Jennifer Lauck's Blog, page 18
January 9, 2012
Writing Tip #17: Back to the Scene
As Brenda Miller writes in her book,
Tell it Slant
, scene is the backbone of creative nonfiction. There are exceptions but not many. Yet people are still under the misguided perception that creative nonfiction is actually a kind of free association journal writing exercise. No. Creative nonfiction means you lean into literature and use the tools of proper storytelling--scene being as important to your writing as a hammer is to a builder.
I pulled this from a book I'm reading titled Wake Up to Your Life, and while this isn't a writing book (it's a spiritual book on meditation), this paragraph speaks more clearly to why we need to write scene--active, present, emotional and detail laden scene--more than anything else I've seen.
In the midst of action, intellectual understanding is much slower and less powerful than emotional understanding. To access intellectual understanding, we have to remember to bring what we know intellectually to bear on the situation. With emotional understanding, the understanding is part of our experience of the situation. We don't have to remember. For this reason, emotional understanding leads to deeper and more extensive understanding in our lives.
The writer is explaining something that is true about human nature and the thinking process. To think, to rationalize, to go to the intellect is actually a slower process than the feeling process. This is why good writing is emotional writing, good writing is clear and active and experience based. Anything less forces a distance intellectually and it slows down what it is to be alive because the intellect
moves
so
s l o w
And when you write in a way that makes a reader call on the intellect, you slow them down and boredom sets it. Your book is put down and the reader is off to something he can relate to--a story that catches his interest and his understanding at a feeling level.
Okay, so you get it. Write scenes. But then there is the question of how?
Ironically, expository writing is fast but scene writing is actually slow. It takes time and effort and a lot of words.
This post will not touch what needs to be done. The specifics of how to write a scene require you to take a class (which you can do here on the site, CLICK HERE). And you need to study the writing of others who come before you. Here is an example of a scene being set. This comes from the beautiful work of Joanne Beard, The Fourth State of Matter.
THE COLLIE WAKES ME up about three times a night, summoning me from a great distance as I row my boat through a dim, complicated dream. She's on the shoreline, barking. Wake up. She's staring at me with her head slightly tipped to the side, long nose, gazing eyes, toenails clenched to get a purchase on the wood floor. We used to call her the face of love.
She totters on her broomstick legs into the hallway and over the doorsill into the kitchen, makes a sharp left at the refrigerator -careful almost went down - then a straightaway to the door. I sleep on my feet in the cold of the doorway, waiting. Here she comes. Lift her down the two steps. She pees and then stands, Lassie in a ratty coat, gazing out at the yard.
In the porch light the trees shiver, the squirrels turn over in their sleep. The Milky Way is a long smear on the sky, like something erased on a blackboard. Over the neighbor's house, Mars flashes white, then red, then white again. Jupiter is hidden among the anonymous blinks and glitterings. It has a moon with sulfur-spewing volcanoes and a beautiful name: Io. I learned it at work, from the group of men who surround me there. Space physicists, guys who spend days on end with their heads poked through the fabric of the sky, listening to the sounds of the universe. Guys whose own lives are ticking like alarm clocks getting ready to go off, although none of us are aware of it yet.
The dog turns and looks, waits to be carried up the two steps. Inside the house she drops like a shoe onto her blanket, a thud, an adjustment. I've climbed back under my covers already but her leg's stuck underneath her, we can't get comfortable. I fix the leg.
She rolls over and sleeps. Two hours later I wake up and she's gazing at me in the darkness. The face of love. She wants to go out again. I give her a boost, balance her on her legs. Right on time: 3:40 A.M.
~
What has happened here? Very little. A woman takes her dying dog out to pee. So little happens but then again, EVERYTHING happens. That is the power of being in a moment and setting the stage and letting the action take over.
Prompt: Get up from your computer and go outside right now. Look up, down, right, left, front and behind and make note of as much as you can. Remember the actions of standing up, going outside, looking around and then returning to sit down. Now write that entire moment out. That is a moment in time. See what your observations reveal about that one moment but be in that moment. Don't go anywhere else. Just be with what it and write it down.
Write: 25 minutes
Post: Put your results here on the comments section.
Good luck
I pulled this from a book I'm reading titled Wake Up to Your Life, and while this isn't a writing book (it's a spiritual book on meditation), this paragraph speaks more clearly to why we need to write scene--active, present, emotional and detail laden scene--more than anything else I've seen.
In the midst of action, intellectual understanding is much slower and less powerful than emotional understanding. To access intellectual understanding, we have to remember to bring what we know intellectually to bear on the situation. With emotional understanding, the understanding is part of our experience of the situation. We don't have to remember. For this reason, emotional understanding leads to deeper and more extensive understanding in our lives.The writer is explaining something that is true about human nature and the thinking process. To think, to rationalize, to go to the intellect is actually a slower process than the feeling process. This is why good writing is emotional writing, good writing is clear and active and experience based. Anything less forces a distance intellectually and it slows down what it is to be alive because the intellect
moves
so
s l o w
And when you write in a way that makes a reader call on the intellect, you slow them down and boredom sets it. Your book is put down and the reader is off to something he can relate to--a story that catches his interest and his understanding at a feeling level.
