“Maybe you don’t think of yourself as a part of the sweep of history. Think again.”

 

“Maybe you don’t think of yourself as a part of the sweep of history. Think again.” So says Biff Barnes.

 

You are a witness to history.

 

Good details in your memoir about the history you experienced can make all the difference in whether you draw readers into your story. To pull them in is a must.

 

Think back.

Do you remember reading a book in which

you were in the story with its writer?

You tasted what he tasted. You smelled what she smelled.

You saw events he witnessed. You heard sounds she heard.

You felt the pain or textures or temperatures he felt.

We call those sensory details.

 

Think back again.

Have you ever read a book

that kept you at a distance—

a story that made you feel like an observer

on the outside, unable to get in?

 

If so, then you know how much richer it is

for a reader to live inside a story.

 

That’s what you want to do for your readers—

write your memoir so they get “zipped into your skin,”

in the words of memoirist Mary Karr.

 

You can “zip readers in” by including historical details of the era. To establish your story’s historical backdrop, the following details help create a sense of place and time:

• prominent values/philosophies
• that time period’s passions and culture
• the nation’s or culture’s major turning points (the Iraq war, for example)
• the place’s and era’s economic conditions
• health concerns during that period (polio, for example)
• scientific, technological, and medical advances
• political climate
• the nation’s struggles or victories
• major stories in the news
• and so on.

 

By age 25, I had witnessed Sputnik, rock ‘n’ roll, the Cuban Missile Crisis, JFK’s death, the Beatles, Dr. Martin Luther King’s death, the hippie era, the feminist movement, humankind’s first walk on the moon, and the Vietnam war. They all influenced and shaped me.

 

What history-making events influenced and shaped you?

 

Make a list.

 

Then ask yourself: Did one or more of them

• send your life in a different direction than you expected?
• lead you to change your college major? your professional career?
• change your faith in God?
• break your heart?
• introduce you to your spouse?
• destroy your home or life savings?
• cause you to relocate?
• make you wealthy?

 

Here’s another question: How did you influence and shape history? Take to heart what  Biff Barnes said: You have been “a part of the sweep of history.” What roles did you play in history-making events? Perhaps you played a small role, or maybe you played a prominent role.

 

I’m eager to tell you about a fun tool you can use to enhance your story’s historical context: Check out a website from The Atlantic called Life Timeline.

 

When you enter your birthdate, you’ll see a list of historical events that occurred during your lifetime, and you’ll find links to articles about those events. Enjoy this fun tool to enhance the vibrancy and power of your memoir and to create a story your readers can experience along with you.

 

Your memoir needs a book dedication

 

Question #1: Do you know who you’re writing your memoir for?

 

If you’re still early in the process of writing, you might not know who you’re writing it for.

 

If that sounds like you, Biff Barnes at Stories to Tell explains why it’s important to ask yourself: “Who am I writing my book for?” and “Why are those people special to me?”

 

Biff says that knowing your audience will help you pin down your voice, your tone, your vocabulary, what stories to include, and how to shape your book. (Click on “Memoir or Family History.”)

 

Question #2 (which is related to Question #1): Do you know what a book dedication is?

 

The dedication appears on one of the first few pages of a book and often begins with “For” or “I dedicate this book to” followed by names of people for whom you’ve written your memoir.

 

So, tie #1 to #2 and there you have it: Besides all the reasons Biff listed above, you need to know who you’re writing your book for so you can write your memoir’s dedication.

 

Even in the early stages of writing your story, compose a rough draft of your dedication, knowing you can revise it later, just before you publish.

 

A word of caution: Don’t confuse a book’s dedication with your acknowledgments page. Lucille Zimmerman at WordServe Water Cooler says the book dedication is not “the acknowledgments page where you thank everyone who ever helped you” write, revise, edit, and publish your story,  but rather it’s “that mostly blank page tucked in the beginning of a book, after the title page and publishing credits.”

 

Lucille is fascinated with book dedications. Her blog post, 7 Ways to Do Book Dedications, includes charming examples for you.

 

A book dedication should be personal. Joseph C. Kunz, Jr., emphasizes the emotional connection a book dedication can create and writes, “Whether your book’s dedication is only a few sentences or an entire paragraph, you shouldn’t miss this opportunity to give the reader a small look into your life’s story.” Click here to read his post, Book Dedications to Spur Your Imagination, which includes a dozen examples.

 

Study dedications in books you have on your shelves, or go to the library, or check out the “Look inside” feature on Amazon.com. These will give you added inspiration.

