Writing, It’s Not About the Words:Reflections on Storytelling by Memoir Author Pamela Jane
Posted by Kathleen Pooler/@kathypooler with Pamela Jane/@austencats
“Words are how we think; stories are how we link.” Christina Baldwin
I am very pleased to welcome Pamela Jane back for this guest post on writing and storytelling. Pamela was recently featured in this Author Spotlight as part of her WOW Women on Writing Blog tour. We met through our mutual publisher, Open Books Press. When I read her memoir, An Incredible Talent for Existing, I was transported back to the 1960s and connected to my own coming-of-age story. I was so fascinated by her story that I asked her to be my guest and share some thoughts about writing memoir. Although her words are beautiful, it was her story that captured me and kept me spellbound until the end.
“…a harrowing story that invites the reader to experience the thrill and danger of the Sixties from a place of safety and acceptance. —Tristine Rainer, Director, Center for Autobiographic Studies, author, The New Diary and Your Life as Story
Here are my reviews of her memoir on: Amazon, Goodreads, LibraryThing and Riffle.
Welcome back, Pamela!
Memoir Author Pamela Jane
Writing,It’s Not About the Words: A Reflection on Storytelling
Most of us know someone who always seems to come up with good stories gleaned from ordinary life – a shopping trip, a phone call, or a doctor’s visit. “Oh, that’s such a (‘Denise’ or ‘Kevin’ or ‘Chris’) story,” we say, or “that only could have happened to…” (fill in the name). But do these funny, bizarre, or fascinating stories really show up, whole and complete, a gift from the universe?
I’ve come to realize that the person who always has a funny or fantastic tale to tell is unconsciously creating those stories, organizing the random events of life into a shapely narrative. Without realizing it, he or she edits the experience, enlarging or exaggerating some events, while diminishing others, all for the sake of the story. And, like a true entertainer, each time she tells the story, it gets a little better.
Screenwriting guru, Bob McKee, said that storytelling talent is more rare than literary talent. Literary talent – the ability to use language well – is important, but a great story is what rivets us to a book, a film, or an oral narrative.
It is what transforms ordinary life into a tale that also transforms the reader or listener, gives her insight into the human experience, and inspiration for her own stories.
Often, people have said to me, “I have a great story to tell, but I don’t know how to write it,” or, “I have such a fabulous story, but I’m not a writer.” The good news is, you have a story to tell, and you’re passionate about telling it. With diligence and hard work, the craft of writing can be acquired.
During the weekend screenwriting seminar I took with Bob McKee, he also noted that “writing is not about the words.” To me, this makes perfect sense. The words are merely messengers for the story. They bring the news – as in, “this happened,” or “I had this experience,” – but the real news is the story. Of course words matter, but they will fight you at every turn if you don’t have a good vehicle (story) for them to hitch a ride on. Without a story, the words will become uncooperative and surly, and protest at every turn. It reminds me of Alice’s conversation with Humpty Dumpty in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass:
‘That’s a great deal to make one word mean,’ Alice said in a thoughtful tone.
‘When I make a word do a lot of work like that,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘I always pay it extra.’
‘Oh!’ said Alice. She was too much puzzled to make any other remark.
‘Ah, you should see ’em come round me of a Saturday night,’ Humpty Dumpty went on, wagging his head gravely from side to side, ‘for to get their wages, you know.’
Lucky Humpty Dumpty! His words did their work and showed up for their wages. But if you are not careful to construct a story for your words, they may rebel and go on strike, brandishing signs that say, “No Storyline, No Work,” “Equal Pay for Adjectives,” or “Power to the Pronouns!”
As writers, most of us have had the exhilarating experience of being carried away by our words – those lovely words! – and leaving the story behind. The good news is that we can always go back and retrieve it.
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Thank you, Pamela, for showing us the importance of inviting the reader into a story through our words. I love the idea that we all have stories to tell but it’s how we deliver the message that will matter. “With diligence and hard work, the craft of writing can be acquired.” and ” Do not leave the story behind” resonate.
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Author Bio:
Pamela Jane has published over twenty-five children’s books with Houghton Mifflin, Atheneum, Simon & Schuster, Penguin-Putnam, Harper, and others. Her books include NOELLE OF THE NUTCRACKER illustrated by Jan Brett, and LITTLE GOBLINS TEN illustrated by NY Times best-selling illustrator, Jane Manning (Harper, 2011). The sequel, LITTLE ELFIE ONE has just come out (Harper). PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND KITTIES: A CAT-LOVER’S ROMP THROUGH JANE AUSTEN’S CLASSIC (Skyhorse) was featured in The Wall Street Journal, BBC America, The Huffington Post, The New York Times Sunday Book Review and The Daily Dot, and has just been issued in paper. She a writer and editor for womensmemoirs, and her new memoir, AN INCREDIBLE TALENT FOR EXISTING: A WRITER’S STORY has recently come out. An excerpt from the book, JUST WAIT! A Short Story Rejected in Grade School Becomes a Cause in Action appeared in the March issue of The Writer.
Contact Information:
Pamela Jane’s Children’s Books
JUST WAIT! A Short Story Rejected in Grade School Becomes a Cause of Action
Pride and Prejudice and Kitties
Book Synopsis:
It is 1965, the era of love, light and revolution. While the romantic narrator imagines a bucolic future in an old country house with children running through the dappled sunlight, her husband plots to organize a revolution and fight a guerrilla war in the Catskills.
Their fantasies are on a collision course.
The clash of visions turns into an inner war of identities when the author embraces radical feminism; she and her husband are comrades in revolution but combatants in marriage; she is a woman warrior who spends her days sewing long silk dresses reminiscent of a Henry James novel. One half of her isn’t speaking to the other half.
And then, just when it seems that things cannot possibly get more explosive, her wilderness cabin burns down and Pamela finds herself left with only the clothes on her back.
From her vividly evoked existential childhood (“the only way I would know for sure that I existed was if others lots of others acknowledged it”) to writing her first children’s book on a sugar high during a glucose tolerance test, Pamela Jane takes the reader along on a highly entertaining personal, political, and psychological adventure.
An Incredible Talent for Existing : A Writer’s Story book trailer:
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How about you? What is the story you tell about yourself? How do you find your story?
We’d love to hear from you. Please leave your comments below~
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Next Week:
Monday, 4/25/16:
“Finding the Light in the Darkness of My Story”
April 2106 Newsletter: Updates, Memoir Musings and Max Moments:
” Spring: The Season of Hope and Renewal”
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