What’s your point in fiction or memoir? #AuthorToolboxBlogHop

What’s your point? How often do we find ourselves asking this of a show we are watching, a lecture we’re listening to, or even of a friend’s anecdote?

The point of a piece of writing could be considered a theme or an idea you are trying to put forward. All writing needs a focused point to help guide the reader, whether it’s fiction or non-fiction.

I recently read a wonderful guest post on Writers Helping Writers by Daeus Lamb in which he offers a distinction between theme and the point of your story. Lamb posits that theme is the “moral topic” of your story and a “message is the point” you are trying to “make about that theme.”

I don’t think it really matters what you call it so long as you do in fact have a point to your story or essay. And nowhere is this more important than in memoir. 

Remember that memoir is told as a story. It’s one thin slice of life, one arc of transformation for the protagonist—the person writing the memoir story—as Jennie Nash ofAuthor Accelerator likes to say. The writer needs to step back and look at herself as a character and actually put herself through that arc of change for the reader.

How does she do this? By carefully selecting specific events from this certain time in her life and making sure the change is shown on the page through these experiences for the reader to understand. Readers need to be in the socks of the protagonist, experiencing this specific arc of change along with the protagonist.  

But which events from that specific time in life do you choose to include in the memoir? This is where the point of your story comes into play. The memoirist chooses the real events that prove the point of the memoir story.

Make no mistake. Finding the point of a story in the beginning when you are trying to write forward is extremely difficult. I’ve been playing with the point of my memoir about attending college as a mother of five for about two years now.  

I believe the point of my memoir is not to allow my world to be colored by how others see me. We shouldn’t give those around us permission to influence our feelings about ourselves. We need to dream. And then go after that dream and learn from our failures.

            My father said I was not college material when I tried to sign up for the college prep track in high school.

            My children’s school teachers/counselors/special education department said they knew more than I did and therefore I should listen to their instructions on how to raise and educate my children when they faltered academically; specifically, my special needs daughter.

            The doctor and the neurologist knew what I should do to deal with my special needs daughter’s ADHD and her social and learning problems.

            A few community college profs seemed to talk down to me, a mother who didn’t know higher level math or science, didn’t know literature, didn’t know psychology. [As I said, no college prep foundation.]

            A few Ivy League profs decided they were wholly better than I and told me I was wrong in my views—again and again.

            Even some of the Ivy League students thought they were better than I, especially in the higher level courses. After all, I was an older college student, not someone who earned the right to be at the Ivy League right out of high school.

            The events once I began my college journey furthered my inferiority complex, making me feel like an imposter. My misbelief was that college was not for people like me; someone from a blue collar family who struggled in school. I was a nontraditional college student, one who didn’t attend college right out of high school.

The point is I gave these people permission to influence how I felt about myself. I didn’t have the needed confidence to understand that anyone could have a “know-it-all” prof or come across students who felt they were better than others. I did this because I felt they were all smarter than I was. After all, they went to college right out of high school.

*Please offer any insight or comments you may have about this. Thank you!*

Memoir is a specific story about a specific person’s life and a specific arc of change that person goes through. But the writer needs to elevate that personal story beyond one person’s experience. She needs to elevate the story to become a universal story about how someone can overcome the circumstances she finds herself in; in other words, make the point of the memoir universal in scope. The writer needs to think of the protagonist’s situation with her eye on the horizon, looking ahead for what it all means.

I’d like to thank Jennie Nash for helping me understand this concept. Nash has an “Ask Me Anything” [AMA] on one Tuesday morning [Pacific Time] a month. At that time, participants may literally ask Nash anything about publishing and writing and she answers them live. It’s free. Her calendar may be found here. It’s definitely worth your time.

Thank you for visiting Adventures in Writing. Please follow my blog if you haven’t already and connect with me online. Leave your blog link in the comment so I can be sure to do the same for you. To continue hopping through more amazing blogs or to join our Author Toolbox blog hop, click here.

Insecure Writers want to know: If You could, What Would You Do Differently in 2017

Many writers are insecure, lonely animals. The publishing industry has changed drastically in recent years. Gone is the support system of old for writers when they had agents and editors who gave them courage to continue and help to shape their stories, where famous writers gathered at cafes or went abroad to write.

Most of today’s writers have full time careers and write on the side. We need to find our own support group. We need to swallow our fears—most times by ourselves—and search for the perfect critique partner or groups and pay for professional editing and more if we go Indie. In the old days, publishers nurtured their writers.

But as writers, we can’t cry over blotched ink! We need to make sure it doesn’t happen in the first place. To do that, the authors of today need to find like-minded individuals and form true connections in order to share information on writing and options on publishing.  

I have been blessed in 2017 to have connected with many wonderful writers online, mostly at IWSG and AuthorToolbox bloggers. I seek out your guidance, your experience in publishing and writing through reading your blogs. I also look to Writers Helping Writers, Jennie Nash, and Writers in the Storm blogposts for help in writing stories. I hunger for my local South Jersey Writers Group meetings and events and the camaraderie I share with them.

What would I have done differently in 2017? I would have liked to figure out this e-mail list building thing. How do I set it up on my blogspot blogs or is it only something you can do with a website?

