Say that again? I have to write a memoir? Who am I to write a memoir? Aren’t those for, you know, important people? People who have accomplished things? Or are ahead of me in the life experience department by miles? Stop. Calm down. Read the chapter.
Oh. I think I may have had a misunderstanding of what exactly a memoir is–I had been envisioning those books on the bestseller shelves of Barnes & Noble with close-ups of public figures’ somber faces and dark bold print shouting from the covers. As I read, it’s looking less and less like I’m going to have to write a tell-all novel about my entire life. The chapter tells me a memoir is a true event or series of related events told like a story, involving “a change of mind or heart, a discovery, a confirmation or contradiction of a belief, a disappointment or decision.” I’ve had those! Lots of them! Options start running through my head; moments–proud, sad, traumatic, seemingly insignificant–are swirling around. Pause. Write some down so I don’t forget them. Figure out which ones are important later.
Next there’s an example. It’s called All Washed Up. This author isn’t talking about losing a presidential election or winning a Nobel Prize or surviving the apocalypse. She’s simply talking about a work experience which gave her a wake up call, and about being eighteen and naïve, and she has something important to say, something a student sitting in a coffee shop blogging for her Com class can understand and relate to. I guess I am capable of writing one of these…
I wish I could write with style like the fired waitress, with heartbreaking brevity like Hemingway, with beautiful imagery like the girl in the cold. I wish I could tell poignant stories with my illustrations like Marjane Satrapi, or humbly convey emotions of as daunting an experience as having to serve as a juror on a murder trial. I wish I could make readers laugh with “dark humor” like David Sedaris’. I probably can’t.
But what I can do is build a story about a significant experience I’ve had using the formula I’ve been taught since English class in grade school (intro-rising action-climax-resolution), weave in familiar vocab terms like voice and tone and theme, and, with my newfound understanding of them (like when to show and when to tell), make it mean something, both for me and for readers.
Last page. Revision checklist. Worry about that later.
Here goes.
Com 201 