Memoir workshop at Houston Public Library
Went to a kick-ass memoir-writing workshop last night at the downtown library. The free two-hour class was led by Thomas Larson, personal essayist, journalist at the San Diego Reader and author of The Memoir and the Memoirist. He also teaches college-level writing classes and workshops like the one I took last night.
I was so glad I went. Larson was an excellent speaker and was gently forceful in helping most of the people in the class brainstorm topics and reasons for writing a memoir. I already had my topic but I came away with lots of direction. I’m going to take a page from happykatie and list last night’s discussion outline-style.
Why this workshop?
- writers get stuck in the same patterns, writing the same stories
- as people write memoirs they are changed by the act of writing
- many times people are writing about issues they hadn’t really thought about until they started writing
- writing as therapy, writing as a tool to unlock our experiences
Memoir vs. Autobiography
- Autobiographies:
- written by public figures (politicians, celebrities, etc.)
- sell because we already know the person publicly and we are interested in their private lives. We assume their private lives are fascinating because of their public lives
- autobios seem more matter-of-fact
- autobios come from the tradition of men writing about their accomplishments
- often written chronologicaly (birth to right now)
- Memoirs:
- relatively modern genre, can be considered the opposite of autobios, but like autbios they are still personal stories
- based on memories, as if the author is looking back, i.e. not typically chronological
- if autobio is about joining the segments of a life, memoirs are about the segments themselves. You do not have to write the entire history of your life.
- memoir stems from the women’s movement; they are more about intimacy, relationships, shared experiences
- “Memoir exists for our emtional truth, not the factual truth.”
- memoir has infected every style of writing: self help, travel, sports, etc.
What is a memoir?
- “A memoir is a personal book about a singular subject that has had a significant impact on the writer.”
How to pick a topic
- Life Review — start by making three lists of important aspects of your life
- Personal relationships
- make a list of people who are/were significant in your life
- parents, relatives, grandparents, siblings
- friends, lovers, ex friends or lovers
- look for people who continue to haunt you — “Dreams from My Father” by Barack Obama is an excellent example
- can be people you know currently or those you knew long ago
- groups of people, communities
- nemesis
- bosses, coworkers, mentors
- anybody who has been very different from you — those people get us out of our boxes
- pets — “Marley and Me” (the story is not about the pet, but about the people who interact with it)
- Personal passions
- Memoirs do not have to be about negative experiences. Larry McMurtry’s last book, a memoir, is simply titled “Books”; chronicles his writing career and love of reading
- travel, food, etc. — “Eat Pray Love”
- past-times, hobbies
- places — a place you are a from or a place you love
- work
- spirituality or conversions
- Personal difficulties
- leaving one life to start another; transitions, starting over
- illness, addiction
- victimhood
- seperation, divorce, family struggles
- Now, select one topic from each list. From those three, pick ONE. Go with your gut. You can see how many of the topics intersect with one another. Once you have your topic, you will do some freewriting.
Freewriting
- Give yourself about five minutes each to answer these four questions, based on the topic you’ve chosen for yourself. Do not stop moving the pen until the five minutes have passed for each topic. Go with your instinct, do not think about what you are writing.
- Why is my subject/experience so significant?
- Take on part of your subject/experience and describe it in detail
- What is the most difficult or unclear aspect for your subject/experience
- What emotions are you feeling right now about your topic?
Other advice
- All we have is the potential to make the story interesting enough to read. It really doesn’t matter what the subject is, only that you can write about it well.
- If you can talk about it you can write about it. Many authors write as though they are speaking.
- Make sure your subject isn’t too broad or overwhelming.
- What if you think your writing is no good?
- “I never delete anything I’ve written. I don’t ever consider a day spent writing a waste of time. I love the feeling of having finished writing something.”
- “The cure for discouraging writing is more writing.” Hair of the dog
- Don’t think about writing a book. Just think about something important you want to write about and start there.
- The subject has to beckon you. If it’s calling you, half the battle is over.
- Your writing is your partner in this. The story does not only exist inside your head.
- “I like to provoke people. Get out of the box of what you think you should do and write about what’s important.”
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