Your epilogue tells readers what happened after your memoir’s conclusion

You completed a rough draft of your memoir’s chapters.

Next, you crafted a satisfying, memorable Grand Finale for your readers. (If you missed the last three posts on your memoir’s all-important ending, click on links below.)

Now it’s time to work on your epilogue.

The epilogue plays a different role than your story’s final chapters.  

Your final chapters should be your conclusion. An epilogue is not a conclusion. It serves as a follow-up, telling readers what happened after your memoir’s conclusion.

Readers have come to know you and your story’s main characters. They care about you and your causes and, as a result, they want to know more.

Write your epilogue as a message addressed to those readers.

Your epilogue can answer questions: “Where are they now? What are they doing now?” It can also invite them to get involved in a cause (such as a ministry or blog) by supplying information and links to get them started.

“An epilogue provides comments outside the main action

that give insight into what happened.

The main actions in the book

may take place in one period

and the reader will want to know

what happened afterward.

That kind of follow-up

could appear in an epilogue.”

(Writers and Editors)

That’s what my new memoir’s epilogue did. Please, God, Don’t Make Me Go ended when my husband and kids and I left South America and returned to the States, but within the main body of the memoir I had written about what would take place after we left: the kidnapping and murder of our coworker, Chet Bitterman, and the kidnapping of another coworker, Ray Rising. Those were significant events I wanted readers to know about, including long-term ramifications, so I included those specifics in my epilogue.

Epilogues can serve another purpose, too. They can explain to readers what your current view is of what happened in your story.

Since writing memoir requires retrospection, examination, and piecing together past events, writers usually stumble upon key insights they missed earlier in life. Through writing, they gain a perspective that evaded them in the past. They begin to make sense of an experience or relationship.  So, you can use your epilogue to share those insights and current views with your readers.

Sharon Lippincott writes about that function of an epilogue. In her excellent The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing, she writes:

“Many stories, especially those about events when you were young, may be more valuable or meaningful to readers if you add a few thoughts at the end about how you see things now. The simplest way to handle this is to add an epilogue explaining the insight you’ve gained that has changed the way you view the situation.”

Sharon gives a couple of examples of wording to use: “I would be middle-aged before I fully comprehended that. . . .” and “Over twenty years later, he was diagnosed . . . and I finally understood . . . .”

Other useful phrases are:

• Looking back, it now occurs to me that . . . .
• I had no way to know back then that. . . .
• The way I see it now, years later. . . .
• Over the years, I’ve come to accept. . . .
• Twenty years later, I discovered. . . .
• It took me a decade to realize. . . .
• At the time, neither of us knew what was happening or why, but. . . .

Sharon Lippincott also writes about the value of sharing her current-day thoughts from an adult perspective.

She writes this about one of her vignettes, The Rocking Chair: “The main story took place when I was about sixteen. . . . Since the story recounts some typically teenage resentments of my mother, I wanted to temper the harshness of that judgment by pulling the story into the context of adult understanding. I did this in the epilogue rather than spoiling the authenticity of the memory by interjecting current thoughts into the story body.” (from The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing)

You can do what Sharon did: share your current-day thoughts in “the context of adult understanding.” Readers will appreciate that.

However you choose to write your epilogue,

create a rich experience for readers,

one that will make them glad they read your memoir.

Perhaps they’ll recommend it to others.

And maybe they’ll even write a review of your book (!!!)

on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Goodreads.

(See links below about how to submit book reviews.)

Links for how to submit book reviews:

HOW TO SUBMIT BOOK REVIEWS ON AMAZON. Be sure to check their Community Guidelines. Among other restrictions, if you haven’t spent $50 at Amazon in the past twelve months, you cannot leave a review.

HOW TO SUBMIT BOOK REVIEWS ON BARNES AND NOBLE. Click on links toward the bottom of that page.

HOW TO SUBMIT A BOOK REVIEW ON GOODREADS. 


Recent posts about your memoir's ending:

Back to basics: Your memoir's Grand Finale, Part 1
Back to basics: Your memoir's ending, Part 2
Inspiration for your memoir's all-important ending, Part 3

Your memoir’s Grand Finale, part 3

Your Grand Finale, part 1

Your Grand Finale, part 2

For the past week, we’ve focused on writing a rough draft of your memoir’s Grand Finale—even if you’re still working on the main body of your memoir.

If you missed comments left by Sherrey Meyer this past week, let me tell you what she shared: She has already crafted her finale (while she’s writing her memoir) and it’s based on 2 Corinthians 12:9 in which the Lord tells Paul, “My grace is sufficient.”

Sherrey writes: “At the end of my mother’s life what has given me immeasurable peace was the manner in which God had healed us both with His grace, His sufficiency.” (Check out Sherrey’s two blogs: Letters to Mama, and Sowing Seeds of Grace.)