Okay, so you get it. Write scenes. But then there is the question of how?
Ironically, expository writing is fast but scene writing is actually slow. It takes time and effort and a lot of words.
This post will not touch what needs to be done. The specifics of how to write a scene require you to take a class (which you can do here on the site, CLICK HERE). And you need to study the writing of others who come before you. Here is an example of a scene being set. This comes from the beautiful work of Joanne Beard, The Fourth State of Matter.
THE COLLIE WAKES ME up about three times a night, summoning me from a great distance as I row my boat through a dim, complicated dream. She's on the shoreline, barking. Wake up. She's staring at me with her head slightly tipped to the side, long nose, gazing eyes, toenails clenched to get a purchase on the wood floor. We used to call her the face of love.
She totters on her broomstick legs into the hallway and over the doorsill into the kitchen, makes a sharp left at the refrigerator -careful almost went down - then a straightaway to the door. I sleep on my feet in the cold of the doorway, waiting. Here she comes. Lift her down the two steps. She pees and then stands, Lassie in a ratty coat, gazing out at the yard.
In the porch light the trees shiver, the squirrels turn over in their sleep. The Milky Way is a long smear on the sky, like something erased on a blackboard. Over the neighbor's house, Mars flashes white, then red, then white again. Jupiter is hidden among the anonymous blinks and glitterings. It has a moon with sulfur-spewing volcanoes and a beautiful name: Io. I learned it at work, from the group of men who surround me there. Space physicists, guys who spend days on end with their heads poked through the fabric of the sky, listening to the sounds of the universe. Guys whose own lives are ticking like alarm clocks getting ready to go off, although none of us are aware of it yet.
The dog turns and looks, waits to be carried up the two steps. Inside the house she drops like a shoe onto her blanket, a thud, an adjustment. I've climbed back under my covers already but her leg's stuck underneath her, we can't get comfortable. I fix the leg.
She rolls over and sleeps. Two hours later I wake up and she's gazing at me in the darkness. The face of love. She wants to go out again. I give her a boost, balance her on her legs. Right on time: 3:40 A.M.
~
What has happened here? Very little. A woman takes her dying dog out to pee. So little happens but then again, EVERYTHING happens. That is the power of being in a moment and setting the stage and letting the action take over.
Prompt: Get up from your computer and go outside right now. Look up, down, right, left, front and behind and make note of as much as you can. Remember the actions of standing up, going outside, looking around and then returning to sit down. Now write that entire moment out. That is a moment in time. See what your observations reveal about that one moment but be in that moment. Don't go anywhere else. Just be with what it and write it down.
Write: 25 minutes
Post: Put your results here on the comments section.
Good luck
January 5, 2012
Book Talk: A Million Little Pieces by James Frey
I'm happy to present Clover Cohen, a long time student in the Master Class. Cloie is one to watch! Enjoy her insights on memoir. She's a hard working writer who is paying her dues.
A Google search brings up over a hundred thousand results for A Million Little Pieces. They seem to mostly refer to the controversy. Is it memoir or fiction? Were readers betrayed by Frey's embellishments? Was Oprah really duped by this cunning author and his lying publishers? I don't care about the controversy and am not sure if it's because I happened to see the Oprah episode where she confronted Frey (and I felt sorry for him),
or because I had read his book before all was "revealed" and decided I still liked the book. Truth is not absolute and our memory comprises a small portion of millions of multifaceted moments that happen every day. If I want to write about the lunch lady in second grade who smelled like baby-powder, I don't care if she really used baby powder or if her name was really Janice as I remember. And I don't care if it was acid or psychedelic mushrooms that my Dad took on the day he wigged out and broke up our house. He was out of his mind and shook my world. That is what matters to my story and I'm sorry if a reader will feel duped if I don't get the exact type of drug right.What matters to me about Frey's story is that I could not pull myself away on the first or second or third read through. I stayed up in to the early morning hours reading, knowing I would suffer the next day and need to drink more coffee just to make it through.
Frey invites us in, so close to his experience, and keeps us close the whole way through. The absence of quotation marks confuses me at first, but I get the hang of his style fast. I don't know if he's speaking or if someone else is speaking or if he's just thinking. It amplifies the feeling that we are with a damaged person, in a chemical fog, being enveloped by an even thicker psychological fog full of demons and regret and tragedy. We are in the middle of his addiction and the start of his recovery. We are inside his family that is not unlike many of our families. We know their dysfunction, ask the same questions.
