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Think Big, But Write Small
There’s an overall shape to a book-length story that we’ve come to expect — certain elements fall into certain places at certain times during the course of the story, and we’ve learned, even if subconsciously, to anticipate this underlying structure. Everything in a story is connected. Think of your book as a fractal. This may help you stay on track with the multitude of ideas and abstract concepts that go into a book that’s as introspective as a memoir. Six Elements 1. Story — A memoir is a story built around one main idea, theme or point. 2. Chapters — Within a story, there may be…
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Fish-heads and Hooks
What’s a fish-head and what does it have to do with writing? I heard this term from an author friend who heard it from her first writing teacher, forty years ago. This teacher used the metaphor of a fish-head to warn her students about a common situation that happens when a writer’s in the earliest stages of creating a story. She said writers often begin writing a scene, thinking it’s the start, but it’s not in fact, the true beginning of the story. Instead, the fish-head is the scene or scenes that the writer needs to write first, to begin bringing the story into focus. You have to…
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Lying to Yourself — Self-Integrity 101
“This above all: to thine own self be true,And it must follow, as the night the day,Thou canst not then be false to any man.” — William Shakespeare, “Hamlet” Self-integrity What does it mean? Is it the meaning of the Shakespeare quote above, or does it mean something more, something deeper? Perhaps it’s our conscience, speaking to us in the “still, small voice” about right and wrong. Perhaps it’s our core values telling us about our most profound self-identity. Or perhaps it’s a limiting belief, attempting to keep us safe in trying times or confusing circumstances. Or maybe it’s a lot simpler than any of those. Maybe…
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Autobiography vs. Memoir
What’s the Difference? Autobiography? Biography? Memoir? Story? Creative Non-Fiction? Personal Essay? All too often, when a writer decides to “write their memoirs”, they are thinking about an autobiography — the story of their entire lifetime. Calling it a memoir is a misnomer. Autobiographies and Memoirs are not the same. So, what is the difference? Autobiography “Auto”, from the Latin, means “self”. “Bio” means “life”. So an autobiography is your own life story written by yourself. A Biography, on the other hand, is a life story written by someone else, like a ghostwriter. “Bi” meaning two or dual. An Autobiography is an author’s complete life story,…
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“Kindness is Never Wasted” — Anonymous
At this time of year, most people’s focus is on Valentine’s Day, and while romantic love is a valid point of interest, there’s another point I think makes a lot more sense for us to celebrate. February 17th is “Random Acts of Kindness Day”, and to my mind, is a much more relevant and valuable quality of being, as well as a better focus for our behaviour. In fact, why limit it to one day a year? Why not build a habit of doing one kind thing for others every day? Think about it…when we engage in an act of kindness, either as giver or receiver, we experience…
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Writers! Stay On Topic!
How often have you started off writing a memoir, an article, a blog post, chapter or scene and found yourself wandering off-topic, down a fascinating rabbit hole, or chasing squirrels? Your story gets off-track and lost in a muddle of ideas. You end up frustrated and discouraged because the piece is nowhere near as dynamic and insightful as it appeared when the ideas first occurred to you. It’s easy to do when you’re in Flow, the ideas spilling out faster than you can keep up with them and you feel like a conduit for an unending outpouring of inspiration. You don’t want to leave out even one of these…
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Words of Advice to My Younger Self
One of the most important life lessons I’ve learned is to listen to my own inner voice. We all have that “still, small voice” inside that tells us when something’s not right — whether it be a subconscious distrust of someone but we can’t put our finger on quite why, or a family or personal situation that makes us uncomfortable, or simply a feeling that what we’re about to do is wrong or selfish. Call it a gut feeling, conscience, instinct or bad vibes, it’s important to listen to it. It’s our subconscious doing its best to keep us safe. Now, there are two sides to this inner monologue…
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Use Clichés to Find Your Theme
How Do You Start Your Memoir? You start with an idea — that magical moment when something sparks the desire to write. It might be a title that suddenly pops into your head, a concept that lights you up, a lightbulb moment, a realization or epiphany that lets all the puzzle pieces of your life fall into place. However it happens, you are inspired and you want to write your story. For the most part, you likely already have a rough notion of what story you want to tell. It’s about a character (you) who has experienced events which illustrate a universal truth, a life lesson or message you…
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There but for the grace of God
In the past, we’ve discussed the concept of emotional layering, and I’ve been exploring the realm of layered emotions in depth for the past few days. Last week, my mentor, Joseph Michael, The Scrivener Coach, asked me to help with the live accountability sessions on his membership site, Unchained Writer. These online accountability meetings are live writing sessions where writers show up and write together on their various projects. It’s a way to share our writing journey each day within a tight-knit, friendly community, one that understands the perils and tribulations of being a writer. Little did I know when I agreed, what lay in store. It started…
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New Year’s Revolution
Three years ago, I wrote a blog post that is still relevant today. In that post, I talked about the necessity of reining in our big hairy audacious goals so that we can start small. In the three years since I wrote that post, I have to admit, I haven’t accomplished as much as I’d hoped I would. I’ve accomplished a lot, but the goals I set myself back then were unrealistic. So, of course, I failed. And failing, beat myself up because I screwed up. Again. And again. And again. What I didn’t take into account was how much I’ve learned in the meantime. I didn’t…
