I love this time of year, closely followed by the fall. To me, the spring is a time of renewal — getting my goals, wants and needs in order for the year. I shake the cold off and look forward to being outside more. I think better outside. I am lucky enough to have a deck and patio so I can just bring my laptop to either and work away while enjoying Mother Nature’s bounty.

The winter is nice for a while but always lasts too long! I did get a lot of reading done but it was mostly mystery and thrillers. I needed a break from my writing and reading of memoir. But, now that spring is springing — I’m ready to get back into it.

Are you?

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Child Gets Award

Child was just named the recipient of the  Diamond Dagger Award given by the Crime Writer’s Association. I had previously “liked” his Facebook page and went to add my congratulations for the award.

There was a thread started on his wall where fans were adding their congrats on the awards. I started reading through them. The first few were standard congratulations. But, as I kept reading I started to see comments from fans about the “Jack Reacher” movie that was released in December.

Background on Jack Reacher

A little background is needed here in case you haven’t read Mr. Child’s books. He is up to 17 books in the series now. They all star Jack Reacher as the protagonist. In the books, he is described as:

• 6’5″
• 250 lbs
• dirty blonde hair
• blue eyes
• Child describes Reacher as not good looking, per say, but not ugly either 

The books tell us he has scars from various scuffles in his life including knife wounds, bullet wounds and shrapnel wounds. Beyond that, the majority of the descriptions in the books are about his demeanor, behavior, attitudes, personality and opinions.

To me, these are the important traits — the ones that make a character. Without them, he is just a mannequin, a crash test dummy — one dimensional.

Studio Makes the Movie

The book series was optioned by Paramount Pictures. They chose to make a film titled “Jack Reacher” based on the 9th book in the series titled “One Shot”. They cast Tom Cruise in the lead role.

Granted, he doesn’t fit the limited, physical description of Reacher in the books but (at least to me) the most important element is nailing the behavior, attitude and presence of the character — his essence.

Mr. Child has said on more than one occasion he was thrilled with Tom’s interpretation.

Think about it — it is very difficult to turn a character from a book into a person on the silver screen. There is no way to make everyone happy. We each see the character in our own way and then continue to view him/her with our own set of blinders on.

I have a picture of Jack Reacher in my head — most readers probably do. But, the person I picture in my head does not exist in the real world — he’s a fictional character from Lee Child’s mind and I have added to my perception and picture of him through each of the series books I have read.

It is not only a tall order but an impossible order for the studio to cast someone that matches the picture in my head — can’t be done.

But, they can cast an actor that epitomizes the essence of Reacher. That’s the best they can do and the most a writer hopes for when he sells his story to a studio.

Mr. Child has no control over the story after it has been sold. They can adapt it anyway they like. It’s the nature of the business and he was well aware of it.

The studio kept Child on as a consultant but that didn’t mean he had any authority — simply a weighted opinion. The director, Christopher McQuarrie, had final say but was smart to include the author of the fictional character in his corner. After all, Jack Reacher was the author’s brain child.

Back to Fan Comments about Jack Reacher Movie

Some of the comments on Lee Child’s FaceBook page were ridiculous, in my opinion.

To renounce yourself as a fan based on the choice of an actor for the movie is just silly. You weren’t a true fan to begin with if you can be that upset about casting. No one can take away the picture you have in your mind — same way that no one can duplicate the picture you have in your mind.

Personally, I think readers and writers usually have wonderful imaginations and don’t need things to be spelled out for them.

It really surprises me that some fans are so upset by the choice (of Cruise). I would have thought they could see past mere physical differences and get to the heart and soul of the character. Cruise nailed it — just like Child said.

I don’t need an actor to be a clone of a character. I can get past the physical and concentrate on the intrinsic personality and essence. After all, that’s what acting is all about — becoming someone else.

It’s not much but I say kudos to Lee Child and Kudos to Christopher McQuarrie, Tom Cruise and Paramount Pictures.

I’ll buy a ticket to every Jack Reacher movie you make just like I will continue to buy all of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher books.

Too good to miss!

Image Credit: Mark Coggins under CC by 2.0 License

Memoir writing is telling a story about yourself or a part of your life by writing it on paper. Simple as that. The easiest way to start is to chose a short story about a time, incident or situation you found yourself in. It can be funny, sad, silly or dramatic — it doesn’t matter. Now, you can just sit down and write it out if you are comfortable doing that. There, done!