 

When it comes time to craft your final version of your memoir’s dedication, keep this in mind: It doesn’t have to be dull and formal. Get creative. Give your dedication some charisma, some pizzazz. And have fun!

 

Also consider including an epigram below your dedication. An epigram is a concise statement that illuminates or summarizes your message. If used following a dedication, an epigram helps make your dedication relatable and memorable. It can even make your readers curious.

 

An epigram can be a parable, a proverb, a quotation, a Bible passage, or something clever. It can be a line from a poem, an adage, a maxim, a witticism, a precept, or a prayer.

 

Here are a few examples of epigrams:

 

“The Masaai have a saying, Meata nkerai lopeny: A child is not owned by one person.”

 

“Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping . . . will return with songs of joy” (Psalm 126:5-6).

 

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

So, craft a dedication for your memoir.

Make it special.

Create a dedication with grace and charm and wit.

 

Send us your Christmas stories

Have you written a story about Christmas for your memoir?

If so, send me your Christmas vignette by December 10 and I’ll select one or more to publish here.

Spiff up your rough draft (or start writing it), keeping in mind the definition of memoir (click on What memoir is: Back to basics).

Remember, in writing memoir we go beyond digging up memories. Within our memories, we peel back layers to discover what was going on under the surface. Search for overlooked significance. We work to make sense of what God was doing in and for and through us, and others, at the time—and what it all meant.

“Rather than simply telling a story from her life,

the memoirist both tells the story

and muses upon it,

trying to unravel what it means

in the light of her current knowledge. . . .

The contemporary memoir includes retrospection

as an essential part of the story.

Your reader [is] interested in how you now,

looking back on it,

understand it.”

(Judith Barrington, Writing Memoir)

“The author must impose a coherence

on events he chooses to include

that may not have been present as he lived them. . . .

It’s that selectivity that transforms a memoir

from a report to a reflection

which gives meaning to the events

which might not have been evident to the author

as she lived them.”

(The Author’s DualRole in a Memoir, by Biff Barnes)

  

Capture sweet moments, hilarious events, personality quirks, tragic loss, courageous decisions, integrity, tenacity, or high adventure—all make for great reading.

Helpful tips:

Character development: Each person is complex. Develop your main characters’ shortcomings, redeeming qualities, beliefs, prejudices, body language, tone of voice, attitudes, and quirks.

Was he sentimental or no-nonsense? Comical or dour? Consistent or inconsistent? Gentle or gruff? Did she stand tall or did she slouch? Was he optimistic or pessimistic? Did she stress the importance of table manners? What else was important to him?

picture in public domain

Emotions: Incorporate emotions—about happy, joyful events as well as scary things and grief. Not all stories have happy beginnings or endings.

Allow readers inside your heart and mind.

Include your thoughts—even your struggles—to understand what was happening. Write of your delights as well as your doubts. Ask questions even if you have no answers.

You’ll find tips from Method Writing and from Kathleen Pooler’s post, Evoking Emotions: The power of Sensory Detail in Storytelling.

Also bring in adventure and humor where you can. Click on How to Add Humor to a Sad Memoir, Lisa Romeo’s post about how, why, and where to include humor in a sad memoir.

Sensory details: If you want readers to enjoy your stories, you must include sensory details. Invite them to see, hear, feel, taste, and smell what you experienced so they can enter your story with you.

Don’t miss our earlier posts, December’s Details for Your Memoir as well as Details: A must for your memoir. They’re packed with resources for you.

Your opening: A story’s beginning can make it or break it. It can invite readers in—or send them away. Most writers experiment with many openings before they get just the right one. Spend lots of time on your opening. Some don’t even try to write it until they’ve finished the main body of the story.

Check out these helpful links about writing your vignette’s opening.  (Keep in mind these posts are about crafting the opening of an entire memoir, but they also apply to the opening of chapters/vignettes.)

Links:

Does your beginning pass the test? 

Does your opening make your story a must-read?

Your memoir’s opening—like a Baked Alaska? 

If you don’t get this right, you’ll lose readers

Why should you wait to write your opening?  

People will examine your opening  

I gave the famous author two days to convince me to read her book  

Write your story well  

Spotting major flaws in your opening 

Important: Click on this link to look at

• the importance of creating a sense of place, and
• crafting your story's ending.

Please submit a vignette that

has not been published before, or

 is a story you published in the past 

and it’s copyrighted in your name.

Aim at writing 1000 words or less in a Word document sent as an attachment to LindaKThomasAuthor [at] gmail [dot] com. (Replace [at] with @ and replace [dot] with a period, scrunch everything together, and your email should reach me.) Please write “Christmas vignette for SM 101” in the subject line so I’ll know it’s not spam. Thanks.

