South Jersey Writers Group

A mix of stories from the Writers Group

A fellow writer from the South Jersey Writing Group has interviewed me for the blog Tall Tales and Short Stories from South Jersey.  Please follow the link to read the interview and see family photos.  Let me know what you think.   

 Thank you so much.

 

South Jersey Writing Group

What to Include in Memoir

Hard-working mother in college

Memoir isn’t a life story.  That is autobiography.  Memoir is one particular period in a person’s life, one instance or one experience in which the memoirist has come to an epiphany or several epiphanies from that experience and wishes to share that insight with the reader.  Memoir provides insight not merely facts of the experience. 

 

It is not necessary to include everything that happened in the particular period which the memoirist wishes to share and elucidate to the reader.  The memoir would be too long and rambling if I included every class taken.  After taking over 40 college courses, I decided to write about my experiences in approximately 25 of them.  Of course that’s not all I wrote about.  I focused on the trials and tribulations of raising a family of five children while attending college for ten years, ten of my children’s growing-up years, ten years of assisting my special needs child to achieve her educational goals.

 

Memoirs encapsulate the important moments, the “aha” moments in the slice of life the memoirist decides to share.  The general, the sameness in experience has no place in memoir.  Memoir needs to be poignant and full of meaning, and in my case, humorous.  For that was a way to cope in the daily grind of going to college as a mother of five.

 

Has anyone read a good memoir lately that I could add to my reading list?

Roving Through Revisions

When it's going well...

Although Hemingway and Anne LaMott may call the first draft by a different name, I feel my synonym works just as well.  I’m plodding through the poopy first draft of my memoir now, chapter by chapter, enlivening scenes here, clarifying details there, and hopefully offering enough insight so that readers can truly see what it was like attending college as a non-traditional student and still raising those five children.

Of course, I could tell the reader my experience in one word: exhausting.  However my fellow memoirists in the writing course I just finished thought I should be a little more specific.  I’m considering each edit of my manuscript, deciding whether or not a cut is in order or simply elucidation.  I’m not opposed to dropping summary in favor of a scene.  My fellow memoirists enjoyed the interaction between my children and me as I struggled through entrance to and classes in my college journey.  I find myself laughing out loud in the library where I sometimes hide to write, and then can’t wait for dinner that night to tell the family what I wrote about that day.  Pretty soon we’re all reliving the experience and laughing out loud.  This is what makes my memoir about college different from other college memoirs.

 

In writing through the memoir course attempting to get that poopy first draft completed, sometimes I rushed through or summarized important situations to finish a topic or to complete a chapter.  I was always looking ahead or trying to decide what to include and what to leave out.  This first revision allows me to open up scenes where there were none; to slow down the pace and allow the reader to absorb all that was happening.
 
Every writer revises, from experts to beginners.  What writing glitches do you deal with in revision?  Please share any tips.  Thanks.

Platform Building: A Must for All Writers

A friend from my South Jersey Writers group confirmed what I had been hearing in every class and on every blog.  “Your manuscript could be great,” he said, “but if you’re not socially connected, the publisher’s not interested in reading it.”    

 

Gone are the days when writers only had to focus on their writing.  Now we need to be masters of the social media if we want a publisher to look at our manuscripts. 

            But how do you become socially connected?  Here are some tips I picked up.  Ideas are welcome.

1.      Become an expert on the topic you write about.  Research about the topic.  Look for relevant current events and comment on them.

2.      Visit other blogs in your genre or topic.  Follow them.  Leave comments.  Tell people who you are.  Guest post on a blog where permissible.

3.      Create your own blog about your genre or topic and blog often.  Set up a consistent routine so followers know when you are likely to post. 

4.      Create an author page on facebook and invite friends to join it.  Announce when you have posted something new on your blog or website.  Ask people to visit and leave comments.

5.      Create a google+ account to connect with other writers and friends and associations relevant to your topics and become involved in online conversations. 

6.      Join twitter.  Tweet.  Retweet.  And “Like” tweets or comments.  Ask for retweets.  Thank the person for the retweet.  Use hashtags [#] and join online conversations.

7.      Join LinkedIn and become part of some online conversations there as well.

8.      Pinterest is a visual media.  If you can make visual connections to your topic or book, do so on pinterest. 

            These are all free.  You can also build a website [.com] and/or buy your name.  You can connect your blogs and media to your own website and sell your books through a link on your webpage.  I haven’t gotten to this point as I don’t have anything to sell…yet.   

            I completed my Write Your Memoir in 6 Months course.  My first draft is 65,246 words.  Now the real work begins.  Revision.  I hope to bolster up my media platform while I revise.  But as most of you realize, social media takes much time…and patience. 

How did you build your social platform and how long did it take before you started seeing some results?  Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving a comment.

What to Write in Those Confounded Chapters

What to say; what to say...

