True to Life: Talking about memoir with Beth Kaplan

We all have painful or powerfully emotional stories. How to turn them into literature? It’s not easy, but it’s important work.

When you’ve finished your messy first draft, take off your writer’s hat and put on your editor’s hat. This episode deals with vital technical issues you may need to resolve.

As your words start to flow, here are some important craft issues for you to keep in mind.

Two kinds of concerns assail writers as they think about telling their own true stories: worries about the writing itself, and the worries of the person doing the writing, with family, friends, and colleagues in the wings. This episode deals with both.

An interview with acclaimed writer Isabel Huggan, whose work has been compared to Alice Munro’s; her books The Elizabeth Stories and Belonging have won several prestigious prizes. Isabel speaks about the writing life, the difficulties of remembering childhood — you don’t have to remember exactly, she says — and about the importance of dialogue, research, and editing.

Here are some of the technical choices you have. At what point in time is your narrator self — now or then, grownup or child or both? What tone will you use, chatty or literary? Where can you use sensory detail and dialogue to enrich the narrative, and how will you structure it to lead to the dramatic moment of change?

Think about the tools you'll need for the job ahead. Where will you find a place to concentrate? When will you carve out time in your busy life? If you can establish a routine, it will make your writing life easier. With what? Pens are old implements, computers modern; many writers write first drafts on paper. Read for inspiration. Persist. Know yourself. 

Carol Shields once said, "Blurt bravely!" I give an assignment that will help you choose the most important moments of your life, to provide a basis for stories; readers want dramatic moments of change. Just write, remembering that the first draft is meant to be a mess; the next drafts will fix things. Writing is a messy process. Be brave. 

Human beings are narrative animals. It's good for us psychologically, emotionally, and even physically, to tell our stories. I believe that everybody has an important story to tell, even if they don't know what it is or how to tell it. Flannery O'Connor, the great Southern writer, once said, "Everyone who has survived childhood has enough to write about for the rest of time." So let's get started.