Transcript Memoir - Springtown Isd

Memoir
Writing #1
Understanding memoirs
So much information comes to us in the
form of narrative because people find stories
irresistible and memorable. Good stories
mark the memory; they leave footprints.
 Your memoir is not private writing. You are
telling a story that has to have meaning for
your readers. People read to be entertained
and informed, but with memoirs, people are
interested in the fact that the story is true,
that it really happened

Objective of this paper
write a nonfiction story using the
techniques of fiction: character, setting,
conflict, and theme
 “show” through detail, dialogue, and
description
 write stories with narrative arcs.

Setting

The setting is the time, place, and social
or cultural context of a story. Most
memoir writers establish the setting early
in the piece to bring the reader more fully
into the remembered place.
Character

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You are the narrator of your memoir. In
telling your story, you communicate how the
experience affected you, how it mattered to
you, and how it changed you.
You introduce the other characters and
show their actions and their personalities
through your eyes.
The people in your memoir are characters
with needs, motivations, and choices. They
can act and react, change or refuse to
change.
Characters

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You are a lens for the action. Your goal is to
show, not tell. Rather than tell the reader
what you are thinking through internal
monologue or explain what a character is
like, you reveal character through details or
incidents. Rather than explaining, imagine
how you would film such material.
Not every character in your story has to be
fully developed. Some minor characters will
be in the story simply to move the plot
along.
Point of view

You are not used to looking at yourself
from an emotional distance. Writing
about yourself as a character is the same
sort of challenge. Writing a memoir
requires a first-person point of view, a
way of looking at things limited to only
what you can see or feel or know.
Dialogue
The challenge of using dialogue in a
memoir is trying to stay true to your
memory while selecting just the right
language to reveal character.
 One character might say “like” a lot or
ramble from one subject to another.
Another might pause often, be evasive,
answer questions with few words, or
repeat questions.

Conflict
The struggle, search, or mystery that drives the
story forward comes from internal or external
conflict.
 The conflict gets more complicated as the main
character encounters obstacles along the way.
This development of conflict is the backbone of a
narrative, and it must develop incrementally and
logically. A character requires motivation to
grapple with a conflict and also needs a stake in
the outcome or something on the line.
 Readers want to know why the conflict is
important. The motivation and stakes create the
tension and reveal the significance of the conflict.

Theme
Simply put, the theme is what your story is about:
its point and its larger significance. The theme of
a memoir provides insight into who you are, but
at the same time, it reveals something universal to
which your reader can relate.
 The theme comes from your story, but it also
reveals a more universal truth that you and your
readers share, even though you have not had
duplicate experiences.
 The theme you choose to reveal in your memoir
depends on what actually happened, how it
affected you, and what it helped you understand.

Theme
Readers want to take something away
with them and gain a greater
understanding about the world, about
people, and about life experiences.
 One word of caution here: do not
confuse theme with moral. A moral
reduces the entire meaning of your story
to a boring and trite cliché, such as “you
can’t tell a book by its cover” or “easy
come, easy go.”

Research Paths
Recalling the cultural and historical details of a time
period can enrich the texture of a story. It can also
help create a sense of place – not just a physical place
but also a place in time.
 Details from contemporary sporting events,
advertisements, and popular television shows can add
irony or humor and can help the reader understand
characters in your story.
 Talk to your friends about what they remember
about the time period. What were the trends? The
gossip of the time? What music would have played on
the radio? (Which films were popular? Big news
stories? Favorite songs? Favorite cartoons?)

Anatomy of a memoir
The most common [way to structure
your memoir] is straight chronology,
starting at the beginning and working
your way through an event as it occurred.
 You can organize sections of your story
by using flash-backs and flash-forwards. (If
you use this technique, be sure to provide
clear transitions.)

Anatomy of a memoir
Tinkering with the time elements of a
story does not change the basic
requirements of narrative order: that the
story progresses incrementally, in steps.
 A narrative arc provides a visual map of a
story, showing how writers typically build
up tension to a climactic moment and
then allow the tension to decrease to the
story’s resolution.

Introduction and setup
The beginning sets up the story by putting
readers on the path that leads to the conflict.
The introduction can be one, two, or more
paragraphs – however long it takes to put the
story into motion.
 Beyond the attention-getting aspect of the
introduction, the opening of a narrative gives the
reader the essential information or the context
for the story. Give your reader a sense of who,
what, where, and when – news story elements,
but in a narrative style. You can translate news
elements into narration by thinking of who as
character, when and where as setting, what as
plot, why and how as conflict and theme.

Introduction and setup
The setup leads to the conflict: when the main
character’s struggle becomes clear. In
screenwriting, this moment is called “the first plot
point,” a descriptive term you might find useful.
 Organize your story so the conflict is clear, or at
least foreshadowed, at the beginning. You do not
necessarily have to state the conflict directly in
the first sentence. As always, common practice is
a guideline, not a rule, and you may find yourself
experimenting effectively with different kinds of
leads and pacing in your story.

Rising Action
Known as the rising action, this part of the plot is made up of
events that heighten the conflict. Stories can have many
events or just one or two. The events are necessary to the
development of the plot; they show the logic of the conflict
as it develops.
 Each time the character deals with a new obstacle, the
conflict becomes more pronounced and the struggle changes.
These changes occur incrementally, one step at a time, in
order for the plot to be well paced.
 Having a character simply change does not make a good
story; the steps are too steep and the story unconvincing.
Another term some screenwriters use is the point of no
return. By this point the character has changed in some small
or big way. Something is different now, and the character
cannot go back to the way he or she was at the beginning of
the story.

Resolution
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All stories have to end, but all endings do not tie up all the loose
ends. If you get stuck for an ending, think about your theme. What
moment in your story will point your reader back to the theme?
At the same time, avoid the temptation to end your memoir with a
summary of a lesson learned. If you have told your story effectively,
if you have allowed your story to unfold for your reader as it did
for you, you should not have to tell what the experience meant to
you. The reader should know.
If you find you have written a wrap-up conclusion in your first draft,
see if you can cut the final paragraph. Writers often find that the
next-to-last paragraph provides a much more satisfactory
conclusion than the final one. That last effort to pull everything
together, to be profound, to make sure the reader “gets it,” can
show its strain. The best endings reveal how you have – or in some
cases, have not – resolved the conflict.