A Life in Reflection: Memoir and Revision

            Hello, HarperCollins?  Are you there?  …I guess not. 

Reflection in Memoir is crucial.

            Time to rise from my knees, add reflection to my life, and revise.  It’s so easy to type, isn’t it?  So much harder to do.

            Writing is a career.  I need to remember this.  And like other careers, some tasks can be more difficult.  Revision.  More often than not, I understand narrative arc, characterization, and sense of place.  I know not to bog down my prose with too much detail.  [I try, I really try…]

            I know to hook the reader at the beginning of the story.  In medias res?  At least for my short stories, I do.  Build tension?  Definitely.  A ticking clock—whether age-related, as in my memoir about attending college with five children in tow, or literal—helps.  Each scene counts.  Everything used in story must be integral to the plot.  Always.

            It shouldn’t be “I, I, I”—even in memoir.  But how to break that cycle?  I’m a scene painter, but need to decide if each one is the right color for the memoir. 

I try to create flowing prose with varied sentence structure.  …Sometimes…I think.  Then again, I’m still in the market for a good critique partner.

            Knowing the rules of writing is one thing.  Doing all of them is another.  One at a time, comb the manuscript for potential errors.  Otherwise you’ll remain on your knees and fail to return to the computer.  No one said writing was easy.

            Do you have some revision tips to share?  Please leave a comment.  It is always greatly appreciated.  Happy Spring!  

The Need for a Book Synopsis to Clear the Brain

Journaling about Spring

Did you ever get to the point that you’ve been looking at the same material over and over and perhaps it was time to step back and analyze it?

            I’ve gotten to that point, and I think that a book synopsis is just the thing to clear my brain to see the manuscript as a whole, to see the turning points and character growth.  To see what I have learned attending college for ten of my children’s growing up years. 

            There’s so much information online about synopses.  I started with a post by Laurel Cohn which gave me general guidelines to set up a book synopsis, like keeping the word count under 500.  But what to include…

            I stared at my 14 chapters until my eyeballs fell out.  I knew I still needed to divide some of the latter chapters.  Finally, I decided to describe a few turning points in the synopsis and assure the publishers that I did complete my bachelor’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania.  Then I asked my good friend Jennifer M. Eaton to look at it.  As an experienced Y.A. novel writer, she knows about synopses. 

She asked me one important question.  “Where’s the humorous voice?” 

Leave it to the experienced writer to see through my thin veil of knowledge.

Simple solution:  Describe the college journey through my humorous voice in the synopsis.  Sounds easy.  It’s not. 

Luckily I had made topic sheets for each chapter so I knew at a glance where I had covered what in my memoir.  I found the anecdote about driving the children to the dentist for checkups and trying to tell them about the psychology I was learning.  This helped me study.  However, Pavlov’s dogs were easier to train.  The children kept pushing each other in the van and interrupting me.

I made study tapes for courses to listen to at the children’s swim meets, but then my ear jack disengaged and everyone heard about the horror of Holocaust during the dive competition.  My husband told me I wasn’t allowed to bring the study tapes to the kids’ events when he was present.  I combed the topic sheets for other gems to relate what I hoped was my humorous voice in the memoir.  

  

Why all this angst about writing a book synopsis at this time?  HarperCollins is seeking submissions and no agent is required.  They want adult fiction, romance, young adult fiction, memoir, illustrated non-fiction and more.  You can find details here http://www.wednesdaypost.com.au/ 

A bit more tweaking of the memoir and I’ll be searching for some beta readers.  Would anyone like to read a portion of my memoir or the whole thing?  No rush…unless HarperCollins comes to call.

Finding the Unique Voice for Your Memoir: Are you a Hemingway or a Fitzgerald?

Hemingway says: to write
"All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed."

I’ve been thinking about voice for my memoir about attending college while raising five young children.  A few years ago, I went to a workshop on memoir at a Peter Murphy Writing Seminar.  At the conference I learned to find my unique voice. 

Writers were supposed to come to the workshop with a memoir essay for critique that first morning.  My essay spoke of taking my children with me to sign up for college.  Five cranky children and one woman who didn’t know what she was doing, standing in a line for what seemed like ages…well, you get the scenario. 

If you’ve read any of my camping adventures with the family on my Camping with Kids blog, you’ll see my writing style.  What I didn’t understand, though, was how closely related my writing style was to my voice.  I write conversationally, concretely, and I find the humor in anything.  To me it’s the only way to survive life—especially when attending college as a mother of five.  The critique group was very encouraging of my fledgling memoir voice.

Then we all disappeared to write more on our memoir subject and returned after lunch.

For the second essay, I decided to obtain feedback about a classroom scenario—no children.  Should be the same voice, right?  

It was unanimous. 

“This is not the same Victoria Marie we enjoyed this morning.” 

Silly me.  I thought it was.

The critique group informed me that this second essay was too academic sounding, too many similes, too much comparison, too much description.  They enjoyed the lively scenes and interactions with my family, most especially my children.