Sherrey knows where she’s going because she has pinned down her ultimate message. Because she has drafted a Grand Finale, she knows her target and she’s aiming at it with each vignette she writes. (And what a grand message Sherrey has for her readers! She’s writing a celebration of God and His grace—I can hardly wait to read it!)

Do what Sherrey did and write a rough draft of your Grand Finale (rough draft because stories can take a direction you might not have envisioned at the outset. Don’t worry if, after you’ve completed the main body of your stories, your memoir’s overall message ends up slightly different from your original plan. It’s better to focus on where you think you’ll end up, rather than drift, directionless.)

Drafting a Grand Finale helps you focus on your overall goal in writing this particular memoir. It helps you stay on message and bring everything full circle.

And then, when you’ve finished the main body of your memoir, tweak and polish and finalize your Grand Finale so readers will resonate with your memoir’s significance.

“Make sure no loose ends hang from the story

that leave people wondering.

They will feel the story isn’t over.…”

You want readers to feel the story is over, to feel that:

 “The story has been told, the tension resolved,

the consequences shown.

End the story with one strong sentence

that has a feeling of finality.…”

(Craig Brian Larson, “How to Tell a Moving Story,” from The Art and Craft of Biblical Preaching, Haddon Robinson and Craig Brian Larson, General Editors)

Strive to leave your readers satisfied.

Strive to leave your readers celebrating God!

Your memoir’s Grand Finale, part 2

Saturday we began considering your memoir’s ending—your Grand Finale.

You might be saying, “But I haven’t finished writing my vignettes yet!” Let me explain:

1) Write a rough draft of your conclusion, subject to revisions, and

2) It might seem strange to work on your ending before you’ve finished the main body of your memoir—your vignettes, your stories, your chapters—but think of this:

“If you don’t know where you’re going, you might not get there.”

Yogi Berra

In other words, plan ahead. Know where you’re going with your memoir, and aim for that. Plan ahead for your memoir to end on a high note so your readers will long remember it.

How do you do that?

Well, you had a reason to start writing your memoir. What was it?

For me, it was stumbling upon Deuteronomy 4:9, “Always remember what you’ve seen God do for you, and be sure to tell your children and grandchildren!”

If you can pinpoint your reason to begin writing your memoir, you’ll have a better idea of how you want it to end.

You might want to get out a couple of sticky notes. On the first one write, “The reason I’m writing my memoir is________________” and fill in the blank.

On the second, write, “The message I want my readers to take away from my memoir is _______________” and fill in the blank, keeping in mind you probably won’t know the final version of your ending until you’ve written all your chapters and have taken time to dig deeply and discover all the gems hidden within—a crucial part of memoir.

“… The last impression

is what people remember.

Begin well, with attack and accuracy.

Drive it through.

But, whatever else,

make the end the best.

Know exactly what you are aiming for

and finish with a bang.” 

Alma Gluck

C’mon back on Saturday when we’ll examine additional considerations for your memoir’s Grand Finale.

Your memoir’s Grand Finale

Even if you’re still writing your memoir, you can begin planning your Grand Finale—your conclusion, or postscript, or epilogue. Whatever you call it, it could be the most powerful part of your memoir.

Your Grand Finale gives you an opportunity to highlight the most important points, those messages you want your readers to treasure and incorporate into their own lives.

If, like most of us here at SM 101, your memoir’s purpose is based on Bible verses like Deuteronomy 4:9—

Always remember what you’ve seen God do for you

and be sure to tell your children and grandchildren!

—then craft a Grand Finale that celebrates God in a personal way.

I have lots of ideas for your Grand Finale, but let’s start with one of the easier ways to craft your memoir’s ending: a fill-in-the-blank exercise using Psalm 136, a magnificent song of praise to God.

In the first nine verses, praise focuses on God the Creator of all:

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good.

          His love endures forever.

Give thanks to the God of gods.

          His love endures forever.

Give thanks to the Lord of lords:

          His love endures forever.

to Him who alone does great wonders,

          His love endures forever.

who by His understanding made the heavens,

          His love endures forever.

who spread out the earth upon the waters,

          His love endures forever.

who made the great lights—

His love endures forever.

the sun to govern the day,

          His love endures forever.

the moon and stars to govern the night;

          His love endures forever.

I suggest you include those first nine verses as-is because, starting with verse ten, you can customize the rest of the psalm for your family.

Here’s what I mean:

Starting with verse ten, praise focuses on God who is personally involved with His children—their families, their daily comings and goings, and the span and purposes of their lives.

For example, those next few verses praise God for bringing Israel out of Egypt, parting the Red Sea, and leading them through the desert wilderness. It then recounts the many additional ways God showed His love and faithfulness to His people, Israel.

Your customized version of Psalm 136 would look something like this, (with you filling in the blanks, below, with ways God guided your family):

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good.

          His love endures forever.

Give thanks to the God of gods.

          His love endures forever.

