Write Nonfiction in November

It’s Day #9 of the Write Nonfiction in November challenge! We’ve covered a lot of ground already, and I thought we’d take a break from the business side of nonfiction writing to talk a bit about actual writing—memoir writing to be exact.

Memoir writing represents an area of nonfiction writing I know much less about, so I’ve asked my friend and Linda Joy Myers, president and founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers (NAMW) to join us today and cover this topic. Recently, however, she and I spoke together during a NAMW teleseminar, and we discovered many ways memoir writers can put to use the tips and tools being offered here in this blog this month to publicize and publish their work. So, I hope memoir writers will take advantage of the great information from WNFiN’s guest bloggers. I also hope those nonfiction writers who have wanted to try their hand at writing a memoir will take advantage of Linda’s experience and wisdom and get to work this month on their memoir or some vignettes.

The Top Six Questions Memoir Writers Ask
By Linda Joy Myers, Ph.D.

Most people are inspired to write a memoir, because they have something significant, such as experiences and lessons, they want to share. Some writers have been capturing their wisdom by journaling for years, but a journal does not constitute a story and it isn’t written for others. A memoir is written to be shared and includes events and situations shaped into a story.

In my work as a memoir coach, I see memoirists struggling with some basic questions. In addition to some basic questions, such as “Where do I start?” and “What do I include?”, they want to know how to deal with family and how much to write. Indeed, memoirists have many questions, so I compiled the top six questions memoir writers ask—questions that all memoir writers must solve as they begin to write their life story. They are:

• Where do I start?
• What do I include?
• Should I just copy my journals?
• What makes my life interesting to other people?
• Do I have to write a whole book? (Gasp.)
• What will my family do when they find out I’m writing a memoir?

Now, here are the answers I typically give when asked these questions.

1.  Where do I start? Begin a memoir, essay or a book with a significant turning points, or moments of change, in your life. It might include the death of your grandmother, the day you fell in love, the moment you found out you were adopted, or the day you discovered you were pregnant. We have many of these moments in our lives. Ask this question: when did my life take a turn from the direction in which it was going? When were the moments of profound change?

Make lists of these turning points, and then begin writing. Choose one turning point that grabs you emotionally, and go with it. You do not have to write in any kind of chronological order. Allow your emotions to be your guide.

2.  What do I include? This is a big question. To craft a memoir you must choose from the overwhelming details in your life. If you begin with turning points, include only what is necessary to give the reader an experience in scene of what happened. You need to interleaf action and feeling, and use sensual details such as taste, sound, texture, and description to create a world the reader can enter.

3.  Should I just copy my journals? I tell memoirists that a journal is not a story, unless the journal was written with a reader in mind—but that’s not what a journal is for. A journal is meant to be private. Most people vent and write randomly in journals, leaving out details, because the writer already knows them.

A memoir is an artistic combining of significant moments to construct a text that brings a reader into your world and gives them an emotional experience.

4.  What makes my life interesting to other people? People who read memoir want to understand themselves better by entering into someone else’s story and learning how they worked things out. Many people are not aware that they have lived an interesting life and that even small moments of a life can inspire others. Stop worrying about whether your life will interest readers, and go about your business of finding the turning points significant to you. You write a memoir for you first and foremost, as a way for you to reflect and learn about yourself and to contemplate your life in new ways. You will learn about yourself as you write, and you will be surprised by what you discover. Stay in the flow of the process of writing. It is your friend and guide. Trust it to lead you into the heart of your story.

5.  Do I have to write a whole book? (Gasp.) Yes, that is how I felt every time I thought of writing a memoir. Feeling overwhelmed by the enormity of my task stalled me for a long time—until one of my mentors said, “Just write one vignette, one small story, at a time. Keep it small, focused and about something important to you.”

That gave me permission to stop being so grandiose in my expectations about writing a book that I was scared into silence. I began writing one significant moment at a time for a few months. When I had quite a few stories, I could see how I might fill in the blanks of my timeline. I didn’t know where my story ended—after all, I was still living my story as I wrote it! As I saw the themes emerge as I wrote, I discovered the arc of my book and the appropriate ending.

