Post #19 – Women’s Memoirs, Book Raves – Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnett
Higher Than Eagles is a family memoir by Maralys Wills written with her son Chris Wills. Maralys details not a trauma of her own childhood but the death of two sons to the sport and family business of hang gliding.
We read memoirs for many reasons. As a memoir coach, I often read memoirs to better understand the techniques of memoirists — techniques used to engage and retain the interest of readers. Higher than Eagles teaches many lessons.
For now, I’d like to focus on the approach Maralys Wills took in the opening of her memoir. When considering different approaches to starting your memoir, read how Wills handles her first words. She begins with the phone call informing her that her son has just died in a hang gliding accident. She vividly recounts her thoughts and emotions as she slowly accepts his death. As a reader, you are grabbed immediately.
You might think that this strong opening has given away the story. Yet as you read, you’ll see that Wills starts on a high dramatic moment, gives you the backstory, and then builds toward the moment already described in the opening. However, the second time she provides additional details.
Wills tells the family’s story of how one son’s interest in airplanes eventually led them into a business of building and flying hang gliders. Her eldest son, Bobbie, became one of the best known pilots. Yet, he too was killed by the sport a few years after her younger brother’s tragic death.
Kendra and I refer to this book as an example of a collective memoir. The story is told from two perspectives — mother and son. Together they build an emotional story that speaks to every mother. We understand more about the story because we see these twin tragedies through the quite different emotional reactions of the two authors. Most memoirists have sole authorship, but this telling by two offers an additional approach to consider as you conceptualize your memoir.
Is there someone you want to share the writing task with you? Would it enhance or distract from your story? Would it make the writing faster or slower? The story is yours to tell, but a second author, a family member, is an interesting options.
Maralys Wills seems driven to write as a way to cope with the “uncopable” situation. Can writing help you move forward in your life?
>> Click here to buy this book