Why does one brother become a raging addict while another does not? I was much more careful with James than I was with Bob (jr). I knew we weren't going to have any other Children, and I wanted James to be perfect and healthy and safe. I can't say it any other way. I wanted him to be safe.
What horrible things did the parents do to create such a monster?
It went on for almost two years. James just screamed and screamed. Bob started doing well at his Firm and got a raise, and as soon as we had some extra money, I took James to see a better Doctor. As soon as he looked at him, he told me that James had terrible infections in both of his ears that were eating away his eardrums. He said James had been screaming for all that time because he was in tremendous pain and that he had been screaming for help.
Where did it all go so terribly wrong?
Ran over a Nursery School Teacher with a Big Wheel. I did it on purpose. I was four. Hit a boy with a bookbag full of books and broke his nose. His name was Fred. I was six. Dug a hole and tricked a boy named Michael into climbing into the hole. I put a board over the hole and I sat on it for three hours. He cried and cried and cried. I laughed. I was seven.
I've thought many times that if I can just keep my kids safe, safer than I was as a kid, that my purpose in life would be fulfilled. I blamed myself many times for my own son's untreated ear infections, where he didn't cry or tug at his ears, but the doctor would again and again find inflamed red ear drums that eventually led to surgery. I watch my kids and their struggles with impulse control. I don't think either of them has intentionally trapped a kid in a hole, but are they on the path to becoming addicts anyway?
Or is Frey's alcoholic grandfather the smoking gun? A Million Little Pieces reminds us that absolute answers are rare. It reminds us there is no sure fire way to prevent a child from becoming an addict.
If genetics are really as strong as they say when it comes to addiction, my kids are screwed. There are alcoholics, prescription drug addicts, sex addicts, gamblers, compulsive overeaters, smokers, and compulsive liars just one or two branches up the family tree. As a family, we suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder. depression, manic depression, schizophrenia, hyperactivity, delusion, anxiety, and all the disorders related to sleeping and eating. Some of us medicate with doctor's prescriptions, others with our own prescriptions.
If one of the paths to overcoming addiction is to be honest and open and conscious, then the only thing I can really do is tell the stories. When they are ready for them, my kids will hear the stories of my dad and how he got high and violent and lost his family. They will hear about Grandpa Jack and how he predicted the end of the world and scared the daylights out of his family. They will even hear about Joe and I and our crazy years of partying before they were born. They will hear about the aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents and how they struggle everyday. The stories will be truthful, but more important, they will tell the story.
January 4, 2012
Small Talk & Announcements
A mini moment:
Jo jo and I stand at the front door of her school (she's ten). We wait for the bell to ring. We have about 5 mins, perhaps more. We both agree it is better to wait outside vs. be corralled into the stinky gym by control-freak hall monitors. We wait. We chat. Little Eli comes over & asks the time of Jo as if she has a watch. 8:30, I say. He says thanks and is gone. Jo watches him disappear. "That Eli," she finally says. "He's a nice fellow." I laugh at how she says "fellow." "What?" she insists. "Fellow," I say. "It's just a great word. We don't say fellow enough these days." She rolls her eyes.
~
The winter classes are filling up fast. The Master Class has just one spot left and the Sell It, Download and Craft Class are full. If you would like to join the Critique Circle, there is space and it's a weeknight class.
Six Writers – Six Weeks – A Critique Circle:
This class is for the more advanced writer who is progress on a manuscript or essay length work (articles are acceptable too). You needs to hear yourself read and to get skilled critique. You will be part of a very small group, just six writers and are invited to bring 8-10 pages of your current work per week. You'll read and discuss your work in the circle. REQUIREMENT: You must have taken a class with Jennifer or have an interview to discuss your project.
DATES: Tuesday 7-9 p.m., Feb. 6, 13, 20, 27, Mar. 5 & 12
COST: $40.00 per class/$240.00
Payment Options
Deposit $80.00 USD
Balance $160.00 USD
Full Tuition $240.00 USD
Memoir Technique Class:
Lists, prompt, write, share. This is a class for the more beginning level student. You are the writer who is just getting going and don't feel as confident as you would like in the craft area of your work. You'll enjoy this relaxed, playful class that gives you more ideas and techniques for dealing with writer's block and memory doubt.
DATES: Tuesday, 7-9:00 p.m., Feb. 7, 14, 21, 28, Mar. 6
COST: $220.00
Payment Options
Deposit $80.00 USD
Balance $140.00 USD
Full Tuition $220.00 USD
Jo jo and I stand at the front door of her school (she's ten). We wait for the bell to ring. We have about 5 mins, perhaps more. We both agree it is better to wait outside vs. be corralled into the stinky gym by control-freak hall monitors. We wait. We chat. Little Eli comes over & asks the time of Jo as if she has a watch. 8:30, I say. He says thanks and is gone. Jo watches him disappear. "That Eli," she finally says. "He's a nice fellow." I laugh at how she says "fellow." "What?" she insists. "Fellow," I say. "It's just a great word. We don't say fellow enough these days." She rolls her eyes.