Oh yes, my children certainly are characters.  But so am I in this memoir.  I am both the narrator and the main character; a shy [yes, really!] unsure mother who decides to better herself and thereby her children by attending college.  I am not the same woman at the beginning of the memoir that I am at the end.  And therein lays the growth in character, the narrative arc of the memoir. 

As for voice, (or is it style?) it appears that I am more the Ernest Hemingway-type of writer than an F. Scott Fitzgerald-type of writer.  The critique group enjoyed my active scenes and verb choices, short crisp descriptions, and concreteness.  Flowery Fitzgerald (my term) is more the complex sentence (and words!) and cerebral thoughts kind of writer with lots of poetry and comparison.

I was reminded, when researching this blog post, that these two masters of the writing canon were contemporaries and had the same editor.  So what kind of writer are you, a Hemingway or a Fitzgerald?  Do you feel that voice and style are synonymous?  

The Importance of Silence

I like to lose myself in the beauty of nature when I can.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the importance of silence in life.  True, it’s probably because I don’t have any in my life.  But it appears to me that many people, especially young people, seem afraid to embrace solitude, to do nothing and just listen to their thoughts for a while.  I still substitute teach, and I find a lot of high school students listening to ear buds, music spilling out of both buds and students.

            Silence allows the mind to roam through memories, think about family and friends, consider knowledge accumulated, nature around us, or maybe even the world.  I understand the need to interact with others.  Humans are a social animal, after all.  Social media allows for a further group of contemporaries, but sometimes, I think there is a need to be by yourself and just listen to what’s going on in your head and perhaps your heart. 

            Ancient Greek philosophers and British Romantic Poets, to name but a few, were lucky enough to find the silence in life and expound upon it.  True.  They were mostly male, their careers consisted of sitting and thinking, and daily needs were met by servants.  Still contemporary writers should try and find some alone time to think.

            Here’s a challenge for you, and believe me it is a challenge.  Find an hour of quiet and immerse yourself in it.  It doesn’t need to be daily, although that would be wonderful.  Two or three times a week will do.  Turn off the television or radio.  Hide in the closet if you need to.  I do.  I choose the utility closet.  I don’t have to worry about anyone looking for the vacuum.  No one vacuums unless I beg. 

Occasionally I’m discovered, before my hour is up, when a child dumps over a dead houseplant and needs the dust pan and broom.  I know; I should be happy about that.  But she snitches before picking up the dust pan every time. 

“I found her!”

     

            This is why I’ve taken to hiding in the local library when I can.  Except it’s not as quiet as it used to be.  Now libraries seem to be gathering places and tutoring centers. 
         

            I think a little silence in life might be the easiest way to hear your life story, understand your thoughts, possibly even discover something new about yourself and thus help someone else through your writings. 

I hope your 2015 is starting off just right and that you can find a little silence in your life to enjoy.   

Exploring the Inner Self in Memoir

Santa puts the tinsel on the tree!

I need to show my hard-won epiphanies through self-reflection.  I need to present my memoir in ways to allow readers to enter upon the college journey.  I went to college as a mother of five, but that journey needs to be more than just a collection of experiences at college and at home with my family as I struggled to keep up with my studies, struggled to comprehend new subject material, struggled to discover a new Victoria Marie.

I must explore the inner self, reflect upon it, so that my reader can identify with me.  This sounds like the inner dialogue, which I’m incorporating into my memoir manuscript.  But through inner dialogue, the memoirist needs to discover something about herself, through reliving the experiences, the struggles.

In the throes of my second revision of the college memoir, I discover courage.  It took courage to attend each class.  Courage to believe in myself though surrounded with doubts and inadequacy, embarrassment.  Courage to face my fear of failure.  Courage to face the fear of success, for in success comes opportunity.  Opportunity changes lives. 

I would never be the same after my adventures through college.  And neither would my family.  It took a whole family to get this mother through college.     

I need to craft these discoveries into well-stated epiphanies/themes and then be sure that they resonate throughout the memoir.  Through specific details, the memoirist can achieve universality. 

There’s my timer again.  My home smells of cinnamon and honey.  Time to take the Amish friendship breads out of the oven.  Time to share the smells of Christmas with family, neighbors and friends.  May your Christmas be filled with the treasure of family and friends and may you all achieve success in 2015.  Thanks for stopping by Adventures in Writing.

The Importance of Internal Dialogue in Memoir

            Remember, memoir is not autobiography.  Memoir recounts an important time in the writer’s life, an important journey, happy or sad, triumphant or not, where a discovery is made.  This journey is merely a slice, not the whole life pie.  But within that slice, as in fiction, internal dialogue is important. 

Discovering the possibilities

Internal dialogue is a dialogue the writer/character has with herself.  This dialogue in memoir usually projects present day thoughts or logic or knowledge onto prior actions of the writer/character.  It’s like an interpretation of the preceding action, scene, or anecdote. 

Like fiction, memoir cannot be merely a collection of scenes, dialogues, or actions.  Some scenes and actions are used to move the plot forward, to create tension, or to enhance characterization.  Other scenes need to be interpreted by the writer through internal dialogue. 

Interpretation in memoir explains why a particular action is so important in the writer’s journey.  The writer attempts to revisit that part of her life again, through memoir, and discovers newfound knowledge to share with the reader. 