Or, if you need to stretch your memory and writing muscles a bit first, you can outline your story before you start writing. Elements of a story are fundamental — we recognize a story because it contains these elements.

One way to look at the elements of a story is to go broad — we all learned in elementary school that a story has 3 parts –

• Beginning
• Middle
• End

Later, maybe in middle or high school literature classes, we learned that books and plays are also divided by this 3 part structure. However, now they are referred to as “Acts” — like this

• Act 1 – Beginning
• Act 2 – Middle
• Act 3 – End

Every story has an element that makes it a story. It’s usually referred to as the “inciting incident”. Basically, it means something out of the ordinary, not normal or unexpected happens. It usually creates a “desire in the protagonist, which is “you” in memoir. That’s the beginning or Act 1 of the story.

If nothing happens and it’s the same thing day after day after day — you have no story – it’s just a sequence of repeating events — Boring!

The middle of the story, or Act 2,  is all about you trying to fix, change or accomplish whatever the inciting incident started. It’s the action sequence of the story filled with obstacles and challenges that are in the way of the “desire” created by the inciting incident in Act 1. Act 2 builds to the crisis level, ready for the climax of the story.

The end or Act 3 is the climax and resolution or realization of the story. Somebody or something has to change or you don’t have a story. The change is the climax.

So, you choose a story from your life that you can tell from start to finish. I doesn’t have to be long and drawn out. Just a simple story to get your brain, hands and memoir working out a bit and to get you started. You don’t jump on a bicycle and ride your first time. You have to learn how to balance, pedal  and brake correctly first. You will fall down but you get back up.

Same thing with learning to write. You don’t sit down to write a 50,000 word book your first time out of the gate. Instead, you write a couple of short stories — start to finish — so you get the hang of writing and writing stories.

Below are a few links to some short memoir examples. Read one and see if you can pick out the story elements: 

• Act 1 — Beginning — Inciting incident and “desire” created
• Act 2 — Middle — obstacles, problems and actions you run into by chasing the desire created in the inciting incident.
• Act 3 — End — Climax and resolution or realization of the story

The Boss

Bowling and Bob

What’s Your Story? 

A Daughter’s Story

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Just a quick post today… I was researching dialog writing in memoir when I ran across this article: “Lying in the Land of Memoir: Straddling the Line Between Fact and Fiction” by Kathleen Finneran on the Writer’s Store website. It was amazing!

It should be read by anyone that is writing memoir. She tackles, head on, the ever-present argument about the memory of a memoirist. When I finished reading it, I smiled. She’s eloquent yet, to the point. If you have 5 minutes, click the link to the article above and give it a read. If you write memoir, you’ll appreciate her words.

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Instructions are everywhere. You could read a book a day and not get through just the listings for memoir how-to’s on Amazon for  almost two years! I think a lot of people are like me. You have an idea, you’ve narrowed it down to a specific time period of your life. You might even have an outline and a few scenes written. You’ve read tons of books about writing but you’re still having a hard time. Why?

In order to write a book or a story, you have to write. Period.

You have nothing to edit, show an agent or sell if you don’t write. Procrastination is a huge problem with would-be writers. I find myself in the middle of writing when I come to a stop. Instead of pushing through, I might pop over to check my email. That can result in a lost day of writing. The internet is a real problem for many of us. It’s so full of stories and information that it’s easy to get lost in reading rather than writing.

I always have a how-to book sitting near me it seems. That and a couple of pleasure reading books like James Patterson, Janet Evanovich or a memoir I am reading. It’s too easy to pick one up and get lost in the world of learning or someone elses life instead of facing what I should be doing — writing my own life.

Below are a couple of the ways I have learned to push through and continue writing. Maybe one of them will help other procrastinators — like me!

Stop the Procrastination and Start Writing

• As with most other people, writing memoir is not my job. I have a family to help take care of and money needs to be earned. I write online for several blogs and sites to earn an income. That means I have time to write my story but can be easily distracted by my home business. A friend of mine suggested a calendar to get and keep me organized. This has been a godsend.

Executive Weekly/Monthly Calendar

I use a Weekly/Monthly Calendar format. It sits open to the current month on my desk right next to my laptop. I am able to schedule all the articles and posts I need to write for my job and also schedule time to write for me. Somehow, when it appears on a calendar, it seems official. I use highlighters to mark off finished tasks. I love seeing all the neon colors when I look back on a month. I get a sense of accomplishment and even pride. I did it!