~
The winter classes are filling up fast. The Master Class has just one spot left and the Sell It, Download and Craft Class are full. If you would like to join the Critique Circle, there is space and it's a weeknight class.
Six Writers – Six Weeks – A Critique Circle:This class is for the more advanced writer who is progress on a manuscript or essay length work (articles are acceptable too). You needs to hear yourself read and to get skilled critique. You will be part of a very small group, just six writers and are invited to bring 8-10 pages of your current work per week. You'll read and discuss your work in the circle. REQUIREMENT: You must have taken a class with Jennifer or have an interview to discuss your project.
DATES: Tuesday 7-9 p.m., Feb. 6, 13, 20, 27, Mar. 5 & 12
COST: $40.00 per class/$240.00
Payment Options
Deposit $80.00 USD
Balance $160.00 USD
Full Tuition $240.00 USD
Memoir Technique Class:
Lists, prompt, write, share. This is a class for the more beginning level student. You are the writer who is just getting going and don't feel as confident as you would like in the craft area of your work. You'll enjoy this relaxed, playful class that gives you more ideas and techniques for dealing with writer's block and memory doubt.
DATES: Tuesday, 7-9:00 p.m., Feb. 7, 14, 21, 28, Mar. 6
COST: $220.00
Payment Options
Deposit $80.00 USD
Balance $140.00 USD
Full Tuition $220.00 USD
January 2, 2012
Writing Tip #16: The So-Called "Time Lack" Delimma
You don't have time to write.
Is it true?
So often, too often, this is the mantra of the would-be writer. Unfortunately, when we say a thing over and over again, guess what? The thing comes true.
You may be a person who has plenty of time to write but because you keep telling yourself, "I don't have time to write," you cannot see the truth right in front of you.
Here is a terrific exercise to challenge you right now. This comes from Writing & Selling Your Memoir by Paula Balzer. Balzer is a literary agent and while I don't adore this book, it does have some dead on advice--including this exercise:
Spend a week keeping track of what you do. And when I say "what you do," I mean everything you do. The idea here is to search for blocks of time that can be used in a more productive fashion. Yes, you may have to give up a few precious hours of Jersey Shore viewing or even sleep in favor of writing, but if it's your dream to write your memoir, and you're under the impression that you don't have enough time to do it, I'm by all means going to do everything in my power to prove this isn't the case.
In her book, Balzar posts a chart that lists the day in half hour blocks beginning at 5 a.m. As we don't have the book here today, I suggest you get a legal pad, write 5 a.m. and then go down a line and write 5:30 a.m. and so on all the way down to 11:30 p.m. Next to each of these times, write down what it is you actually do with your time. Do this for seven days and report back. I'd love to hear how you use your time.
Another excerpt from Balzar's book: The tale of how John Grisham wrote his first novel A Time to Kill is part of publishing lore. He wrote the now famous novel over a three-year period in the early morning hours while working an incredibly stressful, 60-80 hour a week job as a lawyer. He also had a wide and two young kids.
Good luck watching your day and writing it down. You have nothing to gain but the truth and a little (or perhaps a lot) of time.
Is it true?
So often, too often, this is the mantra of the would-be writer. Unfortunately, when we say a thing over and over again, guess what? The thing comes true.
You may be a person who has plenty of time to write but because you keep telling yourself, "I don't have time to write," you cannot see the truth right in front of you.
Here is a terrific exercise to challenge you right now. This comes from Writing & Selling Your Memoir by Paula Balzer. Balzer is a literary agent and while I don't adore this book, it does have some dead on advice--including this exercise:Spend a week keeping track of what you do. And when I say "what you do," I mean everything you do. The idea here is to search for blocks of time that can be used in a more productive fashion. Yes, you may have to give up a few precious hours of Jersey Shore viewing or even sleep in favor of writing, but if it's your dream to write your memoir, and you're under the impression that you don't have enough time to do it, I'm by all means going to do everything in my power to prove this isn't the case.
In her book, Balzar posts a chart that lists the day in half hour blocks beginning at 5 a.m. As we don't have the book here today, I suggest you get a legal pad, write 5 a.m. and then go down a line and write 5:30 a.m. and so on all the way down to 11:30 p.m. Next to each of these times, write down what it is you actually do with your time. Do this for seven days and report back. I'd love to hear how you use your time. Another excerpt from Balzar's book: The tale of how John Grisham wrote his first novel A Time to Kill is part of publishing lore. He wrote the now famous novel over a three-year period in the early morning hours while working an incredibly stressful, 60-80 hour a week job as a lawyer. He also had a wide and two young kids.