What’s your method for filling your chapters with words?  I begin with my outline topics for each chapter.  I do a lot of staring at the stupid blip blinking on that blasted blank white page.  Then I force myself to start elaborating on the topics.  When I can’t think of anything else to say about a specific topic, I move to the next topic and start babbling about it.  And back and forth I go. 

The beauty of the computer is that you can jump around scenes or even thoughts in any particular chapter.  You can just click where you want to pick up the topic and start typing.  Stop and then start somewhere else.  And of course you can always go back to modify what you have written.  Once I finish a writing session, I mark any section I’m working on with “*** Start” in red and next time I work on the manuscript, use the Find key to locate it within the document.

            How long should chapters be?  Is there a standard length?  In memoir you don’t want chapters too short.  The reader might think:  “no substance,” too long and “you lost me.”  It is important to write clearly and offer insight to any actions or anecdotes.  

I have a lot to talk about trying to master French in five easy [??] semesters, what with writing French blogs, presentations, videos, and research papers.  [I still don’t have a firm grasp of the language, but don’t tell Penn.]  My problem is that 10,000 words is too long for a chapter, so I need to break it up.  But where?

Perhaps the chapter should divide between community college courses and university level courses.  The advanced projects above came into play at the University of Pennsylvania.  Maybe the break should come after the community college courses and the entrance exam to be placed into the university level courses and then the second French chapter could be how I survived learning French at Penn.  What do you think?  The important thing to remember about any chapter is that it contains substance and moves the plot forward.

            I have 59,624 words and one more chapter to write before I have a complete first draft, and only two weeks to do it in.  Then the class is over and my first draft should be complete.  It will be close.  Wish me luck! 

Writing is not a Cookie-Cutter Science

Writing is not a cookie cutter deal

Take all suggestions to your writing as just that—suggestions.  It is, after all, your writing, not someone else’s.  This is why it is important to have a trustworthy writing/reading partner, someone who’s writing style or expertise you admire. 

            After taking writing courses at the University of Pennsylvania, I have learned to think about each comment before I start ripping my plot to pieces or thinking that the way I did things is wrong and the comment is absolutely correct.  Sometimes I consider the comment for a week or two before changing the manuscript or ignoring the comment altogether. 

Don’t let anyone tell you what you should be writing.  Write what eats away at you, what needs to be said.  That's what memoir is. Your story.  No one else's.  Writing is not a cookie cutter deal.  Oh sure, there are tips and suggestions on how to organize your writing or what to include in the scene or plot.  Just look at how many books, blogs, and magazines there are on the subject.  But in the end, you need to be true to yourself and to your story.  It is what's in your heart that needs to be said that counts.

I'm like a stick stuck in the quagmire of life. I'm not likely to budge unless an editor loosens me with a legitimate view or suggestion for my manuscript.  Of course I'm not always sure that's the correct attitude to take, buy hey, it's me.  How do you handle any feedback you receive from beta readers or critique partners?

Writers know what they want to say.  Occasionally they need a fresh pair of eyes, someone they respect, to make sure what’s on the page is what’s in the writer’s mind.  Don't ever let anyone slow you down or stop you from writing.

            Two months left in my Write Your Memoir in Six Months course.  I have close to 45,600 words and three more chapters to go to have the first draft complete.  Then the revising process begins.  Wish me luck!  Thanks for stopping by.

The Need for Objective Readers: Writing Partners

Writers helping Writers

Many times, I don’t see what’s missing from my scenes or story.  In memoir, the writer has lived through these adventures, and in most cases, can still experience these emotions.  So while I know exactly what’s going on in the scene, the reader may not.  Telling details may be missing from the manuscript.  This is where objective readers come in, a crucial part of any writing project.

            More specifics and reasons for emotions are two difficulties that I have in memoir writing.  But even in story writing, these are important issues.  The reader needs to know enough detail and reasoning to keep the story believable.  We don’t want the reader to leave the writer’s real past world of the narrator in memoir or make-believe world in fiction.

            Another important factor in memoir as in fiction is to keep the protagonist genuine for the reader to stay connected to him or her.  Yes, the protagonist needs to grow and develop throughout the manuscript, but his or her core beliefs or wit or in my case, her family-oriented lifestyle needs to show through in each chapter.

            In memoir as well as in fiction, this leads to a balance between scene and insight.  Scenes keep the story moving forward.  Insight helps the reader to know reasons for actions and emotion.  And objective readers can assist a writer in seeing any tip in the balance of the scale.  What do you think of this balance between scene and insight?

            Are you lucky enough to have a good writing/reading partner?  It’s important to have someone you trust, someone who understands your work or your genre. I have one and am truly blessed to have her input for my manuscript.

           It’s the halfway mark in my Write Your Memoir in Six Months course.  While I only wrote a little over 11,700 words for March due to family and work obligations, I have about 36,350 words altogether for the first eight chapters.  Thanks for your continued support.