Post #110 – Memoir Writing – Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler
Consider a Mini-Memoir – Sharon Lippincott Tells Us How
I recently had the pleasure of reading Sharon Lippincott’s new book, Adventures of a Chilehead and was taken with the sharp and witty life stories that she mixed with spicy and mouthwatering recipes. She knows how to weave brief personal stories into a compelling whole.
WomensMemoirs welcomes Sharon to share her thoughts on on her new book and on crafting a mini-memoir. Let’s see what she has to say.
Matilda Butler: Hi Sharon. Women’s Memoirs is pleased to talk with you today — an exciting day to have you on our website since this is the official launch of your new book, Adventures of a Chilehead. I’ve just finished reading it and can assure everyone that it is a great read. I love your light tone. Can you share with our readers the history of the stories in this volume and what it took to shape them into a coherent whole rather than just separate vignettes?
Sharon Lippincott: Thanks for the kind words, Matilda. I began writing these stories in 2003, right after the “Great Balls of Fire” incident that eventually became one of the book’s chapters. As most of your readers will know, one story triggers another, and “Breathing Fire” and “Esstrah Spicy” followed in short order. I used the second two stories as examples in my book, Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing: How to Transform Memories into Meaningful Stories. When I decided to turn this trilogy into a short anthology or “story album” for Kindle, I searched my memory for other chile-related memories to round out the collection and the remaining stories emerged.
Once I had the stories assembled, I discovered a fair amount of repetition and spread half a gallon of red ink on the draft. Then I noticed that several spots were unclear or lacking in detail. One advantage of assembling long dormant stories is that you see them with a fresh eye and these structural issues may be easier to spot. But even so, I relied on an experienced team of accomplished beta readers to find even more holes and rough spots. As polishing progressed, a loose collection of simple stories magically acquired a story arc and evolved into an integrated memoir.
Matilda Butler: I love your comment that the “stories magically acquired a story arc.” Because, of course, there was no magic. When we look behind your words, I think we’ll find that focus, concentration, hard work, and a lot of time do seem to mix together with a result that does seem almost magical. You’ve certainly helped us see the levels of work and rework that went into Adventures of a Chilehead.
Let me move on to my second question. I’m a real sucker for anything that has a recipe in or on it. I have to remind myself about the waste of paper when I see a grocery store flyer that includes recipes or I would always bring them home. So while I loved reading your stories in Adventures of a Chilehead, I swooned at the 22 recipes you included. Why did you decide to add the recipes and how much work did it take to have that section in your book?
Sharon Lippincott: The recipes were an afterthought. A couple of people had asked about them earlier, but I brushed off the suggestion. Finally Ian Mathie, my good friend and fellow memoirist, Skyped in from England: “These foods may be commonplace in the USA, but I need recipes so I can try them on this side of the pond.” Since not all chapters feature home cooked food, I decided to put the recipes at the end of the book.
Writing them was a challenge. I’m an intuitive cook who uses recipes as suggestions rather than formulas, and chile is a temperamental ingredient. Trying to capture recipes that to me are “a bit of this, some of that, and enough of the others, and whatever you have if you don’t have that” in terms most people can follow with predictable results was indeed a challenge.
Matilda Butler: Having a finished memoir is the goal of almost everyone who decides to write their life stories. Sometimes it seems like an almost impossible goal and no one would deny that it’s hard work. I see that you use the term “mini-memoir” with Adventures of a Chilehead. Would you share your definition and what you think its role is for those of us writing memoirs?
Sharon Lippincott: I’m glad you said “almost” because many do find the thought of a formal memoir intimidating. Thus I also encourage personal anthologies or “story albums” of simple life stories as a less daunting way of sharing, especially with a limited readership. That’s what this volume started out to be. As it evolved into memoir, a collection of short stories with a continuing thread, theme and story arc, it remained a midget by traditional standards of 50,000 words or more.
Bouyed by the belief that “a story should be as long as it needs to be, and not a word more,” I coined the term, “mini-memoir.” It’s the memoir equivalent of a novella. This format is especially well-suited for tightly focused topics or short periods of time. Such works would have been difficult to publish in earlier years, but with the advent of ebooks, length has ceased to matter. I originally envisioned this volume strictly as an ebook. When I added the recipes, it gained enough bulk to support a print version for those who prefer paper. So I now have both versions available.
Matilda Butler: Based on your experiences with Adventures of a Chilehead, what advice would you share with our readers? In other words, if you were starting over what might you do differently? What have you learned?
Sharon Lippincott: Two basic lessons I learned from earlier books are to master styles, the key to the self-publishing kingdom, and polish your manuscript until it’s as perfect as you can get it before splitting the document into ebook and print formats. An even more important lesson is to build in a couple of months at the very end of any large publishing project for the document to lie dormant. I’ve done this with both volumes I published this year, but only because life intervened. Both times when I returned with refreshed vision, I found a stunning amount of editing still needed to be done. Finally, don’t send your book to be proofread until you are ready to upload it for final publication. Each time you edit, you open the door for further mistakes.
Matilda Butler: Chilehead is your third book, coming after Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing: How to Transform Memories into Meaningful Stories, which was followed by The Heart and Craft of Writing Compelling Description. What’s next? Will you be writing another book to help those of us who write and teach memoir or will you be writing more of your own memoir?
Sharon Lippincott: I actually wrote an earlier memoir, The Albuquerque Years before the lifestory book, but have not commercially published it. It’s available as a free pdf download on my website. I’m semi-committed to a second edition of The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing. This approachable form is easy for beginners to grasp, and a great starting point for those who later feel ready for the challenge of formal memoir. I’m also dabbling with some fiction, realizing that some stories are more vivid and true without the walls imposed by documentable fact.
Matilda Butler: Sharon takes for being here with us today. We look forward to your next books.
Sharon Lippincott is a lifewriting coach and evangelist for lifestory writing and memoir. She teaches in the Pittsburgh area and online, and is pioneering the mini-memoir form with her newly released volume, Adventures of a Chilehead. Her previously published books include The Heart and Craft of Writing Compelling Description, and several other volumes. Her blog, The Heart and Craft of Life Writing, has been offering tips and inspiration on all forms of life writing since 2007.