Good luck watching your day and writing it down. You have nothing to gain but the truth and a little (or perhaps a lot) of time.
January 1, 2012
Resolve to Write
"The combined force of Jennifer & Anne, as readers, is a real gift. The depth and
feedback on each week's pages was far more than I ever experienced in a workshop before." ~ Gail Robinson
The Master Class Series is master level teaching with two teachers--myself and the very talented Anne Gudger. We give you two points of view, based on our collective sixty years of writing experience and forty years of teaching experience.
Develop your writing muscle in the areas of scene, point of view, arc, plot, dialogue, setting and detail infusion. Learn the skillful navigation of reflective writing and how to explore memory without being confined or limited. While this is a class geared toward the memoir writer, fiction writers are welcome too. There is prompt based teaching, there are handouts and we workshop two writers each week. There are 18 slots to read so you will surely get your pages worked over!
Details:In Portland, we meet at my suite on Sunday's from 3:00 - 6:00 p.m. For the out of town writer, we stream the class live so you can watch it on your computer from home. When your work is being workshopped, you will be able to call in and speak with us via speakerphone too! Have to miss a class? Don't stress. Recordings of class will be made available too.
COST: $375.00 ($100.00 deposit to hold your spot)
REQUIREMENTS: Contact Jennifer at jennifer@jenniferlauck.com for waiver, instructions & space availability
WINTER SERIES: Jan. 8, 5, 22, 29, Feb. 12, 19, 26, Mar. 4 & 11
(5 spots available)
Master Class Options
Deposit $100.00 USD
Tuition Balance $275.00 USD
Full Tuition $375.00 USD
What other students say about this class:
"Feedback from Jennifer and Anne is pure gold." ~ Cloie Cohen
"I've been writing for 12 years but the learning curve of this class has been truly remarkable." ~ Sue Holbrook
"I came into this class feeling like I was way out of my league. I came away with so much amazing wisdom and knowledge and it just keeps coming." ~ Amos T
"I have so many new ideas, I can't wait to put them on the page." ~ Ruth Wariner
feedback on each week's pages was far more than I ever experienced in a workshop before." ~ Gail Robinson
The Master Class Series is master level teaching with two teachers--myself and the very talented Anne Gudger. We give you two points of view, based on our collective sixty years of writing experience and forty years of teaching experience. Develop your writing muscle in the areas of scene, point of view, arc, plot, dialogue, setting and detail infusion. Learn the skillful navigation of reflective writing and how to explore memory without being confined or limited. While this is a class geared toward the memoir writer, fiction writers are welcome too. There is prompt based teaching, there are handouts and we workshop two writers each week. There are 18 slots to read so you will surely get your pages worked over!
Details:In Portland, we meet at my suite on Sunday's from 3:00 - 6:00 p.m. For the out of town writer, we stream the class live so you can watch it on your computer from home. When your work is being workshopped, you will be able to call in and speak with us via speakerphone too! Have to miss a class? Don't stress. Recordings of class will be made available too.
COST: $375.00 ($100.00 deposit to hold your spot)
REQUIREMENTS: Contact Jennifer at jennifer@jenniferlauck.com for waiver, instructions & space availability
WINTER SERIES: Jan. 8, 5, 22, 29, Feb. 12, 19, 26, Mar. 4 & 11
(5 spots available)
Master Class Options
Deposit $100.00 USD
Tuition Balance $275.00 USD
Full Tuition $375.00 USD
What other students say about this class:
"Feedback from Jennifer and Anne is pure gold." ~ Cloie Cohen
"I've been writing for 12 years but the learning curve of this class has been truly remarkable." ~ Sue Holbrook
"I came into this class feeling like I was way out of my league. I came away with so much amazing wisdom and knowledge and it just keeps coming." ~ Amos T
"I have so many new ideas, I can't wait to put them on the page." ~ Ruth Wariner
December 31, 2011
Happy New Year
As for my next book, I am going to hold myself
from writing it till I have it impending in me:
grown heavy in my mind like a ripe pear;
pendant, gravid, asking to be cut or it will fall.
~Virginia Woolf
What is your New Years Resolution? Mine are:
1) I resolve to be happy.
2) I resolve to relax.
3) I resolve to be calm.
4) I resolve to be grateful.
Thank you all for being a part of this memoir writing website.
Happy New Year, Jennifer
from writing it till I have it impending in me:
grown heavy in my mind like a ripe pear;
pendant, gravid, asking to be cut or it will fall.
~Virginia Woolf
What is your New Years Resolution? Mine are:
1) I resolve to be happy.
2) I resolve to relax.
3) I resolve to be calm.
4) I resolve to be grateful.
Thank you all for being a part of this memoir writing website.
Happy New Year, Jennifer
December 23, 2011
Annoucements & Updates
Life May Have Been Your Enemy but a Writing Teacher is a Friend:
A writer sends me her work, she says "you are the writer for me. I am dying to be taught. My work is attached."
