People will read
your memoir for its takeaways.
What’s a takeaway?
It’s a gem you
unearthed that provided you with clarity and helped make sense of your life—a
universal truth you discovered—which you offer to your readers.
Takeaways are what
readers “take away” from your memoir, the important lessons they’ll carry with
them after they’ve read the last page and closed the back cover.
When a reader
stumbles upon a takeaway, a meaningful sentence or two that speaks to something
deep inside, he will pause to think, to re-read the words, slowly. He might underline
the passage. Or maybe highlight it. Or write notes in the margin.
So how do you create
a takeaway?
Think back. At some
point you had an A-ha moment and a light came on. Puzzle pieces began falling into place. You were
not the same person after that.
That’s good, that’s
exciting. Such discoveries can be defining moments, life-changers—but go beyond
that. Share the benefits of that experience with your readers by crafting a
takeaway. Offer them their own A-ha moment.
In other words, in a
concise way give words to the principle you learned—think of the takeaway as a
precept, a moral, a proverb, a saying, a guideline, an adage—something readers
can live by, a principle that can be life-changing for them, too.
Use your takeaway to
offer readers hope,
or wisdom,
or courage,
or laughter,
or a solution,
or a new way of living
or loving.
You, the writer, encounter
such precepts—such truths to live by—through epignosis. To gnosis (compared to
epignosis) is to have head knowledge of something, but to epignosis something
is to know it from experience. (Read my earlier post about epignosis: Understanding epignosis can help you write your memoir.)
Your takeaways,
then, communicate to your readers: “I know this is true because I have experienced
it, I have lived it. It changed my life. Perhaps it will change your life, too.”
Where do you put takeaways
in your memoir?
“Takeaway happens
within a reflection,” point out Brooke Warner and Dr. Linda Joy Myers. (If you
missed our recent blog post about the importance of reflection in memoir, click
on Reflection and the words we use.)
“Takeaway can be a
reflection, but not all reflection is takeaway,” they continue. “… [W]herever
there is reflection, there is an opportunity for a takeaway, but that doesn’t
mean that necessarily all reflections are going to be takeaways.”
In other words,
takeaways accompany segments in your memoir in which you reflect. You will
probably have a number of reflections throughout your memoir. Some if not all
of them will be opportunities for you to include a takeaway for your readers.
Avoid Christianese—jargon
that might be distasteful to readers, or lingo that might hinder your readers’ understanding. For example, resist using phrases such as “I’ve
been washed in the blood of the Lamb.” Instead, use everyday language to make
your point.
And don’t beat
around the bush! Pinpoint your message. Clarity is your goal. (Please, please,
read my blog post about writers who circle all around The Point but never state
The Point. Click on What’s the point?)
Dedicate quality
time to crafting your takeaways. Specify what was the most important message or
lesson you took away from that experience (the one you’re reflecting on). Boil
it down, write a concise message for your readers.
Here are two examples:
“We find by losing.
We hold fast by letting go. We become something new by ceasing to be something old.”
(Frederick Buechner)
“Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the ed of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow.’” (Mary Anne Racmacher)
Most memoirists scatter
takeaways throughout their memoirs. If you have a conclusion, a post script, or
an epilogue in your memoir, reiterate your most important takeaways in them,
too.
Your takeaways are
the most powerful part of your memoir—
they’re packed with
punch.
They’re the part of
your memoir that
makes a difference
in people’s lives.
At first your
takeaways will resemble diamonds-in-the-rough. Your job is to cut and polish
and make those gems sparkle. Doing so adds to their value for both you and your
readers.
