WRITING AMIDST THE CHAOS OF WIND, BLIZZARDS, AND ISBN NUMBERS
The year 2019, quickly revealed itself as one of those once-every-ten-year winters in the Pacific Northwest. On Sunday evening, January 27th, up on Orcas Island, somewhere above the heads of the 30-foot tall cedar trees that surround us there, I heard the thunderous roar of a vicious wind, the kind that comes directly at us from the Fraser Valley in Canada. By 8:30 p.m. we were being pummeled by winds of 50 plus mph. Later we’d learn from island ferry reports that some gusts hit 90 mph. Almost immediately a 30-foot long branch full of attached smaller branches crashed down alongside our deck. At that point, I cloaked myself in a fuzzy gray blanket, a Christmas gift to myself, and hunkered down on a small couch in our office, an inside room with fewer windows. I spent the night cowering in awe of the wind.
We tried to leave Orcas Island for several days. Orcas had little snow at that time but high winds were still predicted in coming storms. However, even if we got on the ferry and made it to the mainland, roads and schools there were closed due to six to 12 inches of snow. As January ended, that Thursday dawned with sun, mainland roads appeared to be accessible, and we scooted across on roads and ferries to arrive at our home in Union at the end of Hood Canal. I was glad to be wearing my little blue rubber boots as we walked our dog Surprise at Smokey Point rest stop near Everett in several inches of snow where the parking lot remained ice covered.
The next morning we rushed out to load up on groceries, meds, and gas. As we returned home, the world became a snow globe. We found ourselves homebound for five days as a multiplex of storms dropped eighteen inches in our area solidified by below freezing temps. When all abated, Rich remembered his backhoe was in the RV barn and there was also an old snowblower that had accidently been put in the moving van when we came to the Northwest in 1993. While Rich used his machinery and I shoveled the walks around the house to make paths for our animals, I mused about writers in this area who brag about the creative moments they find when pushed inside by stormy, rainy, foggy winter months. (No doubt we’ll experience an explosion of books published in 2019!)
Actually all of this was almost a welcome distraction from my book dilemma as Parsing the Dragon: A Memoir floundered for months in an amazon entanglement of two separate ISBN numbers. Corrections weren’t made and sales and marketing stopped.
Are you now thinking about your own stories? Whenever I hear from readers who’ve read my book, they eventually begin to tell me their own stories but when I suggest they write up their stories and even offer to help them do this, they cry out, “I couldn’t write my story!” or “How could I do that?”
BEGIN SOMEWHERE - When I teach, I call this “building the clay.” Below are some ideas to help you get started. Reading these, you may find you have already started and just didn’t know it!
SELECT A SLICE OF YOUR LIFE - Zero in on a moment, a set of years, an event. A memoir differs from an autobiography, which covers a person’s entire life (such as Michelle Obama’s book Becoming and John Kerry’s Every Day is Extra), which tend more toward autobiography than memoir. Think of your life as an entire pie, with the memoir story as a small slice. The slice can incorporate other parts of your life but the focus is what happened inside that slice. In my book, I highlight the last eight years of my parents’ lives and introduce my relationship with my mother. I use flashbacks to show related parts, such as childhood stories, or years we spent in La Jolla that relate.
SKETCH OUT A TIMELINE OF YOUR LIFE TO SEE WHAT TO HIGHLIGHT - Include important dates and events.
BEGIN TO KEEP A JOURNAL - As I traveled to and from Decatur, Illinois, and La Jolla, California, to help care for my parents between the years of 2006 to 2014, I journaled each visit. These notes later helped me fill in stories and formed a structure for my book.
READ MEMOIRS - Study memoirs by reading them. How did the author frame the story? What was the central focus? What is the timeline? Dip into the amazon book list and check out the newest memoirs. Find ones that relate to your topic. Check out some of these from your library and read them.
FICTION TECHNIQUES - Good memoir writers study and use the techniques of fiction such as character, metaphor, setting, action. How does the memoir writer use these tools?
SAVE YOUR OWN CREATIONS - like newsletters. One friend of mine writes extensive Christmas letters, usually sending them in January. These include stories of how she and her husband share time with their multiple grandchildren and great grandchildren. The newsletters include many photos.
GATHER A COLLECTION OF PHOTOS - As you write your story, gather corresponding photos. Once you find a publisher, you’ll have this piece prepared.
BEGIN A BLOG - Perhaps your memoir is about a topic that lends itself to a blog. For example, my husband focused his memoir on mentors. As you blog, try sending out articles and ideas to magazines or online publications. You may find yourself writing up short stories or poems. Published pieces of your memoir can help you find a publisher after you’ve completed your story.
KEEP EVERYTHING TOGETHER in a file or notebook.
ATTEND WRITER EVENTS AND CONFERENCES and CLASSES to learn more about writing your memoir, fiction techniques and marketing and publication.
If you do even some of these things, you may suddenly find yourself on your way to not just telling your own story but writing and publishing.
In my book of poems Tiny Shooting Stars (p. ix), I talk about those shooting stars which appear in my mind as flashes of light. I say, “Poems resemble tiny shooting stars. Their lights flash through many words—mine and those trapped by others. Some slip away. . .Some shoot into darkness and no one opens them. They get crumpled or trampled or tossed away. Once in awhile I catch a poem (or an idea). I hold and caress it. When sent out, if no one else treasures it, fine. The poem brought a message to me; that was enough. Catching a shooting star, even for a moment, even if only you catch it, is special.”
Use your journal or a notebook you carry with you or your tablet or computer to catch those shooting stars. Once they slip away, they seldom return.
HAPPY WRITING!
In a future blog, I’ll list some of my favorite memoirs and some “how to write” books I prefer. I’ll also provide a peek into my next book.
Photo by Cooper Studios 409 W. Railroad Ave., Shelton, WA 98584 cooperstudios.net
UPDATE: Beginning sometime between early to mid-March, readers on Orcas Island, WA will be able to purchase my book at Darvill’s Bookstore in Eastsound! The book can also be found at the Orcas Island Library.
The book is also available for those in the Timberland Library area in the South Puget Sound area. For more information about where to find my book Parsing the Dragon: A Memoir visit the tab in my website.
ParsingwithSusan Winter Book Recommends:
Lincoln Raw: A Biographical Novel by DL Fowler, Harbor Hill Publishing, 2014 Intriguing story of Abraham Lincoln told through first-person accounts.
Almost Everything: Notes on Hope by Anne Lamott, Riverhead Books, (Penguin Random House), 2018 Inspirational vignettes show how love can bridge life’s events.
The Library Book by Susan Orlean, Simon and Schuster, 2018 A comprehensive, well-researched and brilliantly written narrative of the devastating fire at the Los Angeles Public Library on April 28, 1986.