            As I move ahead in my revision work of the college memoir, I’m probing beyond my literal college experience to discover the epiphanies that I was too busy to see at the time with the daily grind of college and family life.  My husband and children find my scribbled thoughts on torn pieces of paper left on tables and counters, bookshelves and bathroom vanities.  I tell them to throw away nothing they find and put it on my desk on the porch.  When I get time, I type them into the prologue document to my memoir and sort them from there.  [This cuts down on the fire hazard in our home.]

Memoir needs to be more than autobiographical.  It needs to provide insight not merely the facts of the experience.  Memoir is a writer’s story about a specific time in his or her life with the writer’s present day reflections on that time.  

Oh…the timer’s beeping and I need to get the apple pie out of the oven.  I hope you all have a blessed Thanksgiving.  Thanks for stopping by.       

Ellen Gable Hrkach, Historical Catholic Fiction Writer

Welcome, everyone, to my Adventures in Writing Blog.  I am honored to have with me today Ellen Gable Hrkach, an award-winning historical Catholic fiction writer.  

Ellen has published 4 Catholic fiction novels to date:

Emily’s Hope

Stealing Jenny

In Name Only,

and most recently A Subtle Grace

A Subtle Grace is alive with drama.  The obstacles are many; the characters, lively.  The devil lives in the historical world of the O'Donovan family.  The writer knows her genre.  This Catholic Fiction novel demonstrates the power of love and faith to forgive and protect.  You won't be disappointed. 

Thank you, Ellen, for visiting with me. 

Ellen:  My pleasure.

VML:  Ellen, what made you decide to become a writer and how long have you been writing?

Ellen:  Many years ago, I began writing in a journal to ease the grieving process after suffering several miscarriages. These journal entries actually served as the basis for my first published article, “Five Little Souls in Heaven,” which was published in the Nazareth Journal in 1995. From there, other articles were published in various Catholic magazines.  Around 14 years ago, after researching about my family tree and finding out some unusual aspects about my great-grandmother, my husband suggested that I write a novel based on the parallel true stories of myself and my great-grandmother.  I learned how to write a novel in that (four year) period of time.  When I finished that book, I knew that I wanted to write more novels.

VML:  And write them, you did.  It’s amazing that your books have been downloaded over 500,000 times on Kindle since 2010.

Ellen, why did you choose Catholic fiction as your genre?

Ellen:  First, I’m Catholic. Fifteen years ago, there were very few Catholic novels. As a novelist, I wanted to write in a genre that I could relate to, that was inspiring and was less competitive than other genres.  Most Christian novels are generically Christian; the characters sometimes pray and often seem “too good.” I wanted to write complicated stories and create believable characters with depth from a Catholic point of view.

VML:  Fully developed characters are needed for readers to become involved in stories.  And of course, it isn’t a story without conflict.  Ellen, some writers begin with a situation, some with characters.  As a writer of historical Catholic Fiction, how do you begin writing a novel?

Ellen:  I usually start with a situation.  I outline the basic story and a few simple ideas for characters. This often takes months, even years, given my other duties and responsibilities.  Once I have the basic outline complete, I then spend several months researching.  This is one of my favorite parts of the process and fairly easy, given modern access to the internet. Next step is to write character studies, and then begin writing the first draft.

VML:  Ah!  I’m not a pantster either, except for my YA short stories.  I believe in the outline for longer work.  What some writers forget is that an outline is just a way of keeping you writing.  Outlines are merely guidelines and are apt to change slightly as the storyline grows and moves forward.  Now character studies are a great idea.  I learned about those in one of my earlier writing courses.

The process of writing and re-writing can be a tedious one--especially for full-length novels.  How do you know when your novel is ready for the presses?

Ellen:  It’s hard to explain.  With my own novels, I get to a point where I need to move on to the next project.  Once I’ve finished my first presentable draft, I then work with a developmental editor (who assists with plot and characters, as well as sentence structure), then I work with two copy-editors.  The “tedious” edits are definitely not my favorite part of the process, but they’re very important because each time a manuscript goes through an editing process, it becomes more polished and helps the story and characters shine more brightly.  Four to six proofreaders then read through for typos and other errors missed by myself or the editors.

VML:  Lucky you to have such a writing support staff.  Writing is not the solitary profession it was once thought to be.  And even then, writers discussed details with other writers.  Always great advice to have others read the manuscript when you’re finished to see if what the writer thinks is on the page, in fact is.

Do you have any advice to offer writers on how to stay committed to a longer writing project?

Ellen:  Perseverance and patience!!  These are two virtues that are absolutely essential to the modern writer.

VML:  The two “p’s” of writing.  I’ll always be a writer, but the patience needed to hear back on my manuscripts is the difficult part for me. 

How about you, fellow readers?  Which is more difficult for you, in whatever you do; perseverance or patience? 

Thank you so much, Ellen, for stopping by my Adventures in Writing blog.  You can connect to Ellen Gable Hrkach on the web at www.ellengable.com.  Her books are available at http://www.amazon.com/Ellen-Gable/e/B002LFMXOI/.