I write back, we set up time to speak, I take a deposit, I read her work and I make my comments. We set up time to speak but hold on...the writer disappears. When I send an inquiry, the writer is hostile and defensive. It turns out I am not the "the writer for her" after all and it also turns out the writer is not "dying to be taught."
It is not easy to hold my center in these situations. I work hard to remind myself that I am still the same writing teacher and the same person. It is the writer who has shifted. One moment hopeful, the next hostile.
There is something about memoir that seems to draw out the most poison in people and rather than seeking to be freed of the poison, so many keep it inside, curl up around the pain and attack anyone who might draw near with a solution.
A thought: If you cannot "respond" to advice and critique but instead are stuck in the "reaction" phase (negative emotion tinged with discomfort), it is not time to get feedback.
Wounds take time to heal--years in fact. Some wounds will never heal and that is our lot as human beings. Change is hard. Waking up is very hard. Making the shift from reaction to response requires effort.
While I love to help writers grow, I will admit this is the least pleasant and most perplexing aspect of my job. The writer who knows if she is processing vs. writing is the wise writer indeed. If you find you are needing to process, that's okay. Take your time. And when it's time to write, remember, you will need to let people read your book and you will be served by gaining the distance necessary to hear what they have to say. Life may have been your enemy but writing teachers and editors are your friends.
~
The Download Class at The Attic Institute is nearly full! Do not miss an opportunity to learn, at a very affordable price, how to get your memoir off to the best start possible. CLICK HERE to learn more.
The Portland Master Class is at half capacity. That means we have room for about seven more writers. Will you be one of them? And...if you are not in Portland but would like to take this class long distance...let's talk! I have devised a perfect way for you to attend so that class fits into your schedule. jennifer@jenniferlauck.com or CLICK HERE to sign up.
The Phase III: Market, Sell and Publish Your Memoir class is coming. I am testing brand new material, pulled together this month which teaches you everything I know about getting your book in front of agents, editors and publishers. You can get published and this program will open your mind to how it can happen. Ask questions by writing me at jennifer@jenniferlauck.com or CLICK HERE to sign up.
A writer sends me her work, she says "you are the writer for me. I am dying to be taught. My work is attached."I write back, we set up time to speak, I take a deposit, I read her work and I make my comments. We set up time to speak but hold on...the writer disappears. When I send an inquiry, the writer is hostile and defensive. It turns out I am not the "the writer for her" after all and it also turns out the writer is not "dying to be taught."
It is not easy to hold my center in these situations. I work hard to remind myself that I am still the same writing teacher and the same person. It is the writer who has shifted. One moment hopeful, the next hostile.There is something about memoir that seems to draw out the most poison in people and rather than seeking to be freed of the poison, so many keep it inside, curl up around the pain and attack anyone who might draw near with a solution.
A thought: If you cannot "respond" to advice and critique but instead are stuck in the "reaction" phase (negative emotion tinged with discomfort), it is not time to get feedback.Wounds take time to heal--years in fact. Some wounds will never heal and that is our lot as human beings. Change is hard. Waking up is very hard. Making the shift from reaction to response requires effort.
While I love to help writers grow, I will admit this is the least pleasant and most perplexing aspect of my job. The writer who knows if she is processing vs. writing is the wise writer indeed. If you find you are needing to process, that's okay. Take your time. And when it's time to write, remember, you will need to let people read your book and you will be served by gaining the distance necessary to hear what they have to say. Life may have been your enemy but writing teachers and editors are your friends.
~
The Download Class at The Attic Institute is nearly full! Do not miss an opportunity to learn, at a very affordable price, how to get your memoir off to the best start possible. CLICK HERE to learn more.
The Portland Master Class is at half capacity. That means we have room for about seven more writers. Will you be one of them? And...if you are not in Portland but would like to take this class long distance...let's talk! I have devised a perfect way for you to attend so that class fits into your schedule. jennifer@jenniferlauck.com or CLICK HERE to sign up.The Phase III: Market, Sell and Publish Your Memoir class is coming. I am testing brand new material, pulled together this month which teaches you everything I know about getting your book in front of agents, editors and publishers. You can get published and this program will open your mind to how it can happen. Ask questions by writing me at jennifer@jenniferlauck.com or CLICK HERE to sign up.
Updates & Announcements
A writer sends me her work, she says "you are the writer for me. I am dying to be taught. My work is attached."I write back, we set up time to speak, I take a deposit, I read her work and I make my comments. We set up time to speak but hold on...the writer disappears. When I send an inquiry, the writer is hostile and defensive. It turns out I am not the "the writer for her" after all and it also turns out the writer is not "dying to be taught."
