with pointless scenes.

 

“I would have saved myself a lot of time if I had drawn an arc.”

 

Adair admits, “Back then, I hadn’t even heard of an arc.”

 

Maybe you haven’t heard of a story arc either, so let’s get started.

 

To give you a good grasp of a story’s arc,

first you’ll need to understand the basics of story.

 

Memoirs read like novels (but unlike novels, they are true accounts). Jon Franklin (Writing for Story) explains: “A story consists of a sequence of actions that occur when a sympathetic character encounters a complicating situation that he confronts and solves.”

Franklin says, in other words, that a quality story “will consist of a real person who is confronted with a significant problem, who struggles diligently to solve that problem, and who ultimately succeeds—and in doing so becomes a different character.”

“The main character . . . —in a memoir it’s you!—is changed significantly by events, actions, decisions, and epiphanies. The growth and change of the main character is imperative in any story, and is the primary reason a memoir is written—to show the arc of character change from beginning to end” (Dr. Linda Joy Myers).

 

The story arc is like a thread, a path from beginning to end.

It carries the memoirist and the reader:

From the BEGINNING,

to the MIDDLE,

to the END of the story.

 

Today we’ll concentrate on only your memoir’s BEGINNING, in which you’ll tell readers about something you wanted or needed and the obstacle that was hindering you.

 

Take in Diane Butts’ words here:

 

“A story needs a main character who wants something. . . . This want gives forward motion to the story. There also needs to be something that prevents your main character from getting what they want. This creates conflict. . . .

 

“A story needs to have conflict,” Diane writes. “No conflict = no story. If there is no conflict, then it’s just a list of facts. . . .  Conflict [is] something that needs to be dealt with, a problem that needs to be overcome. . . .

 

“A story starts by showing the main character’s ordinary world—things as they are before any conflict happens. Then something happens that changes the ordinary world and sets the story in motion. That incident incites the story” (Diane Butts).

 

So, are you ready? Let’s go!

 

In your memoir’s beginning, introduce yourself to your readers and tell them, specifically, what you wanted or needed or planned or dreamed—but you also tell them about a problem or a challenge that surfaced and threatened to mess everything up.

 

Perhaps you were hit with a financial setback, a mental health issue, a spiritual need, or a relationship struggle.

 

Maybe something or someone threatened to undo your career or destroy your reputation.

 

Maybe, like me, you married a person who longed to live a nontraditional, adventuresome life, but all you wanted was a conventional life that didn’t require you to be courageous and daring.

 

Pinpoint your obstacle. That’s what must change. Make it clear to your readers what you wanted or needed or longed for, and how that was hindered or threatened.

 

Ask yourself:

What set my story in motion? What was the inciting incident?

What was it that I wanted?—wanted to accomplish? to be?

to solve? learn? overcome? discover? escape?

What kept me from getting what I wanted/needed?

What was the challenge, the obstacle?

To achieve my goal, what needed to change?

 

If you haven’t already started writing your memoir, begin today. Don’t be too hard on yourself. This will be your rough draft—for your eyes only. You will no doubt revise it several times. Just get started!

 

If you’ve already started your rough draft, make revisions according to today’s information. (Revising is not punishment! It’s how you polish your memoir and make it shine.)

 

Next week we’ll look at your memoir’s MIDDLE and its ENDING.