Leads, Part One: Please don’t get mad. I’ve dropped lots of hints!

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Now that you’ve carted off your scaffolding* it’s time to work on leads—opening sentences—for your vignettes, so round up all those WIPs—your works in progress—your rough drafts.

In recent weeks, you have picked up, haven’t you, on my references to your WIPs and rough drafts?

If you didn’t notice, and if you consider your vignettes “finished,” you’re probably frowning into your computer screen and grumbling, “Why didn’t she tell us about leads a long time ago?!”

Here’s the answer: I deliberately waited. I can explain.

But first, what’s a lead?

The lead is the first thing your reader reads. It catches her attention.

You “hook” a reader with your lead; it causes curiosity, draws her in, and motivates her to read all the way through. 

A lead is a crucial component in newspaper and magazine articles.

A catchy lead is a must for blog posts, sermons, and devotionals.

A top-notch lead is vital for a memoir’s vignettes (chapters) as well.

Why did I delay bringing up leads until now? Because most people write the lead after they’ve written the main body of their story.

It’s true. The reason? A lead is challenging to craft and, for a couple of reasons, many writers prefer to pin it down after they’ve composed most of their piece.

The first reason: Sometimes a story evolves into a different story. The writer didn’t set out to tell that story, but it’s good—it’s an important story, a keeper. In that case, if she had created a lead before writing the piece, she would have wasted her time. Usually a different story will need a different lead.

The second reason: Often an idea for the lead comes from within already-written paragraphs and pages. Pinpoint that idea and use it to formulate your lead.

For clarification: Spiritual Memoirs 101 is not the same as English Composition 101.

Memoir is “creative non-fiction,” and it differs from English Comp 101.

You remember English Comp from school days, right?

Paragraph one is your introduction, a few sentences about your topic. Here’s a topic example: your three-step decision to work as a nanny in Scotland.

In EnglishComposition format, you follow  your intro with the main body: three paragraphs, each one explaining one step in your decision-making process.

Then you write your conclusion: you more or less rephrase your introduction.

In memoir, however, do away with English Comp 101 format. Instead, your first lines, your first paragraph(s), will be your lead, your hook.

Today we’ll look at two types of leads, and in coming days we’ll examine even more:

Quote:  Use a quote, song, poem, or proverb to illustrate the point of your story. For example, I used a quote to start a blog post about the way our ancestors’ DNA impacts us: “’My grandmother, Catherine (Cassie) Helmer, died when my Dad was age 13,’ wrote my mother. ‘People who knew her thought I was much like her. In my hearing, old Aunt Maggie once said in her thick Scottish brogue, “Cassie will always be with us as long as that gairl (girl) walks the airth (earth).”’ Over the decades, Aunt Maggie’s declaration has played through my thoughts dozens of times. I wish I knew more! What about my mother, specifically, reminded Aunt Maggie of Cassie? … And even more intriguing to me: Did I inherit anything of my great-grandmother Cassie?…”*

Scene-setting: Describe your story’s setting so your reader feels she’s there, hearing and seeing the event beside you: “Suited up in a knee-length tuxedo jacket, 15-year-old Nathan Neintz bowed slightly to the seated girl, held out a corsage and asked, ‘May I have the next dance?’ With a fur stole flung across her shoulders and legs daintily crossed at the ankles, Lindsy Ingalls, 16, smiled and nodded her acceptance. It was enough to make Miss Manners blush with pride. With a rustle of gowns, tugging of gloves and twitters of laughter, dozens of teens and pre-teens gathered Thursday night for a winter ball, sponsored by the North Idaho chapter of the National League of Junior Cotillions” (The Spokesman-Review, January 13, 2007).

Feel free to experiment. You can come up with an almost unlimited number of variations on the above list.

While you develop leads for your vignettes, keep in mind their purpose: they catch your reader’s attention and motivate her to read your story.

Go easy on yourself: Writing the lead can be the hardest part. Give yourself permission and time to experiment, a lot of time, because even for pros:

“…Most first lines weren’t first till after much revision.…”

Bill Roorbach, Writing Life Stories

Next time, we’ll cover additional types of leads: startling assertion, question, statistics, anecdote, and others.

*Related Posts
Have you removed yor scaffolding?

http://spiritualmemoirs101.blogspot.com/2011/07/have-you-removed-your-scaffolding.html

Your ancestors’ influence and DNA http://spiritualmemoirs101.blogspot.com/2011/06/saturday-snippet-your-ancestors.html

Have you removed your scaffolding?

Most of us know the story we want to write, but we’re not sure what to say or how to say it. We don’t know where to begin, but we know we must—so we ease our way into it: We start writing.


Pros call it “scaffolding.”


I have good news and bad news about scaffolding.


The good news: It gets us going, provides momentum, and helps us zero in on the story we need to tell.

“As the tennis player rallies before the game begins,
so must the writer.
And as the tennis player
is not concerned with where those first balls are going,
neither must the writer be concerned
with the first paragraph or two.
All you’re doing is warming up.…”

Leonard S. Bernstein

The bad news about scaffolding: After it has served its purpose, we need to tear it down.