It is not easy to hold my center in these situations. I work hard to remind myself that I am still the same writing teacher and the same person. It is the writer who has shifted. One moment hopeful, the next hostile.There is something about memoir that seems to draw out the most poison in people and rather than seeking to be freed of the poison, so many chose to keep it inside, curl up around the pain and attack anyone who might draw near with a solution.
A word of advice: If you cannot find it in yourself to "respond" to advice and critique but instead are stuck in the "reaction" phase (negative emotion tinged with discomfort), it is not time to get feedback. Don't ask for it and then you won't be so quick to race away. Wounds take time to heal--years in fact. I even believe that some wounds will never heal and that is our lot as human beings. Change is hard. Waking up is very hard. Making the shift from reaction to response requires effort.While I love to help writers grow, I will admit this is the least pleasant aspect of my job. I beg you, before writing to me in hopes of getting advice, please look into your own heart and see if you can hear the truth. If you can, I am the teacher for you. If you cannot...well, I can recommend several other teachers!
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The Download Class at The Attic Institute is nearly full! Do not miss an opportunity to learn, at a very affordable price, how to get your memoir off to the best start possible. CLICK HERE to learn more.
The Portland Master Class is at half capacity. That means we have room for about seven more writers. Will you be one of them? And...if you are not in Portland but would like to take this class long distance...let's talk! I have devised a perfect way for you to attend so that class fits into your schedule. jennifer@jenniferlauck.com or CLICK HERE to sign up.The Phase III: Market, Sell and Publish Your Memoir class is coming. I am testing brand new material, pulled together this month which teaches you everything I know about getting your book in front of agents, editors and publishers. You can get published and this program will open your mind to how it can happen. Ask questions by writing me at jennifer@jenniferlauck.com or CLICK HERE to sign up.
December 22, 2011
Book Talk: The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
I'm happy to present Clover Cohen, a long time student in the Master Class. Cloie is one to watch! Enjoy her insights on memoir. She's a hard working writer who is paying her dues.
Extreme poverty sears itself in to one's senses. The damp cold bites the nose and cheeks when there is no heat in January. A mouse's scuttling in the dark perks the ears. Salty Rice-a-Roni from the donated food box burns the tongue. Smoke seeping out from the car's hood alerts to another impending break down and a long walk home.
When I first read The Glass Castle in 2005, I had not started writing yet. I didn't understand how a writer tells her story and the devices she uses. After years of reading and both receiving and offering feedback, I want to suggest to Jeannette that she slow down. Set the scene. Use sensory details even more to make the story come alive. We want to be there with you.
In Jeanette's story of her crazy, neglectful parents and their transient life, we see the places where they settle then abandon in the middle of the night. We hear their conversation in dialogue that's fantastic. We understand the characters and their complexities. The sense underrepresented in this story is smell. This sounds weird, even to me, but I want to smell this story.I want to know:
What burning flesh smells like (even though I'm sure it's beyond disgusting), "I smelled the burning and heard a horrible cracking as fire singed my hair and eyelashes."
How the chemicals at the dump in Phoenix burned their nostrils as they unscrewed the lids and tried to set them on fire, "So we mixed up a batch of what Brian called nuclear fuel, pouring different liquids into a can. When I tossed in the match, a cone of flame shot up with a whoosh like a jet afterburner."
About the stench of the inside of a dumpster, "When no one was looking, Brian and I pushed open the lid, climbed up, and dived inside to search for bottles. I was afraid if might be full of yucky garbage. Instead we found an astonishing treasure: cardboard boxes filled with loose chocolates."
How an open pit of rotting garbage smells, "He explained that we was going to hire a truck to card the garbage to the dump all at once. But he never got around to that, either, and as Brian and I watched, the hole for the Glass Castle's foundation slowly filled with garbage."
How the stink of a molded out cabin in West Virginia must overwhelm, "Everything in the house was damp. A fine green mold spread over the books and papers and paintings that were stacked so high and piled so deep you could hardly cross the room. Tiny mushrooms sprouted up in the corners."
About the breath of a drunk man as he tried to force himself on her, "His hands dropped down. He squeezed my bottom, pushed me on to the bed, and began kissing me."
About the absence of smell, or perhaps the pleasant scent, of a nice apartment in New York City, "Eric's apartment had cross beamed ceilings and a fireplace with an art deco mantel. I actually lived on Park Avenue, I kept telling myself as I hung my clothes in the closet Erick had cleared out for me."
How a person reeks of body odor when they live on the streets for years, "Mom broke into a huge smile and started hurrying toward us. Instead of an overcoat, she was wearing what looked to be about four sweaters and a shawl, a pair of corduroy trousers, and some old sneakers."
It's easy to be on the other side of the page and make these requests. I have become greedy as a reader. Yet as a writer, it's a laborious challenge, to say the least, to infuse every scene with every sense. We live in our heads and our memories are dominated by what was seen.