Ready, set, go!

Send me your Christmas stories

Have you written a story about Christmas for your memoir?

If so, Gentle Readers, send me your Christmas vignettes between now and December 10 and I’ll select one or more to publish here.

Spiff up your rough draft (or start writing it), keeping in mind the definition of memoir (click on What memoir is: Back to basics).

Here in SM 101, we go beyond digging up memories. Within our memories, we peel back layers to discover what was going on under the surface. Search for overlooked significance. We work to make sense of what God was doing in and for and through us, and others, at the time—and what it all meant.

“Rather than simply telling a story from her life,

the memoirist both tells the story

and muses upon it,

trying to unravel what it means

in the light of her current knowledge. . . .

The contemporary memoir includes retrospection

as an essential part of the story.

Your reader [is] interested in how you now,

looking back on it,

understand it.”

(Judith Barrington, Writing Memoir)

“The author must impose a coherence

on events he chooses to include

that may not have been present as he lived them. . . .

It’s that selectivity that transforms a memoir

from a report to a reflection

which gives meaning to the events

which might not have been evident to the author

as she lived them.”

(The Author’s Dual Role in a Memoir, by Biff Barnes)

  

Capture sweet moments, hilarious events, personality quirks, tragic loss, courageous decisions, integrity, tenacity, or high adventure—all make for great reading.

Helpful tips:

Character development: Each person is complex. Develop your main characters’ shortcomings, redeeming qualities, beliefs, prejudices, body language, tone of voice, attitudes, and quirks.

Was he sentimental or no-nonsense? Comical or dour? Consistent or inconsistent? Gentle or gruff? Did she stand tall or did she slouch? Was he optimistic or pessimistic? Did she stress the importance of table manners? What else was important to him?

Emotions: Incorporate emotions—about happy, joyful events as well as scary things and grief. Not all stories have happy beginnings or endings.

Allow readers inside your heart and mind.

Include your thoughts—even your struggles—to understand what was happening. Write of your delights as well as your doubts. Ask questions even if you have no answers.

You’ll find tips from Method Writing and from Kathleen Pooler’s post, Evoking Emotions: The power of Sensory Detail in Storytelling.

Also bring in adventure and humor where you can. Click on How to Add Humor to a Sad Memoir, Lisa Romeo’s post about how, why, and where to include humor in a sad memoir.

Sensory details: If you want readers to enjoy your stories, you must include sensory details. Invite them to see, hear, feel, taste, and smell what you experienced so they can enter your story with you.

Don’t miss our earlier posts, Your Memoir's December Details, as well as Details: A must for your memoir. They're packed with resources for you.

Your opening: A story’s beginning can make it or break it. It can invite readers in—or send them away. Most writers experiment with many openings before they get just the right one. Spend lots of time on your opening. Some don’t even try to write it until they’ve finished the main body of the story.

Check out these helpful links about writing your vignette’s opening.  (Keep in mind these posts are about crafting the opening of an entire memoir, but they also apply to the opening of chapters/vignettes like you’re writing.)

Links about openings:

Does your beginning pass the test? 

Does your opening make your story a must-read?

Your memoir’s opening—like a Baked Alaska? 

If you don’t get this right, you’ll lose readers

Why should you wait to write your opening?  

People will examine your opening  

I gave the famous author two days to convince me to read her book  

Write your story well 

Spotting major flaws in your opening 

For now, go ahead and work on your rough draft. But come back next week when we’ll look at

• the importance of creating a sense of place, and
• crafting your story’s ending.

Here’s something to keep in mind for the future:

Please submit a vignette that

• has not been published before, or
• is a story you published in the past and it’s copyrighted in your name.

Aim at writing 1000 words or less in a Word document sent as an attachment to LindaKThomasAuthor [at] gmail [dot] com. (Replace [at] with @ and replace [dot] with a period, scrunch everything together, and your email should reach me.) Please write “Christmas vignette for SM 101” in the subject line so I’ll know it’s not spam. Thanks.

Ready, set, go!

P.S. Remember to come back next week

for tips on developing a sense of place for your story

as well as writing its ending.

Send us your stories about mothers and motherhood

Have you written stories about your mother in your memoir? If she died young, did another woman step in to mother you—perhaps an older sister, aunt, stepmother, or grandparent? Do you have a special relationship with your mother-in-law?

Maybe your entire memoir is about that significant mother-figure, or possibly you include short vignettes about her here and there.

