Tuesday Tidbit: Are you a memoirist, a genealogist, or a scrapbooker?

Here’s your Tuesday Tidbit,

your 15 seconds of inspiration:

Are you a genealogist, memoirist, or scrapbooker? Or all three?

“Memoir writers, genealogists, scrapbookers,” writes Matilda Butler. “Most people interested in recording their family consider themselves as one of the three. But only one.”

If that’s you—if you think you’re involved in only one of those three—stretch your thinking. Get beyond that “only one” perspective because these three interests have lots of overlap.

Utilize all three to maximize the richness and impact of your finished works. You’ll really enjoy doing so, and your readers will thank you.

Read more at “When Words Divide Rather Than Unite.”

“No such thing as happenstance”

What do you and your memoir have to do with Joseph? You remember Joseph—the guy with the coat of many colors.

He was sold by his brothers,

relocated in Egypt,

elevated to a position of exceptional power and influence,

falsely accused of rape by Potipher’s wife,

imprisoned, an innocent man, in a dungeon,

reconciled with his family,

and resettled in Goshen.

Rabbi Lawrence Kushner observes:

“The characters in the tale are so consumed with trying to manipulate their own fortunes that they all (like most of us) fail to notice what is really happening not only around them but—and here is the key idea—through them and despite them. Nobody gets it. Nobody but Joseph.

“… He realizes that something else has been going on all along.… ‘It was not you,’ he tells them, ‘who sent me here but God!’”

Memoirists need to be like Joseph. We need to step back and take a long look—a deep, wide, high look.

Memoirists must shun shallow living and superficial thinking.

Memoirists look over their lives and say, “Something else has been going on all along!”

“God is … quietly, invisibly, secretly planning our steps; feeding us our lines; moving us into position; unifying everything we do,” writes Kushner.

“…What we thought was an accident was, in truth, the hand of God. Most of the time we are simply unaware. Awareness takes too much effort.… But every now and then we understand, just for a moment, that God has all along been involved in everything. As Rabbi Zaddok HaKohen taught, ‘The first premise of faith is to believe with perfect faith that there is no such thing as happenstance.… Every detail, small or great, they are all from the Holy One.’” (Eyes Remade for Wonder; emphasis mine)

What are you discovering as you write your memoir?

Be a Joseph! What was God doing,

“quietly, invisibly, secretly” to bring you to today?

What was happening around you, 

through you, and even despite you?

Connect the dots.

What new person have you become?

What new direction has your life taken?

In what ways has your faith changed?

What messages of wisdom and hope can you write

into your memoir for your readers?

Tuesday tidbit: Tests and messes

Here’s your Tuesday Tidbit, 15 seconds of inspiration:

Are you having a good time writing those special stories that will one day be part of your memoir?

In the process of writing, are you discovering the truth of Kaitlyn’s words—that God can and does transform tests into testimonies? That He can and does turn messes into messages?

Just think, decades from now your great-grandchildren might be reading your stories—and discovering that indeed, God turned your messes into messages and your tests into testimonies. 

That’s a staggering thought!

“Someone needs to tell those tales”

Do you recognize the opportunity you have—as well as the responsibility—to write your stories? Right now, you probably can’t imagine how God can use them to bless your readers—your kids, grandkids, and great-grands.

Your stories are important. Writing them is more than a hobby—it is a ministry.

Do you recall our verse?

“Always remember what you’ve seen God do for you,

and be sure to tell your children and grandchildren!”

(Deuteronomy 4:9)

You and I are just ordinary people living ordinary lives, yet God is acting on our behalf every moment of every day.

Take time to observe what He is doing.

Notice the ways Bible passages come alive—how they come true, how they are relevant—in your family.

If you’ll put those stories into writing, you’ll be doing what Deuteronomy 4:9 urges all of us to do.

You have stories only you can tell.

You are part of a story much bigger than yourself.

Your story is part of God’s story

and God’s story is part of your story.

Invest time and effort into connecting your stories with God’s stories.

Don’t keep them to yourself—give them to others to read!

Tuesday Tidbit: Sharon Lippincott’s tips on writing your opening paragraph

Have you entered your opening paragraph in

the Women’s Memoirs opening paragraph contest?

Yesterday I submitted mine.

You have until September 3 to enter.

Sharon Lippincott’s blog post is packed with helpful, practical info for you as you write, rewrite, and polish your opening paragraph. It’s a must-read!

 

Check out Sharon’s Five P’s of Openings (People, Place, Plot Problem, Persuasion, Prose).

Related posts:

A writing contest over at Women’s Memoirs

Openings: the hardest part

First lines 

Tips for writinga top-notch opening

Openings: the hardest part

Your opening is the most important part to write well—whether you’re penning a book, a vignette, an article, a blog post, or an opening paragraph for the Women’s Memoirs contest. (The contest is open to men, too.)

If you don’t hook your readers from the beginning—if you don’t create curiosity, if you don’t present your story as a must-read, they probably won’t keep reading.

Besides your opening being the most important part, it will probably be the hardest part to write well.

Hardest, you ask? Yes, read on….

Brian Clark drives home that point: “Master copywriter Gene Schwartz often spent an entire week on the first 50 words… Those 50 words are the most important part of any persuasive writing, and writing them well takes time. Even for the masters.”

For the past couple of weeks I’ve been working on an opening paragraph for the Women’s Memoir contest, and I’ve revised it at least 20 times. I’m not sure yet if the current draft will be the final one.

How are you doing on crafting your openings? Even if you’re not entering the contest, your openings need to sparkle.

Here are a few tips:

First, be sure your first paragraph is the correct one! Remove your scaffolding.

Next, be sure your opening doesn’t give away your story’s ending.

That might seem like a no-brainer, but too many of us goof on that.

Prolific writer (over 135 books) and New York Times bestselling author, Cecil Murphey, says, “I once read more than one hundred of the entries for Christmas Miracles, a compilation book. The major flaw in at least a third of them was that they told us the ending before they told us the story.” He gave this example: "The worst Christmas of my life became the best Christmas ever."

Instead of giving away the ending, intrigue your readers, make them curious, and entice them to keep reading so they’ll discover how your story pulls together at the end.

Learn the difference between effective and weak openings. How?

On Facebook recently, Cec shared a good tip: “One way to learn to write good beginnings is to see how the professionals do it. Although some do it better than others, I learned a great deal about beginnings by reading only first paragraphs of half a dozen books every day for a week.”

So, scrutinize first paragraphs of six books every day for a week—or whatever works for you—and be sure to read books written by professional writers. (There’s a lot of junk out there.)

Note openings in everything you read: articles, blog posts, sermons, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Some will work well, others won’t. Ask yourself, “Why do some entice me to read on—or not?”

Be sure to check out links below about leads. You’ll find a lot of good stuff there!

Next, examine your opening, your beginning (sometimes called lead, lede, or hook) and revise, revise, revise.

The opening is probably the most difficult part to write well.

Your beginning can make or break your story:

An effective opening can persuade a person to keep reading—

but a weak opening can make a person close the book and walk away.

Put in the hard work needed to make your opening zing.

Related posts:

A writing contest over at Women’s Memoirs

Remove your scaffolding 

Tips for writing a top-notch opening

Leads, Part 1

Leads, Part 2

Leads, Part 3

Leads, Part 4

Tuesday Tidbit: First lines

Here’s your 15 seconds of inspiration

for this week’s Tuesday Tidbit.

If you’re polishing an opening paragraph

for the contest at Women’s Memoirs,

keep this in mind: Openings require a lot of work.