How to Prepare to Write Memoir
From the film, Breakfast at Tiffany, the original book by Truman Capote
HOW TO PREPARE to write memoir? A client asked me this and I found myself about to give an offhand retort – “Tie yourself in a chair,” “Promise yourself something from Bulgari,” – until I thought better of it and realized that despite my glib impulses I actually have very well-defined prep and, more to the point, so does everyone I know who writes for a living. In fact, I quickly realized, there are probably as many writing routines as there are writers. What does anybody else do when setting up for the day, or beginning a new book, or deciding to try something new? What did I do this morning before typing?
What did I do? I read a few interviews with two few very funny men. After all, who better to teach humor than Woody Allen and Calvin Trillin, each of whom has been writing it for more than 60 years? So I read the Paris Review interview with Calvin Trillin and then, because I was not ready to work, I read the Paris Review interview with Woody Allen. And Voila! I was laughing my ass off, not a bad way to start typing.
And as I wrote, and pondered my client’s question, I realized that my routine does indeed vary from assignment to assignment or spec piece and that an offhand answer would have been utterly false and completely unhelpful.
So let me be helpful here.
How to prepare to write memoir? What do I do before I begin writing? What are my writing routines? I do research. And while I’ve written before about the need to research memoir, I mention it again because I begin a new class this week, because I am wrestling with something of my own, and because it’s January and it feels like we all need to start – again – from scratch. So research.
This may include reading others on how to write memoir. For instance, I like this post by best-selling writer, Jerry Jenkins.
Then I remind myself of the big picture. Why am I writing this piece? What is my goal? Why is this goal important to me? I look for ways to kindle the fire I’ll need to write with both honesty and empathy. Here are 13 success quotes to get your fire blazing.
Along with that, do whatever it takes to get to the desk and stay there. I keep a bright red, crazy-expensive lipstick at my fingertips. This I can annotate back to the movie version of the great Truman Capote’s monstrously wonderful book Breakfast at Tiffany, in which Holly Golightly says, “A girl can’t read that sort of thing without her lipstick.”
I feel that way about first drafts. But that’s for later, isn’t it? First I’d have to write one.
Oh, and you make me laugh too. And you are ALWAYS so very helpful. Lately I’ve been reading one short story from American Housewife by Helen Ellis (her stories are spit-out-your-food funny), and then begin with something innocuous like read the project file, or open the current document and stare at it.
I love the idea of fabulous lipstick tho.
I am enrolled on a memoir course with Universal Class.com
and this is where I found your writing on this subject area.
I have been stuck to write over the last 8 weeks
as I could not think of a period
of my life that I want to write about
as every period was traumatic
and it seem so unpleasant to write
as it brings up memories I thought
were well buried
.it is like a vicious circle
Help
Dear Janet.
Pick one.
One small moment. And write about it. Do not try to write them all, or write a book, or even about a long period of time. Just a moment. And watch what happens when you do. Perhaps you will understand that moment better in your life, or it will lead to something else, another moment. Maybe not. But start small.
Marion:
Two of my favorites are James Thurber and David Sedaris. I think humorists can teach us something important about concision. When Woody Allen says his mother wouldn’t take his brother to the psychiatrist even though he thought he was a chicken–because his family needed the eggs–he is saying something about family that someone with less insight and talent could spend a whole book trying to get right, and failing. The punch line, the haiku, the glittering sharp sudden insight into something you thought you knew but didn’t have quite the words for–it is such a joy to read someone who does. And to aspire to be a writer who occasionally has them him or herself.
Mike Welch
Hi there, Mike.
Beautifully said. Thanks for showing up here again. I am delighted to read this, particularly since I adore all three of those writers you mention. And thank you for drilling into concision. What a fine idea. Perfect. Please come back soon.