After you capture some turning point stories, you may find yourself with several personal essays you can send out for publication. Each vignette or chapter represents a story with a desire, conflict and resolution. Shape your memories and your stories so they have dramatic form. You will find out that you have many small jewels—of your life—that have meaning and that can be shared.

6. What will my family do when they find out I are writing a memoir? It depends on your family! Some family members get worried, rattled and defensive, wondering if they will be portrayed fairly, worrying about secrets being revealed or if you have the “correct” version of the family history. If you share your memoir with family and friends while you are writing it, you run the risk of censoring what you have to say to keep the peace or trying to please everyone, which is impossible. Remember this is your story, and it has to be written from your point of view with your feelings and reactions.

I always recommend that memoir writers create what I call a “safe sacred space” while they create the first draft of their stories. It’s important to guard your creativity from prying eyes. Our early sketches are fragile, like small sprouts, and need to be protected from the winds and weather of the world.

The most important advice I can offer is to begin writing your memoir today! Select your turning points, and immerse yourself in the moments that shaped you. Close your eyes, and see yourself at that moment. Bring it alive in your memory, and begin to write.

Writing your memoir and revealing yourself represents a brave act. It also constitutes one of the most satisfying things you can do. Use the month of November to write 10-30 new vignettes. Keep them short and focused, and do not edit. Just keep writing!

About the Author

Linda Joy Myers, Ph.D. is the President and founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers. She is the author of the prize-winning memoir Don’t Call Me Mother. Her new book, The Power of Memoir—How to Write Your Healing Story will be available in January 2010. Through her workshops, online coaching, and speaking engagements, Linda integrates the principles of healing and creativity in presenting the powerful healing process of writing true stories.

www.namw.org
www.thepowerofmemoir.com

Please visit www.copywrightcommunications.com and sign up for the free newsletter to receive a gift at the end of the Write Nonfiction in November challenge!

Don’t forget to sign into the WNFiN social networking and chat room and tell us what you are writing about or start a discussion. http://writenonfictioninnovember.ning.com/

If, like me, you enjoy journalistic endeavors, but you also enjoy the more literary side of writing, you might want to try your hand at a piece of creative nonfiction this month. If offers a journalist with a fiction-like flair to have some fun while still reporting on true events.

However, creative nonfiction writers must know the rules of this genre or risk getting themselves in a world of trouble. For that reason, I’ve asked the experts at Writer’s Relief, Inc., an author’s submission service, to offer the readers of Write Nonfiction in November some advice on how to write trouble-free creative nonfiction manuscripts. Take heed of their words!

Creative Nonfiction: How to Stay Out of Trouble
By  Ronnie L. Smith, president of Writer’s Relief, Inc.

What is creative nonfiction?

Lee Gutkind, editor of Creative Nonfiction magazine, sums it up best: “This is perhaps creative nonfiction’s greatest asset: It offers flexibility and freedom while adhering to the basic tenets of reportage. In creative nonfiction, writers can be poetic and journalistic simultaneously.”

Creative nonfiction is a genre that holds great creative possibilities. It involves the use of factual events or characters to create dramatic nonfiction using techniques such as dialogue, scenery, and point of view (POV). It combines the fact-finding of journalism with the literary techniques of the fiction writer to create a dramatic story that just happens to be true. This is also called literary journalism, and, like journalism, it is a genre based on truth.

Suppose an author has written her memoir under the guise of creative nonfiction, but she has spiced things up with a near-death experience and perhaps a rape scene—things that never actually happened in her life. Ethically, this author must redefine her piece as fiction. The basic facts must be true in creative nonfiction.

If the same author wrote a biography about her great-grandfather, she has some license to fill in the blanks, as long as it doesn’t affect the outcome of the story. She most likely doesn’t know what her great-grandfather’s farmhouse looked like on the inside or what he liked in his coffee—ethically, the author has the right to create dialogue and other “facts” that make up the creative element of creative nonfiction. Some authors use disclaimers to make sure their readers don’t feel duped if names or minor details are changed.