Our auditory and olfactory memories are accessible though.
Like when I pass by the make-up counter at Macy's, a whiff of Estee Lauder's Youth Dew drops me back in the middle of Grandma's bathroom, in my 6 year old body, as I snoop through her make up and spritz the brown bottle of perfume on the inside of my wrist, them rub it together with the other.
As I click through the radio stations on my drive to work, "Today" by the Smashing Pumpkins transports me back 16 years to my wedding day, to the moment when our vows were sealed and we turned to walk back down the aisle, when tears seeped from my Mom's eyes and I had to pause for a millisecond to catch my breath.
Music can be easily accessed through YouTube or iTunes. Images are easy too when Google can verify a memory in seconds. Taste, touch, and smell have to be sought out though, away from the quiet house, with sleeping kids, where the only sounds comes from the whirring dishwasher and the sharp clicks on the laptop's keyboard. These going-outs have to be part of the process to inform the writing, to offer another layer for the reader. I have no doubt Jeanette remembers the stench of her youth or at is reminded when she passes a restaurant's dumpster. She may have even tried to wipe them out by surrounding herself with sweet cut roses and perfumed candles. But as her reader, I want those memories. As a writer, I am reminded again that I need to work harder to seek out my own.
December 19, 2011
Writing Tip #14: How Does Your Writing Make the Reader Feel?
When I wrote my memoir Blackbird, I told the truth of how my mother died when I was seven and my father died when I was nine. I also told the truth of how I fell through the cracks of my family support system and found myself both homeless and preyed on by abusers—psychological and physical. These were not pretty stories.I had been trained as a journalist in hard news events, which meant I reported on murders, drug busts, domestic strife, abductions and even gang activity. In early drafts of Blackbird, I decided I would write like I reported which meant I would give the hard cold facts.
My goal? Let the reader come to his or her own conclusions.
My rational? If I could survive it, you could read it.
Thanks to the gentle and not-so-gentle guidance of many good teachers and editors, I made different decisions in my later drafts.
Thank goodness.
Memoir is not a news report. Memoir is a genre that invites the writer to use the tools found in literature in order to explore memory. These tools include the use of vivid details and scenes that evoke deep emotional responses in the reader. When you write memoir, you are going to create something that makes the reader "feel" a great deal.
It was Maya Angelou who said, "people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."
This is never truer than when we write a memoir. We have all read memoirs that made us feel so deeply that we couldn't fall asleep at night, had us holding our children closer or even made us become kinder and gentler people as a result. We have also read memoirs that made us so furious we vowed to never read another book by that writer.
The difference between the good memoir and the unbearable memoir is care for the reader and a good measure of restraint.
As David Huddle writes in his book The Writing Habit, restraint means decorum, control, a holding back, a measuring of language against silence. Huddle, a professor of literature at the University of Vermont, is referring to the fact that writers are artists and the artist sensibility is what is needed when approaching storytelling. Memoir is no exception.
Yes, we as memoir writers will admit we have had a pile of misfortune heaped upon our shoulders and on our backs, but we must also recognize that how we tell our story truly matters. A recounting of the grisly details does not make a work readable or even interesting. A writer of memoir must remember he or she is digging toward meaning, essence, the pith and the gold that is lodged away at the core of a lived experience. The grisly details can lead us to that core but in the final edit, many of these details must to be carved away.
As my former teacher, Tom Spanbauer (Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon, Far Away Places, In the City of Shy Hunters), used to say, "never drop the reader."
To me this translate to mean hold your reader close. Don't let a reader "fall out" out of your story or away from you as the guiding force who knows all and tells all (in careful measure). Lots of vivid details told with balance and attention to space, place, time, people are necessary to paint your story in the readers mind. Understanding the psychology of your reader—what makes him and her tick—is also important. For example, we all know that a reader is a human being and that human beings want to feel safe, they also want to be in on the secret and they want to know things are going to turn out okay, or if they aren't going to turn out okay, they need to know they won't be left dissatisfied about how things turned out. This means you need to wrap up your loose ends. Don't leave the reader hanging (unless that is your goal and you want them to buy your sequel). The bottom line is that you want your reader to know you're on their side—not against them. You want your reader to know the writer is working hard to get to true meaning under the events of her life. The reader respects the writer who struggles on the page and presents this struggle with humanity and humility.
It's a balancing act. We must have room to "get it all out" of our system and write poorly. That's a huge part of being a memoir writer. But we must also know when it's time to write well and when we think about the reader—with kindness, empathy and even a share of gentle compassion—we are on our way to creating a better book.
TALK BACK: What memoirs have you read that made you feel amazed, blown away and inspired? What memoirs have you read that made you feel furious? Leave your comment
Image Credit: Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, Woman Reading a Book, 1845/Flickr.com
Learn more about Jennifer Lauck at Jennifer Lauck Memoir Writing.com
