Shallow, hollow, dull, and bland are out!

At a rummage sale, I discovered a book about Eleanor Roosevelt and her husband, Franklin, and I snatched it up before anyone else discovered it. With a grin, I plunked down my money.

I was eager to know more about that remarkable lady so I hurried home and curled up with it, thick and heavy, anticipating a delightful read.

The book was anything but delightful, however. My eagerness turned to disappointment, and disappointment turned to dislike. After an hour, I quit.

A few days later I gave that book a second chance: I forced myself to read but, after a few minutes, I closed it with that same disinterest.

That book lacked appeal, it lacked charm, it lacked personality, it lacked life. It contained page after page of dry, dull facts.

The lesson for all of us: Let’s give our stories’ characters life.

Recently I suggested that summer might be a good time to take a break from writing so you can revise vignettes you’ve already written.

We covered clarity on June 23, and today we’ll look at the people in your stories.

How do we craft multidimensional characters?

We use details to describe our stories’ main people.

Let’s start with their quirks, their idiosyncrasies, their oddities.

I was tempted to give examples by telling you about friends’ or relatives’ eccentricities but instead, I’ll poke fun at myself.

Recently someone pointed out that I slurp my coffee. Then someone pointed out my husband and my kids slurp their coffee. My brother slurps his coffee. This slurping has gone on for generations but we weren’t aware of it. Our habit drives family newcomers nuts.

My daughter teases me for never remembering a joke’s punch line. The family cracks up just watching me try to remember it.

My husband ribs me because, he says, I sneeze like a horse.

And I learned this tidbit a few days ago: “Linda has this funny way of gasping when she sees something funny, or scary, or sad, or amusing, or interesting, or dangerous, or boring. I often think something is about to fall on my head.” I had no idea.

I also learned that after impressionable young people hang out with me for a few days, they start to gasp, too. I had no idea.

OK, so there you have it: some of my quirks. I hope they give you ideas for capturing uniqueness in your stories’ characters.

Include body language, gestures, and mannerisms.

Slip in their habits, their education, their likes and dislikes.

Was his career also his passion? Or did he work at a job to feed and clothe his kids and seek his passion on weekends and evenings?

What were her talents, hobbies, pastimes, dreams, and hopes for the future?

What were his values, beliefs, political leanings, and philosophies?

Use dialog to capture words she often used, the way she put words together in a sentence, and her tone of voice.

When you describe your main characters, use all five senses: Let readers see, smell, hear, feel, and taste what you experienced.

Let no cardboard characters creep around in your memoir. 

Shallow, hollow, dull, and bland are out!

Charm, fascination, and entertainment are in!

For inspiration and smiles, I recommend Connie Schultz’s vignette that ran in Sunday’s Parade magazine; click on It’s a Wonderful Life. 

Always remember Donald Murray’s words: “Revision is not punishment.”

Revision is your opportunity to polish your manuscript and make it shine.

Saturday Snippet: What sights will readers see in your memoir?

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You want people to read your memoir. After all the effort you put into writing it, you want them to read it all the way to the end.


Here’s one way to encourage that: Include details so readers experience the story with you.


Wednesday I suggested adding details to your rough drafts, concentrating on sights—describing your vignette’s setting, its surrounding, its scenery. Write so readers can see the place as if they’re standing beside you.

Recently I ran across a good example at Ann Kroeker’s blog, Ann Kroeker. Writer. She captured the following childhood memories of spending a week with her grandmother each summer: 


… I loved waking up in the front bedroom under fresh sheets spread neatly on the big double bed, a loosely woven purple cotton blanket folded back. In the narrow, horizontal window, she displayed a collection of colored glass bottles. Light streamed in through the colors, morning magic. I blinked myself awake, rested and safe.


In my memory I can still walk through every room, from the baker’s cabinet in the corner of the kitchen to the day bed along the dining room wall; from the collection of gardening books on shelves in the living room, to the glass jar of leftover yarn balls sitting next to a chair in Grandma’s bedroom. It’s all still here, inside me.


I can still wander out the screen door and hear the spring stretch the wooden frame shut with a solid “thunk.” Under the grape arbor, I pluck a Concord grape, manipulating the skin off with my teeth to suck the sweet, cool insides and chew the sour skins before spitting them out. In my mind, Baby’s Breath still blooms white behind the garage and orange day lilies line the side of the house. For a while, my grandma made rag rugs on a loom that she set up on a small porch. I can see its threads and recall how the shuttle slipped across to bind the strips of cloth.”