Or maybe you’ve written about your life as a new mother, empty-nest mother, stepmother, grandmother, or great-grandmother.

Sweet moments, 

     hilarious events, 

          personality quirks, 

               tragic loss, 

                    courageous decisions, 

                         integrity, 

                              tenacity, 

                                   or high adventure

                                        —all make for great reading.

Here’s an opportunity for you:

Send us one of your vignettes! I’ll share one or more here on SM 101.

For now, spiff up your rough draft. Strive for clarity, fix typos, and make your sentences sing.

Go deep. Go beyond mere memories. Reflect: Look under the surface. Search for overlooked significance. What was God doing at the time? Mine those gems!

“ … The author must impost a coherence

on events he chooses to include

that may not have been present as he lived them….

It’s that selectivity that transforms a memoir

from a report to a reflection

which gives meaning to the events

which might not have been evident to the author

as she lived them.”

(The Author’s Dual Role in Memoir, Biff Barnes)

Write about your delights as well as your doubts. Ask questions even if you have no answers. Include your thoughts—even your struggles—concerning your mother, yourself, and what was happening.

Explore. Untangle. What did you learn about yourself? About mothers? Motherhood? God?

“As memoir writers,” Dr. Linda Joy Myers writes, “we are trying to find a perspective, even forgiveness and compassion, for ourselves and others as we write our stories.”

Helpful Tips:

Click here to review the definition of memoir.

Character development

Each person is complex. Develop your character’s shortcomings, redeeming qualities, beliefs, prejudices, body language, tone of voice, attitudes, and quirks.

Was she sentimental or no-nonsense? Hilarious or dour? Consistent or inconsistent? Gentle or gruff? Did she stand tall or did she slouch? Was she optimistic or pessimistic? Did she stress the importance of table manners? What else was important to her?

Emotions

Incorporate emotions—about both happy, joyful events as well as scary things and grief—not all stories have happy endings.

Bring in adventure and humor where you can. Click on How to Add Humor to a Sad Memoir, Lisa Romeo’s post about how, why, and where to include humor in a sad memoir.

Our earlier post, Method Writing, is a must-read for writing about emotions.

Sensory details

If you want readers to enjoy your stories, you must include sensory details. Invite them to see, hear, feel, taste, and smell what you experienced so they can enter your experience with you.

Don’t miss our earlier post, Details: A must for your memoir. It’s packed with resources for you.

Your opening

A story’s beginning can make it or break it. It can invite readers in—or send them away. Most writers experiment with many openings before they get just the right one. Some don’t even try to write it until they’ve finished the main body of the story.

Helpful links:

Leads, Part 1

Leads, Part 2

Leads, Part 3

Leads, Part 4

Your ending

Pay attention to your story's or your vignette’s conclusion. A weak ending can make a story fall short of its potential impact, but a strong one makes a memoir shine.

Helpful links:

The beauty of memoir: Your vignettes’ strong endings

Maximize the power of your vignettes’ endings

Ready, set, go!

Polish one of your vignettes (let’s say up to 1000 words in length) and send it to us. We’ll publish one or more soon. We’ll give you our email address if you leave a comment below, or on SM 101’s Facebook Page, or send a private message.

Happy writing!

Fun historical resources for writing about YOUR life

Good details can make all the difference in whether you draw readers into your story—and pull them in you must.

Think back: Do you remember reading a book in which you felt you were in the story with its writer? You tasted what he tasted. You smelled odors she smelled. You saw events he witnessed. You heard sounds she heard. You felt the textures or temperatures he felt. We call those sensory details.

But if you’ve ever read a book that kept you at a distance—a story that made you feel like an observer on the outside, unable to get in—then you know how much richer it is for a reader to live inside a story.

That’s what you want to do for your readers—write your memoir so they get “zipped into your skin,” says memoirist Mary Karr.

You can also zip readers in by including historical details of the era. Besides establishing your story’s historical backdrop, such details help create a sense of place and time—

• prominent values/philosophies
• that time period’s passions and culture
• the nation’s or culture’s major turning points (Pearl Harbor)
• the place’s and era’s economic conditions
• scientific, technological, and medical advances
• political leanings
• the nation’s struggles or victories
• major stories in the news, and so on.

You are a witness to history. So am I. By age 25, I’d witnessed man’s first walk on the moon, Sputnik, JFK’s death, the Civil Rights Movement, rock ‘n’ roll, the Beatles, the hippie era, the feminist movement, and the Vietnam War. They all influenced me and shaped me.

Your historical setting influenced and shaped you, too.

