Treaure Trove of Tips

The line between fiction and lifestory or memoir is finely drawn and permeable. The main difference is that our characters  and events come ready-made. and we have an obligation to portray them truly. That truth is shaped by the way we transfer them from memory to page, and that involves both heart and craft. Our heart shapes the slant of our stories. Craft fleshes them out for the benefit of readers. In general, fiction writers have taken the lead in the area of craft.
 
In my most recent post I mentioned K.D. Weiland’s blog, WORDplay. Aside from her rich array of blog and video posts, she offers a free 50 page eBook, Crafting Unforgettable Characters: A Hands-On Guide to Bringing Your Characters to Life. I urge you to click over and download this book right away before she realizes just how valuable it is. Although its focus is on creating and portraying fictional characters, if you adjust your filters, you’ll find a treasure trove of tips for capturing the essence of the ready-made characters in your life.

Her "Character Interview Form" almost slid past unnoticed as I skimmed the contents the first time through. Why would I need that? I thought. I already know my characters — primarily me. Then the lights went on. If I use this form to interview myself, I’ll have a pile of focused material for my memoir and may find a couple of interesting twists.

In fact, this is a good time for me to take a break and do just that. I’m well underway with the memoir project (you can follow my progress on my Los Alamos Girlhood blog), but more focus will surely help.

These unforgettable character tools will be useful even if you write loose collections of stories rather than formal memoir. If certain people regularly appear in your stories or memoir, you may benefit from using the interview technique with them too.  Use the Interview form primarily for major characters. Use the other tips for any person you mention in your story. The tips will enhance your creativity so even pop-in characters take on added sparkle with a few deftly chosen words.

As icing on the cake, this eBook is over-the-top gorgeous, with spectacular layout. I'm a layout junkie and had to ask, “Did you do this yourself?” She did! It’s not a layout you’d use for simple story, but keep your eyes open for examples of great craft as inspiration for your own projects.

Write now: download a copy of K. E.’ s eBook and read it — it doesn’t take that long. Then write a new story or reopen an old one that features a strong character. Use one or two of her techniques to make that character even more vivid.

Picture credit: Timitrius

Preach, Teach, or Testify?

A friend forwarded me a link to a post on K.M. Wieland’s most awesome blog, WORDplay. The post, titled Should Stories Be Soapboxes, addresses the possible pitfalls of writing stories for the purpose of converting others to your line of thinking, whether that be religious, political, or philosphical. K.M.’s work is primarily addressed to writers of fiction, but it applies equally well to life story and memoir writing, and I urge you to enjoy the richness of her offerings.

Lots of people may read this post and wonder, “Am I guilty of this?” or “How do I avoid this?” and “How does this apply to memoir?”

I'll use a personal example of a situation that could go either way. I’m currently writing a memoir of my girlhood (covered in a separate blog). The story follows the path my husband and I took as we toured Los Alamos on our last visit in August, 2000. One of the first landmarks I saw was the Christian Church. My family was involved with that church from its inception, and I have filled five manuscript pages with memories of my experiences there. One of them was my baptism.

This would be a place to preach, if I were so inclined, which I’m not. I simply reported the event, along with my subsequent immature reaction:

... The week after I got home, I answered the call and was baptized later that afternoon at the Baptist Church, which generously shared their facility for such occasions. Answering that foundational question, “Do you, Sharon, take Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior?” was a little daunting. Well, yes. I did. And as I went under the water, I just hoped I wouldn’t regret this down the line somewhere when I’d have to make a tough decision. For at least the next couple of days I took this commitment with the utmost seriousness, feeling ever so holy and righteous. ...

Had I been inclined to preach, I might have lapsed into a testimony along the lines of how much God loves the world and gave His son to save us from sin, my joy at knowing that now I was now on my way to Heaven ... and urge readers to make their own decisions for Christ. ...

But therein lies a paradox. I’m not a “testifying type.” That’s not my calling. But some people are. We have all met a few. If you are one of them and you don’t include that testimony in your writing, you won’t reflect the truth of who you are. Readers will respond to your writing the same way they respond to your testimony in daily life.

Bottom line: Follow K.M. Weiland’s advice to be passionate about your message and let it lead the story. Testify if that’s where your fire is, and look for a way to let as much of that testimony as possible be showing rather than telling.

Write now: draft a story about a topic you feel strongly about. Select a topic that you hope will influence the opinions of readers. Look for ways of letting your actions, interactions and reactions show your passion rather than blurting it out directly.

Back at Keyboard

My extended break from this blog lasted longer than anticipated, but I'm back at the keyboard. I am working on the new WordPress version, but that’s turning into a more complex project that I’d envisioned. I like WordPress so much that I want to use it for my whole website, and I have not yet discovered how to set everything up “behind a curtain” and then flip a switch to swap the old for the new.

Meanwhile, dozens of juicy blog topics have come and gone... so we’ll continue here for now and I’ll make the switch very soon.

This experience of working on the WordPress installation, with the alteration between intense focus and interruptions, and need to loop out for more research, is a sort of metaphor for amy writing project — maybe for life in general. I’m thinking back to the year I spent writing my master’s thesis. I chose a complex topic: Perceived Risk of Nuclear Power. That’s an odd topic for someone seeking  a degree in counseling psychology, but we all knew by then that I was not going to pursue a career as a therapist. My off-beat combination of two hot topics was a good one. It eventually garnered me the newly minted Distinguished Thesis Award, much to the glee of the department and my advisors.

I was a returning student with three young children and other time-consuming commitments. I lived 100 miles from campus and took classes in my local community. Life often intervened to keep me away from my research and writing for weeks at a time. Each time I went back to my desk, it took me considerable time to review past work and “get back in the groove.” How I wished I could simply sit down and bang it out., without interruption.

Today the same situation arises with the transition to WordPress and also with my Los Alamos Girlhood memoir. Life keeps intervening. Perhaps the one thing that ensures I keep tapping away on the memoir is my reliance on a blog about that project.  I have a growing list of followers now, and don’t want to embarrass myself by going too long between posts. That means I have to write something, reflect on what I’ve written, and blog about that.

You can find any number of ways to maintain or manage momentum on a writing project. Partly it depends on your personal writing style, a topic I discuss in detail in The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing. Probably the most powerful and effective is to use other people as accountability props, and writing groups and classes are especially helpful. 

One writing group you can participate in without leaving home is the Life Writers Forum YahooGroup. You can use this lively group to report in about projects and get group input to resolve snags or anything related to life writing. It's a rich source of new ideas. Join the group by entering your e-mail address in the form in the left sidebar or click over to the group homepage. You'll get the most out of the group if you participate in the discussions, but lurkers are also welcome.

Write now: write a journal entry on your writing style and how to keep your project flowing.