Used by permission from Ann Kroeker,

http://annkroeker.com/2011/06/01/curiosity-journal-june-1-2011/#more-12650

Lynn Hopper photo

Did you feel like you were there beside Ann, moseying through her grandmother’s home? I did!

Ann included other sensory details, too: sound, taste, and feel. Nice work, Ann! Thanks for showing us around your grandmother’s place.

This week, I encourage you to start at least one new vignette. Review each story and add sensory details. Invite readers to experience your story alongside you.

Your story is important, but will anyone read it?

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Welcome to new followers on the blog and Facebook:

Betty, Judi, Baboo, and Amanda.

You know your stories are important. (If you’re not convinced, look at that Bible verse way up at the top, and go back and read Are your stories important? at http://spiritualmemoirs101.blogspot.com/2011/05/are-your-stories-important.html)


You have God-and-you stories that only you can tell, and your children and grandchildren need to hear them.


Yes, it’s true: Your stories are important. But will anyone read them?

Nowadays potential readers have many distractions: texting, Facebook, smartphones, movies, sports, TV, magazines, iPods, Blackberries, MP3 players, the Internet, hobbies, and thousands of books besides yours.


All these, and more, compete against your memoir.


Two decades ago, Peter Jacobi wrote one brief sentence I’ve always remembered:

“No story has a divine right to be read.”

As important as your stories are, you cannot force anyone to read them.


Jacobi wrote:


“Unfortunately, as a writer … I cannot try what author Anthony Burgess did when he was ‘teaching Shakespeare at City College … at 8:00 a.m.’ He explains, ‘I decided to teach them something about how Shakespeare was educated. I began to write three lines of Seneca in Latin on the blackboard to show where Shakespeare learned about rhythm, and they started to walk out. Well, I wasn’t going to let them get away. I rushed to the door and locked it, saying, “You’re going to learn these … lines of Latin whether you like it or not.” ’”
(http://www.cramco.com/index.php/blog/page/3)


You can’t lock your “audience” in and force them to read your stories.


Because people are busy, they’ll spend time on only what promises to be worth their invested effort.


That means your stories must be more intriguing than all those distractions and choices before them.


How many times have you sat down with a book or magazine or newspaper, anticipating—maybe even craving—a good read, only to be disappointed with boring or confusing content? That happens too often, so your memoir must draw readers in and keep them turning pages.

“Some writers assume

readers are eager to grasp every word they write.

The opposite is true.…

Because we find it interesting,

or we think our life is newsworthy,

it's easy to assume everyone cares.

It's better to assume no one cares

about what we write.…”

Cec Murphey

http://cecmurpheyswritertowriter.blogspot.com/2011/04/secrets-from-professional-writers-part.html

So what’s a memoir writer to do? Answer: Write stories worth reading.


Earn the right to be read: Memoir writers must capture the reader’s interest so he’ll keep reading all the way to the end.


How do you write stories worth reading? You can find answers to that question in a bazillion books and articles and blog posts and writers’ conferences.


And from week to week I’ll post the best of those tips here on Spiritual Memoirs 101. Let’s get started.


Getting started: Details, blessed details


Stories worth reading include details that will make readers feel they’re experiencing the story with you. We’ll cover that often here in this blog.


If you’ve been following along with us each week, you’ve already started including details in your rough drafts: Think back to our last two Saturday Snippets:


Invite readers into your story: http://spiritualmemoirs101.blogspot.com/2011/05/saturday-snippet-invite-readers-into.html

Endless ideas: http://spiritualmemoirs101.blogspot.com/2011/05/saturday-snippet-invite-readers-into.html


You’ll remember from those two posts that your readers can enter into your story—can live it with you—when you re-create scenes through the five senses – sight, sound, taste, touch, smell.


This week’s assignment: Work on your rough drafts, concentrating on sights. Describe your vignette’s setting—the surrounding scenery. Does your story occur in an old farmhouse? On a trail high in the Rockies? In a hospital room? Revise your drafts so readers can see the place as if they’re standing right beside you.

Resources :
1. a thesaurus
2. a dictionary
3. do a Google search
4. read good literature to study how pros develop a story’s sights and scenery



Related posts:

What is a memoir: http://spiritualmemoirs101.blogspot.com/2011/04/what-is-memoir.html

Invite readers into your story: http://spiritualmemoirs101.blogspot.com/2011/05/saturday-snippet-invite-readers-into.html

Endless ideas: http://spiritualmemoirs101.blogspot.com/2011/05/saturday-snippet-invite-readers-into.html