That doesn’t mean what is scheduled for a certain day gets completed on that day. Just that at a glance, I know what I have done and what still needs to be done. I make time to do it all just get those “feel good” endorphans. Yup, my calendar is a godsend.

• I know, scheduling time to write seems, well scheduled, institutional or at the very least, not very creative or artistic. However, if I waited to write only when I felt creative or artistic, I would hardly ever write.The thing about writing for me is just starting. Once I get over that hurdle, things start to flow.

The first paragraph or page might be nothing I can use but as I continue to write — stretch and limber up those writing muscles in my brain — it gets better.

• When I am stuck and not sure where to go next with my writing, I think of a story or scene from my life. Long, short or whether it will be in the finished book — it doesn’t matter. I write it from beginning to end without stopping.

It’s therapy, practice and gets me in the right frame of mind to continue writing my book.

 I’m not a teacher but a student of life and living. I share what I learn and hope to help others that might find themselves in the same situation. By sharing, we are helping each other on this road to writing memoir. Good luck to me and you!

Kristen Lamb via MYWANA Commons

I stumbled onto a blog post written by Kristen Lamb when I followed a link from the #Memoir Writing daily paper to a recent post of hers. Let me just say, I read through the first post, went and refilled my coffee carafe and then proceeded to drink in all the knowledge (along with the coffee), tips and witty repartee. I was all over her site — laughing out loud while learning some important elements to include (or not to include) in my writing.

I know there are millions of sites out there claiming to assist writers — new and old. In my opinion, Ms. Lamb’s delivers on that promise. She is an expert in Social Media for writers and has even authored two books to help us navigate the social media oceans:

We Are Not Alone: The Writer's Guide to Social Media by Kristen Lamb

Are You There Blog? It's Me, Writer by Kristen Lamb

Kristen started a movement she calls WANA (We Are Not Alone). It’s a group of authors and author wannabe’s that are learning from each other and Kristen about writing, how to use social media — learning how to start a blog, why you should and building a platform that is a necessity in today’s publishing world.

She encourages interacting with other WANA’s and with your followers. I can’t really explain it all here and there is no need since Kristen does it herself at Join the Love Revolution #MYWANA.

If you get a chance to look around her blog, you will find posts that cover just about any question an aspiring author might have. Things like setting, plot, genre, self-publishing, traditional publishing, tips for writing success and so much more. I really think I need to re-read what I have read so far and take some great notes.

Her voice is so real, inviting and down to earth. She’s funny, captivating and a wonderful teacher if you just read. I subscribed to her blog immediately and joined the MYWANA Commons project she has going on at Flickr.

If you are serious about writing, Kristen’s blog can help you — no matter the genre — good writing is good writing . Check it out here: Kristen Lamb’s Blog.

I know you will enjoy it, at the very least. She’s a Hoot!

Plot & Structure, by James Scott Bell

The book is personal. Mr. Bell shares his frustrations, failures and successes in the hopes of helping aspiring writers. Through out the book, he has gray shaded blocks with “Words of Wisdom”. One particular block was titled “The Nifty 350″. He says to be a writer, you have to write — first and foremost. You can learn some by example but actually writing is the best way to learn to write. (At one point, he even says to put down the how-to books and start writing.)

One of the ways he successfully overcame the blank sheet of  paper was by instituting a “writing quota” — his “Nifty 350″. He plans, each morning to knock out 350 words before he officially starts his day. He says that his day can quickly fill with life’s little (or big) distractions that easily keep him from writing (kids, phones, tasks, etc…) but that if he starts with his coffee and 350 words before he does almost anything else, he finds it motivates him to do even more.

It’s a jump start for the day. Sometimes he blows the quota away and other times he finds that the rest of his daily quota “doesn’t seem so daunting” if he gets those first 350 words under his belt. Either way, he’s a winner… err… writer.

So, instead of waiting to be inspired, taking care of the 101 other things I could be doing each and every day, I’m going to start my own Nifty 350 morning writing quota. At times it will be easy, other times probably not. However, I believe Mr. Bell when he says it inspires him and motivates him to keep going. I like the idea.

350 words doesn’t seem too hard to reach — I can do that.  Only took a few minutes and this post is 350 words.