Readers must assume that they are reading a biased interpretation of events as they view them through the author’s eyes. The basic facts are there, but the author is reporting his or her own version of those facts. The implied pact between writer and reader is this: I am telling you the truth, but the truth as it is filtered through my eyes.

Legal Pitfalls

While the people and places mentioned in creative nonfiction pieces are still around, writers often change the names of characters in their work to avoid conflict. As long as it doesn’t impact the story, changing Linda, the waitress at the Burger Barn, to Cynthia from the Hamburger Hut might save Linda some awkwardness. And if you’ve fudged the facts about her, changing Linda’s name just might save you from a lawsuit, but there is no guarantee. Linda can still sue you for defamation if she is obviously defamed, regardless of the name you give her in the book. Changing a person’s name is not a guarantee of protection, but it might help.

Other Ways to Stay Out of Trouble

Stick to the truth. In a defamation of character suit, an offending statement must be false for a plaintiff to prevail against you or your publisher. Untrue facts that negatively affect a person’s reputation or credibility are considered defamatory.

Be careful not to report facts that may cause damage to another person’s physical being or business. Revealing that Johnny from the bank is actually a mob snitch, even when the facts are true enough, can lead to physical harm to Johnny and legal hot water for you. And be prepared for an invasion of privacy lawsuit if you are exposing embarrassing or private facts about a person, even if they are truthful.

Protect yourself by getting written permission from people you wish to write about. And if they are no longer living, make sure you aren’t setting yourself up for a lawsuit from their family. (Obviously, you are fairly safe in writing about people who died long ago.) If the person is a public figure whose actions or background are a matter of public record, then you do not need permission, but be judicious about the facts you report. Senator Mucky-Muck may have an obsession with women’s feet, but leave his foot fetish out of your story, especially if it’s merely something you’ve thrown in to add some excitement to your story.

This article is for informational purposes only. For expert legal advice about your own publishing questions, always consult an attorney.

About the Authors

Writer’s Relief, Inc. is a highly recommended author’s submission service. Established in 1994, Writer’s Relief will help you target the best literary agents or editors for your creative writing, and they can prepare your work to meet industry-standard guidelines. Their goal is to relieve you of the time-consuming frustrations of the submission process so that you can do more of what you love: write! Visit their Web site at http://www.WritersRelief.com to receive their FREE Writers’ Newsflash (today, via e-mail), which contains valuable leads, guidelines, and deadlines for writing in all genres. Or you can connect with their submission strategists to get answers to all your questions about garnering more acceptance letters and publications.

www.WritersReliefBlog.com
www.twitter.com/WritersRelief
www.facebook.com/WritersRelief

October is half over…That means it’s almost November. Time, once again, for Write Nonfiction in November! Whoo hoo!

I didn’t manage to post a blog last month. I was too busy setting up some really great guest bloggers for this year’s challenge. You’ll be so pleased with the line up!

And, to get things rolling, tomorrow you can listen to me talk about Write Nonfiction in November on The National Association of Memoir Writers (NAMW) teleseminar. If you recall, last year one of my guest bloggers was Linda Joy Meyers, founder of NAMW.  Meyers and I will be chatting about Write Nonfiction in November, my response to National Novel Writing Month (NANOWRIMO). For anyone new to this site, Write Nonfiction in November (WNFIN) is a contest that has fiction writers writing 50,000 words in 30 days during November. My blog challenges nonfiction writers to spend the month of November writing and completing a work of nonfiction. While they do so, the blog itself provides nonfiction writing, promotion and marketing information to help them sell themselves and their writing to publishing companies and readers. Additionally, via the blog comments, Write Nonfiction in November provides a forum for nonfiction writers to comment on their writing experiences during November each year.

During the NAWM teleseminar, I will discuss different types of nonfiction, including:

• journalistic articles
• personal essays
• inspirational essays
• booklets
• books

If time allows, I’ll also discuss:

• the difference between personal essay and memoir
• platform building on the Internet
• how to use your nonfiction skills to write articles to generate publicity for yourself as a writer
• how the business of writing can be a spiritual endeavor

NAWM  invites memoir writers from all over the world to connect, learn, and become inspired about writing their stories. The goal of our organization is to help memoir writers feel empowered with purpose and energy to begin and develop their life stories into a publishable memoir, whether in essay form, a book, a family legacy, or to create a blog.

