Post #127 – Women’s Memoirs, Writing Prompt – Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler
Writing Tip: An Artist Gives an Idea for Memoir Writing
You may remember that last June, my partner and I took Kendra on a Fabulous, Final Fifties Fling. One of our many stops was at Chesterwood, Daniel Chester French’s home in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
French, of course, is best known for his statue of Lincoln that is featured in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. In his studio, on the grounds of his home and beautiful gardens, we had a tour by a docent who gladly answered our questions.
During the conversation, it came out that French created multiple versions of each of his sculptures. He started by working in clay and the first model was about six inches. His second version, stone I believe, was three feet, his third was six feet, and then finally, he moved to bronze for the full-sized piece — larger than life.
This got me thinking about how this technique from a sculptor could be translated to memoir writing:
First, have an image if your mind of what you want to tell. Perhaps start with a synopsis. This would be like his six-inch model.
Second, move up in scale, adding more details and seeing if the enlarged version of the story still holds or if you need to make changes. Perhaps you have taken too large of a piece of the story to shape it adequately. Maybe you don’t have enough of a story to hold the reader’s interest and you need to go back and add more to the story outline.
What I especially liked about French’s technique was that it let him start at a manageable level — something that could be executed. I think that as memoir writers, we can easily become overwhelmed by the task.
Just remember that even great artists start small, see what works and what doesn’t work, and then build up from there.
Keep going. Great art isn’t quickly accomplished. Don’t get discouraged.