Give thanks to the Lord of lords:

          His love endures forever.

to Him who alone does great wonders,

          His love endures forever.

who by His understanding made the heavens,

          His love endures forever.

who spread out the earth upon the waters,

          His love endures forever.

who made the great lights—

          His love endures forever.

the sun to govern the day,

          His love endures forever.

the moon and stars to govern the night;

          His love endures forever.

_______________________________________

          His love endures forever.

_______________________________________

His love endures forever.

_______________________________________

          His love endures forever.

_______________________________________

          His love endures forever.…

…and so on.

Starting with verse ten, you might want to go back several generations, especially if, for example, your family survived the Holocaust, or the infamous Clearances in Scotland, or the potato famine in Ireland.

Your Grand Finale will likely consist of more than a paraphrase of Psalm 136, but including it can help your kids, grandkids, and other family members recognize they’re part of God’s family, part of something much bigger than themselves and their generation. 

Is there an easy way to turn non-memoir into memoir?

I’ve been telling you of new discoveries I made while reflecting on an old photo from my family’s years in South America.

In a thousand ways, that time was a most wonderful adventure—even though I confessed last week that I refused to unpack and plotted ways to run away. By Christmas, I was begging my husband to agree to stay another year. And we did. And another year after that.

The mission center was a paradise for kids: collecting butterflies and insects, chasing bulls, hunting alligators, mud sliding, fishing for piranhas that could rip out an apple-size piece of flesh in a split second, eating grubs, swimming with stingrays—what’s not for a kid to love?

And the tropical vegetation! This Seattle gal lived surrounded by plants I knew from only florist shops back home: hibiscus, orchids, gardenias. Before moving to South America, a gardenia, to me, was a very special corsage for a very special date, but down there, I had a gardenia hedge! An entire hedge of gardenias—gardenias by the hundreds, gardenias by the thousands! Heavenly.

And the people we worked alongside—courageous, funny, tenacious, brilliant, friendly, creative, fun-loving, and the most dedicated you could ever find. We made life-long friends there.

For my kids, I’ve already assembled, in three-ring binders, a couple hundred pages of letters I wrote home—but that photo I ran across recently.…

That old photo of Matt, Karen, Glenny, and Ray made me lurch. It shook the earth under my feet.

That snapshot is begging me not to be content with just the historical facts. It’s urging me to tell a bigger, broader story, one I had previously overlooked like an elephant in the room. 

That photo pointed out a theme (an important part of memoir) that was there all along—it was a given in the back of my mind all these years—but I had not put it in writing.

Remember the definition of memoir—it includes reflection and inspection and digging for deeper meaning: What was the big picture? What was happening on a larger scale, and on a smaller scale? What was God doing? How did it make us who we are today?

Now I need—and want—to turn those pages of non-memoir into memoir.

But how much time and effort do I want to put into the project? That question has been nagging me for the past couple of weeks.

Do I want to start again from scratch?

No. No I don’t.

So I’ve been asking myself: Is there an easy way to turn non-memoir into memoir?

Yes, perhaps.

What if I included that new info in an Introduction and an Epilogue?

In the Intro, I could foreshadow our family’s and colleagues’ theme (guerrilla threats and attacks). I could write about receiving a telex, just as we were ready to fly out of the States, telling us to delay our arrival by ten days because our facility had been bombed. And I could tell about the next bomb threat a few days later, and additional threats—bombings and more—received after that. 

The Epilogue could include Chet’s, Ray’s, and Norm’s stories and the closure of the mission center (since they all occurred after we returned to the States). (If you missed earlier blog posts, click on Sometimes you think a story is completed and all wrapped up. But then.… and Sometimes you think a story is completed, Part 2.)  

The Epilogue, however, could do more. I want it to do more.

The Epilogue could emphasize the bigger victory: that the guerrillas did not win even though they took Chet’s life.

“The guerrillas had intended to oust the [Bible] translators; instead they entrenched them. Almost a decade of negative press gave way to supportive editorials,” wrote author Steve Estes in Called to Die. After Chet’s death, Estes said, the Bible translators “basked in the effusive support that followed from President Turbay on down.”

The work of Bible translation flourished in jaw-dropping ways no one could have anticipated. Across the U.S., people signed up to fill the gap created by Chet’s death: Wycliffe Bible Translators saw applications double for overseas work.

I want my kids to know about the uncommon faith of their neighbors and their classmates’ parents and about the God they served. I want my grandkids to know, too.

I want both the Intro and the Epilogue, and everything between, to be celebrations of God. 

So, what do you think? Could I accomplish all that by adding an Introduction and Epilogue?

And what about you? Look over your photos. Re-read your vignettes and your chapters. Don’t settle for mere historical facts.

Maybe you, too, “think a story is completed and all wrapped up. But then, decades later, something happens and you realize that it’s not done yet, it’s still in process” (Rabbi Lawrence Kushner).  

If so, I have a message for you from Sharon Lippincott: “You don’t have to write an entire memoir. Vignettes and essays are enough to answer questions in years to come.” 

Give it a try. See if it works.