And have you ever thought of this? You influenced and shaped history, sometimes in small ways, sometimes in big ways. Like Biff Barnes said, you are “part of the sweep of history.” Don’t overlook roles you played in molding and sculpting history.

Let me tell you about a fun tool you can use to enhance your story’s historical context:

Check out a website from The Atlantic called Life Timeline.

When you enter your birthday, you’ll see a list of historical events that occurred during your lifetime. And you’ll find links to articles about that event.

Use this fun tool to enhance the vibrancy and power of your memoir.

But wait! I have more for you—another way to enhance your story’s historical context. Have you created word lexicons? Word lexicons = collections of words and phrases.

In her delightful book, The Writer’s Portable Mentor, Priscilla Long describes the enjoyment and value of word lexicons. Especially significant are word lexicons that pertain to a specific piece—your memoir, for example.

Priscilla can tell by reading a person’s writing whether he or she collected words and phrases—what she calls The Lexicon Practice.

“Writers who do the Lexicon Practice have left in the dust what I call ‘conventional received diction.’ Writers who don’t do it . . . are pretty much stuck with television words, newspaper words, cereal-box words.”

Priscilla, a writing instructor at the University of Washington and a widely published author, collected words from her childhood for a collection of stories she planned to write: “greenbriar, dirt road, Neil Lindsey’s pig, 4-H Club… calf barn, gutter, manure pile, manure spreader, marsh grass….”

Each memoir—your memoir—has its own lexicon, its own unique set of words and phrases. Use them to define your story, to enrich it, to make it come alive for your readers.

Which words and phrases belong in the lexicon for your memoir?

You’ll want to compose several lexicons because, Priscilla points out, individuals have lexicons, places have lexicons, and “every craft, trade, profession, or job….”

I especially enjoy her lexicon for the Pacific Northwest, my home: “crow, Puget Sound, Steilacoom Tribe, western red cedar, Smith Tower, Emmett Watson’s Oyster Bar, Starbucks, Northwest jellyfish, geoduck (pronounced gooey duck), Stillaguamish River….” She nailed it with those words.

Now it’s your turn: Choose sensory details—details readers can smell, feel, hear, see, and taste.

Think about these possibilities for your story’s historical setting and physical location:

• iconic geographical references (rivers, mountains, deserts…)
• prominent buildings
• popular restaurants
• food trends
• lingo (“That’s a swell hot rod you have there.”)
• clothing and hair styles (poodle skirts, saddle shoes)
• popular songs
• popular hobbies/sports (hula hoops)
• specific car models
• weather
• typical sounds (birds, insects, factories, trains, children’s laughter)
• colors
• vegetation and wildlife, and so on.

Collect other words and phrases for main characters in your memoir, and professions/occupations.

Create as many lexicons as you need to enrich your memoir and draw readers into it.

If you're age 65 or older... I mean or better, you'll love Words and Phrases Remind Us of the Way We Word by Richard Lederer. And his post will give you a head start on compiling your own lexicon.

Just remember: avoid “television words, newspaper words, cereal-box words.”

Do you know what a book dedication is—and is not?

Do you know what a book dedication is—and is not?

Have you written your memoir’s dedication—or at least a rough draft? Doing so can help you write the rest of your book. (See below.)

If you haven’t penned even a rough draft of your memoir’s dedication, this blog post is for you.

The dedication often begins with “For” or “I dedicate this book to” followed by names of people for whom you have written the book. But it doesn’t have to be spare and dull: There’s room for creativity and innovation.

Lucille Zimmerman over at Wordserve Water Cooler is fascinated with book dedications. She says the book dedication is not “the acknowledgments page where you thank everyone who ever helped you” but rather it's “that mostly blank page tucked in the beginning of a book, after the title page and publishing credits.” Her blog post includes seven charming book dedications.

A book dedication should be personal. Joseph Kunz emphasizes the emotional connection a book dedication can create, and offers a dozen examples in his blog post.

Stories to Tell workshops include an exercise called “Dedication Page” in which participants answer two questions:  “Who is your book for? Why are they special to you?”

Biff Barnes explains why it’s important to answer those questions even in the process of writing your memoir:

Knowing your audience

will help you pin down your voice,

your tone, your vocabulary,

what stories to include,

and how to shape your book.

If you haven’t thought about your memoir’s dedication page, the time has come! Creating it can be a lot of fun, and even a rough draft will benefit you during your writing.

Tuesday Tidbit

Here's your 15 seconds of

inspiration and blessing

for this Tuesday:

Anchor your stories within the sweep of history.