Must you have a newsletter to send out to an e-mail list filled with information different from your blog posts? I assume the letter should be filled with tips like I try to do with my blogposts.

I don’t know how to have the popup appear for visitors to sign up for an e-mail list. Some of you have a box that pops up and I need to enter my name, email, and website in order to comment. Is that an e-mail list gathering tool and does it work with blogspot? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much for stopping by Adventures in Writing and offering your advice. Please follow my blog if you haven’t already. It’s greatly appreciated. Enjoy your holiday! 

This post was written for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group. We post on the first Wednesday of every month.  To join us, or learn more about the group, click HERE.  

Synopsis Mini Course Part 2

Surviving critique and revision in writing is
as tough as backpacking the
Appalachian Trail.  But it can be done!

Okay.  My revised synopsis critique came back. 

I don’t know about you, but I’m beginning to hate question words.  You know the type.  Why did you do that?  How did this make you feel?  When did this happen?  What exactly do you mean by that?  What finally made you decide?  Where’s the trigger?  Why now? 

Why, why, why?  How, how, how?  I feel like I’m in therapy.  She’s worse than my children with all her questions.  It seemed like everything I wrote wasn’t specific enough for this editor.  

All these details are supposed to be in the synopsis? 

There are mountains of messages in my margins.

She picked on my phrasing:

            This is too formal.

            What happened to your humorous voice?

She unpacked my factual sentences:

            Clip some facts here.

            Sprinkle some other facts throughout the synopsis.  

She tried to get me to move from the general to the specific:

            Why is this important?

            What’s the bigger picture here?

             Comment on your experiences.

           

She poo-pooed my maxim: 

What is this statement tied to?  It feels random -

            I’d said, “Opportunity changes lives.”  [I thought it was one of my themes.]

This seems like a stretched reference:

            No person is an island.  [Okay…it is…but doesn’t it sound cool?]

Transition lines were missing.  So were some explanations.  I’m supposed to step back and reflect—even in the synopsis.  Then some of my reflections are too abstract, and others need to be more specific to me.  

Pick!  Poke!  Shred! 

…Boy, is she good.    

She helped me put my voice back into the synopsis.  I had changed some of the language, and even I thought it sounded too stilted.  I thought I needed to sound educated.  Obviously there’s a huge difference between educated and my particular voice.

I reminded myself that I asked for this carnage.  Unfortunately, it still stings.  But it’s the only way for the manuscript to get better.  For a writer to learn of her weaknesses.  To see what she can no longer see for herself in the manuscript story.  Don’t you think so?

As I sit here licking my synopsis wounds, crying into my teacup, I berate myself to get over it and send the entire manuscript in for a formal undressing if only to see what’s worth saving, what should be expanded upon.  This is my college journey, a ten-year ordeal.  Let’s not make the writing of it also a ten-year ordeal, Victoria.    

Thanks for listening.  Your insight is invaluable to me.  Feel free to share any experiences you have or to offer any tips.  Thank you!

Synopsis Is Not a Bad Word

Sometimes writing synopses can be like 

trudging through the tundra. 

It requires much stamina and effort, 

but it builds character in authors.

            Happy New Year, everyone!  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and are ready to get back to work on your dreams.                                                                                                            

            For me, it’s time to look for professional editing for my memoir about attending college with five children in tow instead of continuously changing and tweaking it.  To that end, I came across an offer after watching an excellent webinar called “The Synopsis Solution” presented by Jennie Nash, a book coach, for a critique of a synopsis for my memoir. 

            I was impressed.  Jennie gave concrete information and examples.  So I’m taking the chance.  Now all I need is that synopsis of my memoir.  *Gulp*

            Besides giving the format of a synopsis: single-spaced, present tense, third person, no more than three pages, Jennie informed her listeners to “tell a story and hook the reader” –even in the synopsis.  Not everything can be included in the synopsis summary of the story.  Use the main thrust of the story and give a resolution.      

            While I understood to tell whose story it was, in memoir or fiction, I never tried the line of thinking:  because this thing happens, the next thing happens and then the next thing.  I’ve heard of cause and effect, plot points, internal struggle.

            So I stepped back and looked at my memoir about attending college with five children in tow. 

            Because I had no prior college classes, I needed to take a Basic Skills test in order to begin my college journey.  And because I hadn’t had any upper level math courses or any algebra in *ahem* eons, I failed the math portion of the test.  And because of failing the math portion of the test, I needed to take basic skills math classes in order to begin my college journey.

            Okay, so that’s the external beginning of what happened.  What’s the internal struggle I faced?  Well aside from numerous motherhood duties, I couldn’t leave my fear of failure behind—that nagging thought that I wasn’t properly prepared for college—to be able to think positively, to engage in an experience of learning. 

            Then just when I thought I might be able to succeed in college, I was offered a scholarship at the University of Pennsylvania.  And another belief was tested, never to let opportunity pass me by.  I had to go to Penn.  I just had to, or another nemesis would enter the picture.  Regret.  Even if I failed, I had to try. 

            Wow!  Where did this all come from.  I could go on, but I need to write that three-page synopsis for critique.  I’ll keep you posted as to my experience and knowledge learned.

            Please share any tips or experiences you may have about writing synopses.  All the best to each of you in 2016!