Post #35 – Memoir and Fiction, Writing Alchemy – Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler
This weekend I was rereading Sue William Silverman’s excellent book on the craft of writing a memoir, entitled Fearless Confessions: A Writer’s Guide to Memoir. Women’s Memoirs has had several opportunities to talk with Sue, and she’s always a great source of information. Here are links to our past posts:
- Sue William Silverman talking with Matilda about openings
- Sue William Silverman talks about her writing with an emphasis on tenacity
- Sue William Silverman guest blog: Who is that masked memoirist?
Well, reading her book on Sunday, I came across this:
“Revealing a theme is more effective than announcing it. I would never state, for example, ‘This essay is about my search for identity.’ That’s too generic to engage a reader. I doesn’t invite the reader along on my journey of self-discovery.”
That got me to thinking…the revealing process is so very important to good writing. Just as Sue points out that you need to reveal the theme, how a writer handles the introduction of characters, elements of their personality, and unfolds the story goes a long way toward engaging her readers.
Think about books you’ve read with strong characters. The author doesn’t just drop a load of information in Chapter One and expect you to pick your way through it to understand the character and everything he/she will do in the next two or three hundred pages. The author often will begin with a physical picture–maybe sticking to the most obvious features. If the character engages in conversation or some interaction with another character right off, we begin to get a sense of personality. And so it goes throughout the book as the author reveals the person.
Now think of someone you know. Recall the time you met. What did you notice first? You probably came away from that initial encounter with a general sense of appearance–you could pick him/her out on the street. And you may have some impression of personality–outgoing, likes to talk, confident, or maybe just the opposite. In either case, you’re not going to understand what makes the person tick. You’re not going to know if what you see really is what you get. Maybe the persona you were shown was just a shell.
Characters Reveal Themselves in Real Life
I recall a person I met in a business setting. She was a freelance consultant angling for some work from a company for which I worked. I had to come into the meeting late and had not been fully introduced since she was in the middle of her presentation. I took a chair, sat quietly and listened. When she finished, I asked a couple of questions, which she answered rather curtly. She sat with her back to me throughout the meeting, and I knew it was deliberate. Needless to say, my first impression of her was not good.
But I put my initial feelings aside, decided to give this consultant the benefit of the doubt and eventually we even gave her some work. As we got to know each other better, I came to discount my first reaction. I liked her more. One day I mentioned that first meeting and her behavior. She shrugged and said, “Oh, I didn’t know who you were; I thought you were some accountant type sitting in on the discussion.” We both laughed at the time.
But through the years I saw other evidence of her behavior that first day–a trait I had willingly overlooked and discounted as a mistake on my part. I saw other things as well that reinforced the picture of this woman that was becoming clear. In the end, I learned she had been showing her true self from the beginning. Her turnabout with me was really just a case of playing up to the one who could do her some good. What’s more, that was only the tip of the iceberg. She turned out to be more shallow, more questionable in her dealings than I could have possibly known after that first meeting.
It was interesting how it all played out and that my initial impression was correct. But had I read this in a story, and my character decided to take one apparent slight too personally and cut the consultant off at the knees after the first meeting, I might have looked like the one without understanding and compassion. And a reader might not believe that any worthwhile character could react so strongly to one little diss. I would be considered too sensitive or maybe haughty and dictatorial because I didn’t get enough deference in the meeting.
Use The Revealing Process to Engage Readers
So What’s the Takeaway? As writers, we need to build a revealing process that is both logical and engaging. You want to keep your readers with you every step of the way. You don’t want them slamming the book shut and exclaiming, “Oh, that’s impossible.” You want readers to learn facts throughout the course of the story–keeping them turning pages but also making them feel that they’re seeing the character revealed in real time. Do this right, and your readers will feel they came to know the character and reached their own conclusions.
In the case of my example above, I could have reacted, never called the consultant back…end of story. I never would have known her true motivation; I would have been acting or reacting entirely on my own feelings. And while that happens every day in real life, it does not a story make. That little scene might have taken three or four pages to tell. But the story of the relationship (work and personal) that developed only to discover that my initial assessment was more correct than I could have ever known after that first meeting…well that makes a story.
Deconstruction Becomes a Powerful Tool in the Revealing Process
In Writing Alchemy, Matilda and I talk a lot about using Deconstruction to reveal characters. By working through the many aspects of a character–physical appearance, quirks and ticks, personality, motivation and behavior–writing them down and studying them, a writer can better build a path for the revealing process. But enough said for now. In April, with the publication of Writing Alchemy, all will be revealed.
