Words as paint

Because exciting things are happening in our family, 

my next few blog posts will be brief but, I hope, 

meaningful to you personally as well as in writing your memoir.

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.

Your Easter stories

Think about Easters past. What scenes live in your mind? Good Friday church services? Easter Sunday church services?

What people come to mind? What churches? Houses? Smells and flavors? Perhaps you recall the fragrance of Easter lilies filling the church sanctuary, Grandma’s ham dinner, the taste of Easter eggs.

What colors come to mind? I think of Easter egg stain on fingertips, teeth, and tongue.

What sounds belong to Easters past? Maybe an Easter cantata, or Grandpa’s laughter when you arrived at his house.

How have Easter observations changed since you were a child?

What was your most unusual Easter? What was your saddest Easter? What was your happiest Easter?

In what places around the world have you celebrated Easter?

Did you ever have to skip celebrating Easter for some reason? Why?

What do you remember about learning the real meaning of Easter? How has your understanding of Easter changed over the years? How has your life changed as a result?

Write another chapter of your memoir!

Be sure to include relevant Bible passages and explain why they’re relevant. Consider adding sketches of your floor plan, neighborhood or town, photos of people and places, mementos, or part of a road map if you traveled out of town. Try to include addresses and dates of these events.

Reflect on what God was doing back then. What was He teaching you, and how long did it take you to figure it out? How was He changing you?

If you could go back and do it over again, what would you have done differently?

What advice would you give your young readers about Easter?

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The power of color

“…Push your story deeper, pull your reader closer,

and lift the heart of the story out of obscurity

into a sensory world

that you and your readers can inhabit together.”

(Judith Barrington, Writing the Memoir)

Take out your WIPs—your rough drafts—and let’s have fun! Let’s spice up blah words.

Today, we’ll focus on colors.

If you’ve described something as “blue,” choose a word with more punch or charm. Try sky blue, powder blue, navy, royal, denim, cornflower, turquoise, indigo, or aqua. My daughter-in-law chose periwinkle blue for her bridesmaids’ dresses. What other shades of blue come to mind?


Instead of “red,” how about fire-engine red, cherry red, tomato red, blood red, rusty red, crimson, ruby, or scarlet. What other shades of red can you think of? Leave your ideas below in the comments, or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Spiritual-Memoirs-101/208789029139817


Below, you’ll find a resource you’ll treasure! For now, though, this little excerpt is a gem from James Kilpatrick, a man I’ve learned from for many years:

“This is the secret of good writing:

We must look intently,

and hear intently,

and taste intently.…

We must look at everything very hard.

Is it the task at hand to describe a snowfall?

Very well. We begin by observing

that the snow is white.

Is it as white as bond paper?

White as whipped cream?

Is the snow daisy white,

or eggwhite white,

or whitewash white?

Let us look very hard.

We will see that snow comes in different textures.

The light snow that looks like powdered sugar

is not the heavy snow that clings like wet cotton.…”

James J. Kilpatrick, The Writer's Art

Here’s that new resource—I’m so excited to tell you about it!—it’s a writer’s paradise! Hop on over to The Bookshelf Muse at http://www.thebookshelfmuse.blogspot.com. (I can't get this link to work, however, you can click over to it from right here on my blog—you’ll find an icon for The Bookshelf Muse in the right column, below.)


It contains a thesaurus for colors, for one thing. For example, to look up the color blue, use this link: http://thebookshelfmuse.blogspot.com/2010/03/color-thesaurus-entry-blue.html


You’ll find red at this link: http://thebookshelfmuse.blogspot.com/2009/07/color-thesaurus-entry-red.html


The Bookshelf Muse offers much more than a color thesaurus. The good people there have a thesaurus for weather, another for emotion, for character traits, settings, and more. Be sure to spend time there, and return often.


Soon we’ll work on other aspects of your written pieces but for now, spice up colors in your WIPs, and feel free to start a few new vignettes. They’ll be chapters in your finished memoir. Have fun!