Many memoir writers want to use writing as means for healing and transformation, so we assist in this goal by offering workshops, teleseminars, and interviews with writers and experts in the area of memoir, writing skills, therapeutic writing, spiritual autobiography, and healing through writing personal, authentic stories.

Myers, President of NAMW, has been a therapist for 30 years, and is the author of three books, a prize-winning memoir Don’t Call Me Mother, about three generations of mothers who abandoned their daughters, and two books on the ways that writing helps to heal emotionally and physically. Her new book The Power of Memoir—How to Write Your Healing Story will be released in January, 2010, through Jossey Bass publishers in San Francisco. She teaches writing workshops nationally, online, and in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Those who join NAMW receive a unique package of memoir writing resources including the NAMW welcome kit and a collection of online and hard copy resources to help memoir writers within all phases of the exciting journey of memoir writing.  Members also receive discounts on select NAMW teleseminars, workshops, retreats and other learning opportunities and materials.

To learn more about NAMW, contact info@namw.org or visit http://www.namw.org

Now…you do have to be a NAWM member to listen in on the teleseminar tomorrow. But if you are a memoir writer–or want to become one–this is a great time to go ahead a join this great group of writers.  So, hurry up and join and call in by 11 a.m. PST!

Here are the details:

Date: October 16, 2009
Guest Speaker: Nina Amir
Times: 11 am Pacific | 12 noon Mountain | 1 pm Central | 2 pm Eastern
Cost: Free for NAMW Members
Become A Member of NAMW Today to take part in this teleseminar!
To join: info@namw.org or http://www.namw.org

I’ve always wanted to write a memoir. One agent even recommended that I write one of my prescriptive  nonfiction books as a memoir. I never did. I saw her a few months ago. It had been about two years since she wrote that response to my book proposal. She told me now she would probably advise me to stick with my original idea – write it as a self-help book.

That said, I’d still love to write a memoir one day. I have lots of ideas. My life as a stepmother. My short experience as the owner of a race horse. Growing up without a father.

Given that I know little about writing memoirs, I asked someone who knows a lot about this topic to write a blog post for Write Nonfiction on November. Linda Joy Myers, Ph.D. is the president and founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers. In addition, she is the prize-winning author and a writing coach. Read on to find out how to get over the first – and last – hurdle of writing a memoir: telling the truth.

Truth in Memoir Writing

Linda Joy Myers

President of the National Association of Memoir Writers

Truth.

What is it? Who defines it? Dare you tell it as you see it?

Memoir writing, especially in a post-James Frey age, is fraught with all kinds of questions. We know that a memoir requires that we write the truth the best we can, yet we worry about being accused of making things up. Of enhancing too much.

And then there’s the family. “Why do you have to write that stuff?  Leave us out of it.” Or they say things like, “How dare you air the family’s laundry like that. You should be ashamed.” Or: “You are wrong. It never happened that way!”

It’s enough to make you put down your pen and turn off your computer.

So, why do you want to write a memoir anyway? People who tell me they want to write a memoir have many kinds of reasons: to leave a legacy, to sort out memories and feelings, to tell a very personal story that might help others—such as overcoming great obstacles like an illness or recovering from abuse. To tell an uplifting story that will inspire others—climbing a mountain, starting a business and becoming a success. Memoirs are intriguing to us as readers, because they satisfy our voyeuristic urges—we get to peek behind the doors of other people’s houses and learn about who they are, how they coped with the struggles and challenges of life. Maybe we can learn from them. We feel less alone with life’s challenges when we know that others suffer or fail or yearn. When we read about love, forgiveness, and success.

Some people write for revenge—to show others that they were wrong. Who’s to say if this is a “correct” motivation, and it might make a good story—if you are not sued by those you’re accusing. Write a first draft to get out the feelings, and then stand back and assess if it is publishable. Maybe it is just good therapy.

Judith Barrington in her book Writing the Memoirtells us that the memoirist whispers in the ear of the reader, sharing intimate details. The tone is personal; the reader is being inducted into the special club of the family, friends, town, group whose inner life is detailed in the book.