I know a lot of people would say that the memoir genre is about people. Yes, but it’s more than that. I think a more accurate description of memoir is it’s about the 3 L’s —  life, living and learning.  Memoirs are made up of life’s ups and downs, successes and failures, dreams and tragedies. We can learn something about ourselves and our own lives from reading a good memoir.

Discovering Your Theme

Memoirs need a universal theme to appeal to readers. Themes like abuse, divorce, travel, coming of age, addiction, a death, war, disease, physical challenge, spiritual discovery, etc…  and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Agents, editors and publishers need a good, clear picture of theme. “The Elevator Pitch” is a very short description — 3 or 4 sentences is great — that tells them what the book is about. It needs to be specific and intriguing. You can’t just answer, “It’ about my life”. *yawn*

Sometimes you don’t realize what your theme is until you are writing it or have written it. Writing can bring things to light that we didn’t specifically plan to include or even realize. Many published memoirists have said they thought their book would be about “x” but when they were writing it, they realized it was really about “y”.

You Won’t Get Lost in the Crowd, if…

Although each memoir has a universal theme, the specifics, the details are not the same. Because every person is an individual, they have their own thoughts, feelings, perspectives and ways of dealing (or not dealing) with a situation. But, because it has a universal theme, readers can relate.

The stories and details of each memoir are different. That’s what distinguishes them from all the other memoirs on the same topic. Spend time honing the craft of storytelling and you will stand out from the crowd.

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The memoir genre, being only a slice of your life, has a good chance for ending happily. I guess I have always been drawn to the — obstacle enters — deal with obstacle — overcome or live with obstacle realization — as a formula for a story. This formula leaves me with the feeling, “If someone else has come through, I can too.”

It doesn’t really matter what the problem or obstacle is, it’s more about how you handle it emotionally.  I automatically know (since you are writing about it) that you made it through; there’s hope from the first page. I like to see how you dealt with your problem/situation/obstacle. I root for you throughout the text. I feel your pain, anxiety, tension, and finally, your triumph.

That is not to say that a memoir essay or book has to be about a major incident. For a while, a lot of memoirs were addictions, divorces, death of a loved one or abuse. These are all worthwhile topics that we can learn from. However, I truly love to read about things that I can relate to and apply to my own life or read about being somewhere or doing something I’ve only dreamed of. These are worthwhile topics, too.

I want to learn from you and your experiences. I want to share my experiences and hope you learn from me. Don’t discount your story because you’re not famous. Tell your story because it’s something (an obstacle) everyday people have also experienced or might experience. Find your unique “hook”.

Memoir writing can be healing, no doubt. But, it can also be humorous and insightful. Take a look at your life up to now. You have a story in there that’s worth writing, I just know it.

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My gut reaction to kids and memoir and adults and memoir is that it’s not much different. The genre is about telling a story — something that happened to you. Now, the content will probably be very different. They haven’t been exposed to as much as a person my age or my dad’s age so they have less to work with. However, the concept is still the same — you learn to write a story with a beginning, a middle and an end.

Kids and Memoir Writing

I enjoyed reading one article by a teacher titled “Easing into Memoirs” by Katheryn Gullo. She starts by saying to the class “Tell me about a time when you laughed harder than you’ve ever laughed before.”  She said hands shot up. See, for most people, telling a story is easier verbally, then in writing.

The whole lesson plan is very impressive. She covers defining a memoir, breaking it down — how’s and why’s, and revisions. It really is an excellent resource for anyone teaching children about narrative writing.

One line resounded with me especially. She said:

“It’s important to push my young writers to see that writing has to reveal something. Often, emerging writers choose to depict events because they happened, rather than because they expose the emotional core of the memoir.”

While she is referring to children writing, how many of you can relate to what she is saying? The how’s and why’s — the emotion of the writing is just as important to show as the chronological story. It is the heart of memoir. By the end of a story worth writing, the protagonist — you — has to have changed in some way or there is no point to the story.

More Kids and Memoirs Resources

Here are a few more articles and pdf’s I found around the internet that may help if you are trying to teach memoir to middle and high school aged kids:

Teaching Students to Read and Write a Memoir (pdf)

Teaching Kids to Write Memoirs

Memoirs (Scholastic.com)

Unit of Study 6 - Memoir: The Art of Writing Well 

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