Post #108 – Women’s Memoirs, Writing Prompt – Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler
Finding the Focus of Your Memoir
Recently, when we were in Portland, we spent time at Lan Su Chinese Garden. This is a favorite stop, a place where tranquility is so thick you can almost reach out and touch it. I often pass up flyers and literature at museums and concerts. They seem like such a waste as I almost always through them away when I get home. However, this time, we took the beautifully crafted booklet that came with our admission fee. As I read it, I realized it made a good point for memoir writers.
The image on the left shows a Chinese landscape. This is the first page you see when you open the booklet. It looks like many Chinese landscapes that I’ve seen in museums across the years. The eye flitters from here to there — the small structure, the waterfall, the trees, the large rocks.
Below you’ll see that I’ve closed the booklet to let you see the cover that shows one small part of the larger Chinese landscape. On the reverse of this cover, just under the cutout, it shows a small icon and then says:
When you see this icon in the guide, hold the window above up to your eye to frame a specific view of the Garden. In Chinese gardens, windows are designed to draw your focus toward something special.
The booklet goes on to say:
Lan Su Chinese Garden is your window into Chinese culture, history and way of thinking. Built by Chinese artisans, it is the most authentic Chinese garden outside of China. Much more than a beautiful garden, Lan Su is a 2,000-year-old tradition that melds art, architecture, design and nature in perfect harmony.
Memoir Writers Need to Frame Their Stories
Think of your life as a large landscape. When you write, you are giving readers a window into this life. This means you will need to leave out a lot in order to frame the view. But it is what you focus on that is an important part of the craft of memoir writing. What gets included needs to be rich in detail, just make sure you choose what you want readers to have in focus.
MEMOIR WRITING PROMPT:
1. Create a written landscape of your yesterday. This can be in the form of a long list, if you like. Be sure to include as much as you can remember.
2. Hold an imaginary frame up to your day’s landscape and choose the most important elements. Now write for 10 minutes creating a written frame and focus around your story.