I learned of scaffolding decades ago from Donald Murray, and later from Roy Peter Clark and Don Fry, authors of Coaching Writers: Editors and Reporters Working Together. They say,


“… Sometimes the writer must write her way into a story, creating sentences that can’t appear in the final version but do get the writer where she wants to go. So the writer erects a scaffold to build the story, but dismantles it to let the story show through.”


Scaffolding is a temporary structure that supports the construction of what will eventually stand alone.


Bill Roorbach describes scaffolding this way:


“Good stories, good essays, leap right to their subjects, perhaps not in draft one, or draft six, but at some point, the introductory apparatus is cut, seen for what it is: scaffolding. You put up the elaborate and complicated and even beautiful scaffolding and build the cathedral. When the cathedral is complete, well, you take the scaffolding down.” (Writing Life Stories)


Readers like us better if we get rid of our scaffolding.


Why? Readers want us to get right to the point and when we do, our stories have more punch, more focus, more power. People are more likely to read such stories.


Take out your WIPs (works in progress, rough drafts) and read them, looking for answers to these questions:


What is my story really about? What’s the main point?

Does my opening paragraph, or my first few paragraphs, focus on (or at least significantly point to) the main point? Or did I write them only to find my way into my story?

Do my readers need to know this information, or is it extraneous?

Dismantle your scaffolding. Let your story shine through.

Your stories: Not because of who you are, but because of who God is

We’ve established that you are important to God.*


And we’ve recognized that your stories are important to God and your family.*


So you want to write your memoir, but you hear nagging little whispers:


“Who do you think you are? You? Write a book? What makes you so special?”


You might ask, “Who am I, that I should write such stories? I’m not a Moses, or a David, or a Paul, or an Abraham.…”


But wait! Moses witnessed an Egyptian beating one of his fellow Hebrews and got so mad that he killed the Egyptian.

Then Moses ran away and hid in the desert for 40 years.


And later, when God said He was sending Moses to Pharoah and wanted to use him to bring Israelites out of Egypt, Moses made all kinds of excuses and balked and wailed, “O Lord, please send someone else to do it” (Exodus 4:13).


The point? It’s not that Moses was so great—it’s what God did: He enabled Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and into the land of milk and honey—and so much more!


Then there’s David, and Paul—it’s easy to think of them as saints, but they really messed up sometimes. Their lives were a mixture of faith and willful disobedience, spiritual successes and failures, yet God used them in mighty ways and continues to do so today. It’s not so much what David or Paul did, it’s what God did.


“Abraham is …. one of the most important men in the history of the world. What makes Abraham so important … is not his sterling character (which he did not have), his outstanding intellect (which may have existed but it is not mentioned), his charming personality (he could be pretty annoying) or substantial personal accomplishments (he has a few, apart from his pilgrimage to the promised land). What Abraham is remembered for is his faithfulness in obeying God’s call to undertake a long and demanding journey. It was not so much what Abraham did, but what God did.… In Abraham we see not so much a saint in action; rather, the faithfulness and graciousness of God.… In Abraham we see an ordinary man who is used by God, not because of who Abraham was, but because of who God is….” (Richard Peace, Spiritual Storytelling)


Bottom line: Write your stories—not because of who you are, but because of who God is.

It is not that we think we can do anything of lasting value by ourselves.

Our only power and success come from God.

(2 Corinthians 3:5, NLT) 

… Our adequacy is from God.… Therefore, having such a hope,

we use great boldness in our speech [or writing]….

(2 Corinthians, 3:5, 12, NAS)

Write your stories!

Depend on God to make you adequate for this awesome task.

Use heavenly boldness in your writing.

Your stories can help your readers

become all God created them to be.

*Related posts:

You are important to God, http://spiritualmemoirs101.blogspot.com/2011/05/you-are-important-to-god.html
Your stories are important, http://spiritualmemoirs101.blogspot.com/2011/05/are-your-stories-important.html

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!

An opportunity for you: Telling Family Stories, Even When It Hurts

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From Dr. Linda Joy Myers and the July 2011 National Association of Memoir Writers Digital Newsletter:


Jan Fishler and Elizabeth Rosner will speak on the topic of Telling Family Stories Even Though It Hurts. The writing process allows us to create an artistically rendered family story.


Jan’s memoir is about her journey to understand her adoption. Through the process of reflecting and searching for herself, she comes to terms with all the parental figures and the missteps that humans make.


Elizabeth Rosner, a child of Holocaust victims, draws upon her knowledge of this shadow world to create haunting and poetic fictional stories that reveal truth in its many layers and dimensions.


These discussions will continue our focus on truth, fiction, and memory at The National Association of Memoir Writers.


Jan and Elizabeth will talk about these themes and others at the National Association of Memoir Writers July Roundtable. It’s free to everyone to call into the Roundtable, listen, and ask questions.