But for most writers of memoir, the very thing that makes a memoir interesting sends shivers down their spines. Write intimate secrets? Reveal personal details? As much as the story might be interesting and even compelling, the inner critic taps them on the shoulder and as they write, or try to, and the critic’s warnings shut down the flow of words. “You can never go home for the holidays again if you write this. They will disown you. No one else agrees with you so you must be wrong. You will lose your friends, and you will be isolated.”

These voices are the inner critic, but what if your fears are justified? Each person has a family and friends who have their own versions of history and “reality.” Perhaps your family really is very private, and they will truly ostracize you if you write a memoir. I have met students for whom this is true. You might be aware that writing certain truths that are evident and not all that significant to you will be very hurtful to someone in your family. Does that mean you have to give up your writing?

James Frey wrote A Million Little Piecesand appeared on Oprah after he was accused of making up parts of his memoir. He admitted that he had done this, and there was confusion about how much the publisher was involved in selling as a memoir a book he’d presented as fiction to the publisher. Afterward, this public flogging/debate caused many memoirists to be fearful and almost too careful when writing their memoirs. I find that most memoirists take great pains to be accurate, almost to the point of not writing. Just write your truth, and be as accurate as you can. After all, a memoir is about memory, not just facts.

Here are some tips for dealing with these challenging issues:

1.    Write the story you feel passionate to write, and keep it private until you are finished. Don’t tell anyone you are writing a memoir, except your writing group or perhaps your best friend. Don’t show it to anyone but your writing group. Protect your creativity.

2.    In your first draft, lay out your story without much editing, trying not to let your inner critic shut down your story. Write down the inner critic’s comments to get them out of your head.

3.    Make a list of the important truths of your life that you want to tell in your memoir.

4.    Write about the truths that you don’t want to put in your memoir. Seeing them on the page can help you sort out the focus of your story.

5.    Create an imaginary dialogue between yourself and family members who don’t want you to write about them.

6.    List the 10 reasons you want to write your memoir.

By wrestling with your truths, you will find your way into the interior of your memoir, and yourself. Sift through the significant themes, stories, and turning point moments, and decide what your story is that you want to write, the story that is only yours to tell.

About Linda Joy Myers

Linda Joy Myers, Ph.D. is the president and founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers. She is the prize-winning author of Don’t Call Me Mother: Breaking the Chain of Mother Daughter Abandonment, and Becoming Whole: Writing Your Healing Story. Linda Joy is a therapist, speaker, and writing coach, and offers online teleseminars on memoir writing.

www.namw.org

www.memoriesandmemoirs.com

Writers can never get too much advice from editors about how to improve their writing. And even editors can learn from other editors. That’s why I asked yet another editor to join me in writing a blog for Write Nonfiction in November.

Teresa Leyung Ryan and I move in similar circles, and many of my friends and associates rave about her work. I attended a class Teresa co-taught at the San Francisco Writers Conference two years ago (actually I repeated the class again last year) on how to pitch to agents, and that year I won the pitch contest at that very same writing conference using information I learned from her. (I have to admit the pitch I made was for a novel…That was the year I entered and won NaNoWriMo.)

Most of the people I know, however, offer testimonials about her manuscript consulting services, so I asked her to write a blog post about creating compelling writing. She did this by providing a view through her eyes – an editor’s eyes. Additionally, she has used several memoirs as examples, making this post a perfect prelude to tomorrows post on writing in that genre.

How to Look at Your Manuscript with an Editor’s Lens

By Teresa LeYung Ryan

Manuscript Consultant and Career Coach

Author

Since writing a story with the intent to engage the reader is so much like meeting a stranger and wanting him/her to be interested in you, I will focus on how to make the first quarter of your story a compelling read.

I love working with diligent writers who want to transform their manuscripts into page-turners. However, there are things you can do before you give your work to an editor. Let me show you how you can help yourself.

As an editor, the four biggest mistakes I encounter are manuscripts that are weak in these elements:

• Planting hook(s) or story-question(s);
• Grounding the reader with the three Ws (Who?  When?  Where?);
• Showing (not telling) what the protagonist wants;
• Paying attention to language and rules

Let’s learn from the pros.

