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| On
a journey to a better beginning for the memoir |
*Yawn* [Excuse me.]
Writers need to pull readers into
their stories. Up till now, I’ve been
starting my memoir with the decision to begin college. With what my life was like before I started
college.
I understand the in medias res concept, opening the story
in the middle of the action. I open
chapter one of my memoir with a crucial scene from a YA short story I had
published in Cricket Magazine, but I
intersperse it with motherly duties to show my conflicting time: writer/mother. Then I [seem to] dump the reader into the
reality of picking up the children from two
different schools on a rainy day. I
allow the reader to interpret the children’s personalities through dialogue and
interaction or offering one line quips that
speak volumes about them. Still, I can’t
help but think this is a clumsy way to introduce my children to the reader.
While I ask what I feel are probing
questions about myself in an attempt to convince myself to sign up for courses
at the local community college, I wonder if maybe my present first chapter
should be a prologue instead, minus the opening writing scene, of course. What have you found the purpose of prologues
to be in books? Reading memoir, my
experience has shown that some memoirs have them and others don’t, and that
these prologues tell of the essence of the book.
Chapter two starts with my toting
the children along with me as I sign up for courses at the community college. Perhaps I could show the children’s
personalities there in that scene. Maybe
this is a better way to show in medias
res, the actual beginning of my college journey. Jump right into the journey instead of
thinking about it. Instead of showing
what my life was like before I started college.
Do you feel there is a need to show
the pastoral setting of my life before the decision to attend college? I do offer glimpses of my life with the family
throughout the college journey as it affects my journey. Thanks for any advice you may offer.