Event Title: Telling Your Family Stories, Even When It Hurts
Date: Thursday July 7, 2011
Time: 4 PM PDT, 5 PM MDT, 6 PM CDT, 7 PM EDT, for about 1 hour
Cost: FREE FOR EVERYONE


Remember--be brave, write your stories!


Fondly,
Linda Joy Myers, Ph.D., MFT
NAMW President & Founder



Here's a link for more information: http://www.namw.org/general-member-announcements/july-2011-national-association-of-memoir-writers-digital-newsletter

Saturday Snippet: What’s your memoir’s ultimate purpose?

The Bible records—often—God’s reason for acting on behalf of His people: so that they’d know Him—“Then you will know that I am the Lord your God” (Exodus 6:6-7, 1 Kings 20:13, Ezekiel 37:5-6, and Joel 2:19-27), and so that people would see Him and praise Him.


God does the same today: He assures us of His love and faithfulness by doing things for us, sometimes in earthshaking ways, but usually in everyday ways.


So here you and I are, writing stories of what He has done for us—writing so that our readers will see Him, know Him, and praise Him.


Let this sink in: Your memoir can stir up a response similar to accounts told in Bible times.


For instance, think of yourself as the man in Mark 5:1-10, “So the man [insert your name] went away and began to tell the Decapolis [insert your readers’ names] how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.”


You want your readers to respond the same way: You want them to be amazed at God!


The beauty of memoir is looking back, examining, and making sense of the past.


When we invest time in sifting through the past, and looking at it from a distance, we see that in even the worst of times, God was always on the scene, in our midst, working on our behalf.


The following Bible passage captures my vision—my prayer, my heart’s desire—for the memoir classes I teach and for this blog:

“Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;

his greatness no one can fathom.

One generation will commend your works to another;

they will tell of your mighty acts.

They will speak of

the glorious splendor of your majesty,

and I will meditate on your wonderful works.

They will tell of the power of your awesome works,

and I will proclaim your great deeds.

They will celebrate your abundant goodness

and joyfully sing of your righteousness.”

Psalm 145:3-7, NIV

Keep working on your WIPs (works in progress, rough drafts) and as you do, make a conscious decision: write your memoir as a celebration—a celebration of God in all His goodness, faithfulness, holiness, and splendor.

Your ultimate goal: Write celebrations of God!

Like George Herbert said in the illustration above,

consider yourself

a secretary of God’s praise.

Special Edition: Exciting news

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Reposting from June 20:
(I don't know where it went, but it's not here any more!)

Special Edition:
We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming
to announce exciting news

Whoa! I’ve never sought fame or fortune with my memoir, Grandma’s Letters from Africa. I’ve only offered it up to God to use as He sees fit.


Flannery O'Connor said, "When the book leaves your hands, it belongs to God," and that's how I have always looked at it.

I offer the book up to God, praying He will use it to encourage mid-lifers to consider missions, especially timid, unadventuresome people like me.


For whatever reasons—only God knows—the memoir has received three honors along the way: Editor’s Choice, Rising Star, and Reader’s Choice.


Then a couple of days ago Grandma’s Letters from Africa received his additional honor that includes phrases like “hand-picked” and “up-and-coming authors.”


Here’s what arrived in my in-box:



June 17, 2011


Dear Rising Star Author,


Congratulations! Your book will be listed in the Barnes & Noble Rising Star Special Collection on bn.com (Barnes & Noble) and will be available through this exclusive boutique through the end of the month of July.


It is very important to promote, market and drive traffic to your title listed on the Rising Star Special Collection page at bn.com. The demand and traffic you drive to this page is watched and followed by the B&N national buyer. Website demand is an instrumental piece when a buyer is considering stocking a title in store.


Below is the link for the Rising Star Special Collection


http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/iUniverse-rising-star-books/379000118/?cds2Pid=16451&linkid=1563532


Best Regards,


Rising Star Board



Friends, let me ask: Do you know people who are wondering how to spend the rest of their lives?


Maybe Grandma’s Letters from Africa can help. Here’s what I mean:


At midlife (which can begin around age 40), often people ask themselves, “Is this all there is?”


Boredom can set in and people grumble, “Is this as good as it gets?”


I call that a holy discontent, a nudge from God (or maybe even a kick in the pants) urging them to re-evaluate their life’s purpose.


A time of awakening to a deep-down desire to use their training, career experience, and expertise in a bolder way for God.


My prayer is that God will use Grandma’s Letters from Africa to help people explore working on the mission field—for a few months or a few years.


My prayer is that Grandma’s Letters from Africa will help people get ready for that change, for the next chapter in their lives.


You can help your friends, and the book, in a couple of ways:


You can buy people a gift: Grandma’s Letters from Africa (at a reduced cost!) —remember to use the special link (you’ll need to scroll down): http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/iUniverse-rising-star-books/379000118/?cds2Pid=16451&linkid=1563532


Or you can forward this blog post to them. Just below this blog post, you’ll see little gray and white icons that allow you to e-mail this, post it to Facebook, share to Twitter, Google Buzz, or +1.

Seize the opportunity! Remember, this offer goes through July only!