Planting Hook or Story-Question:

In The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, Maxine Hong Kingston hooks us with the first line: “You must not tell anyone,” my mother said, “what I am about to tell you…”   Then, Ms. Kingston transitions into her story with:  “Whenever she had to warn us about life, my mother told stories that ran like this one . . .” 

Grounding the Reader with the Three Ws:

In Woven of Water, while the story timeline spans from 1957 to 2005, Californian author Luisa Adams brilliantly shows us who she was as a girl (not with a year-by-year narrative, but with a single exquisite chapter).  Because she grounded us with “who, when, where,” we eagerly follow as she takes us into her enchanted world of a “cottage in the forest.”

Showing What the Protagonist Wants:

In The Other Mother, young Carol Schaefer wants to ask questions:  “Was there any way to keep my baby?  Was there anyone who would help me find a way to do that?”

Paying Attention to Language and Rules:

Read the first five pages of Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt and you will see how this wordsmith plays with language and rules. (You can “bend” the rules to create flow, but you must not ignore them.)

Sentences Deserve Your Attention:

 Nina Amir’s post on her blog  http://writenonfictioninnovember.wordpress.com/2007/11/ is a must-read.

 Remember Groucho Marx’s line “One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas…”? That sentence got a lot of laughs.  But, what if you didn’t want to be funny (ambiguous in this case)?

How would you rewrite these poorly constructed sentences?

• He likes to fish near the Farallon Islands and they jump when they’re hungry at dawn or dusk.
• She insists on knowing when I come home and leave, not to be nosy, but for safety reasons.
• Being cautious as not to step on the dog’s tail, the children tip-toed away from him while sleeping.
• My husband still in bed snoring, I have always enjoyed rising before dawn and I eat my toast and drink my green tea on the terrace.

To improve your sentence structure and other skills, I recommend these books:

• The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White
• Woe is I: Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English by Patricia T. O’Conner

More Advice:

• In all four stories (The Woman Warrior, Woven of Water, The Other Mother, Angela’s Ashes), the authors present memorable experiences by employing authentic details, unusual story-worlds though real, and poetic language. You want to do the same for your story.
• Also, these stories have another vital component-all four plotlines have what Martha Alderson, author of Blockbuster Plots, Pure and Simple, calls “Cause and Effect” linked scenes.  Another must-read blog:  http://plotwhisperer.blogspot.com/search?q=first+quarter
• When you’re writing non-fiction and do not have the luxury of rearranging the sequence of events to create a page-turning plotline, you can engage the reader by using concise expositions to leap over blocks of time in order to focus on the core themes and fast-forward the story. A helpful website: http://www.memoriesandmemoirs.com
• You the author must show the reader what the protagonist wants, even if the protagonist doesn’t know at first. 
• We don’t have to “like” a protagonist, but, we do need to connect with him/her on an emotional level.

In the fiercely competitive arena of the publishing world, how does one stand out in a crowd?  Building relationships is one key to success in this business. Another key is to know how to translate the themes from your life to your writing and articulate those themes as community concerns.  I want to see all hardworking writers realize their dreams. My best wishes to you!

About Teresa LeYung Ryan

Manuscript Consultant and Career Coach Teresa LeYung Ryan, author of Love Made of Heart, helps clients identify themes and polish their manuscripts, market themselves to agents and publishers, and map out their careers. She specializes in creative non-fiction, memoirs, women’s fiction, and fiction for children and young adults. She is the Literacy Liaison for Women’s National Book Association–SF Chapter, Group Mentoring Co-Chair at California Writers Club–SF Peninsula Branch  and Past President at California Writers Club–SF Peninsula Branch. Additionally, Teresa uses her mother-daughter story, Love Made of Heart, to advocate compassion for mental illness and to help survivors of family violence find their own voices.  The book is: archived at the San Francisco History Center; recommended by the California School Library Association; recommended by the California Reading Association; and used in Sociology classes and Advanced Composition English-as-a-Second-Language classes.

 www.LoveMadeOfHeart.com