Back to the Drawing Board:Finding the Narrative Arc For My Next Memoir
Posted by Kathleen Pooler/@kathypooler
‘The biggest mistake you can make is assuming that creativity will hit you all at once and the muse will carry you to the end of the book on feather wings while ‘Foster the People’ plays gently in the background. Storytelling is work. Pleasurable work, usually, but it is work.” Maggie Stiefvater ,Brainy Quotes
Our Stories Matter…
We all have a story to tell but how we tell it matters. We want to give our story the best possible chance to blossom and impact the reader in a lasting and meaningful way. Finding the right structure to house our stories is an essential step in the process.
You need to find the narrative arc:
Photo Credit www.dawnwink.wordpress.com
More specifically:
Photo Credit: www.write4publish.com
How do you find the narrative arc?:
Back in 2012, eighteen months before publishing Ever Faithful to His Lead: My Journey Away From Emotional Abuse, I wrote this post on “Designing and Building a Structure For My Memoir”.
Drawing a mandela led me through the labyrinth of my feelings and into the heart of my story where faith and a loving family brought me back home again after venturing out into the world seeking an adventure for which I was ill-prepared.
Back to the Drawing Board…
Four years later, I am back at the drawing board, sifting through the vignettes for my second memoir. I am starting to think about shaping it into a story with a narrative arc—a beginning, middle and end—and a takeaway.
But I’ve discovered that I can’t rush the process.
While I can use the lessons from writing my first memoir, I also need to remain open to where my story will take me; how it will reveal itself to me. And that can only come through the writing.
It’s a new story and it will take its own shape …in time.
I have learned to trust in the process. Selecting the snippets of memory and capturing each detail while honoring my own truths to the best of my ability will lead the way to my larger story.
I am beginning to sense it taking shape.
Story Boarding My Way to Structure:
Since I am a visual learner, plotting these vignettes on a storyboard helps me solidify the structure. Before I even place the stickers on the board, the structure has already taken shape in my mind. The deeper into my story I go, the clearer its shape becomes.
I can start the process of shaping it while writing and fill in more details as I keep writing. It serves as a guideline for the writing and as a motivator to keep writing.
Though we all find our own way through the process, here are a few resources that I found helpful in shaping my own story:
The 22 rules of storytelling according to Pixar:
“#4: Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day, ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.” (my favorite)
The W-Method of StoryBoarding:
Artist, author, teacher Mary Carroll Moore describes the three -part structure and how to create a strong emotional arc in your story in this video.
5 Musts for a Powerful Memoir by Diane O’Connell of Write to Sell Your Book:
“Narrow your focus; use fiction techniques; more show more than tell; be honest; explore the truth.” These are the tools used to build your story.
Where do I start?
I ask myself the same questions that helped me find the narrative arc for my first memoir:
Where will the reader step into my story?
What will engage the reader immediately?
What will make the reader want to keep reading?
What will make the reader try to find the answer to the questions elicited from my story?
What will make the reader feel satisfied at the end?
What will make the reader think about my story long after it is finished?
What will make my reader recommend my memoir to others?
Photo Credit: impact videoproduction.co.uk
With all these questions in mind and a few trusty tools at hand, I am ready to move forward and build a solid structure to hold the my story; one that will give it room to grow and become whatever it needs to be.
How about you? How do you find the narrative arc- the structure- for your story? What tools have helped you?
I’d love to hear from you. Please leave your comments below~
ANNOUNCEMENT: Congratulations, Brandi. You are the winner of an eBook copy of Martha Graham-Waldon’s memoir Nothing Like Normal: Surviving a Sibling’s Schizophrenia!
Next Week:
Monday, 02/22/16:
“The Power of Writing Prompts by Leslie Watts”
Leslie co-authored 101 Creative Writing Prompts for Memoir Writers with Alyssa Archer. Leslie and Alyssa work together at the Writership. A copy of their book will be given to a commenter whose name will be selected in a random drawing.
