Post #217 – Memoir Writing – Matilda Butler
Interview with Author Pamela Jane
Today I have a special treat for you. You already know Pamela Jane. She is the author of more than 25 children’s books, a book for adults featuring Jane Austin and kitties, a longtime blogger on WomensMemoirs, and author of the memoir An Incredible Talent for Existing: A Writer’s Story.
I recently interviewed Pamela about her memoir since she has just been through so many of the steps you are taking as you move your writing toward publication. (Her memoir will be published in 2016.) I thought I’d share her wisdom and insights with you.
WomensMemoirs: Question #1. Pamela, I know that writing and publishing your memoir took perseverance, but what steps did you take along the way? For example, did you redo your opening and book proposal when you were ready to publish?
Pamela Jane Matilda, thanks for this interview. I always enjoy writing for WomensMemoirs.com. But being interviewed by you is a new experience. And yes, I’m glad to share some of my memoir writing experiences. As to your point about memoir openings…
I rewrote my opening dozens of times. I wrote literary openings, funny openings, ironic openings, mysterious openings! To me, they were all intriguing beginnings. An opening is like a front door–-it may be appealing and well-written, but is it the best entryway into the house you want to build?
So my tip here is that a memoir writer has to decide what type of memoir she is writing and craft the most appropriate (and the best possible) opening. This helps you not only with eventual readers but with potential agents and publishers.
WomensMemoirs: Question #2. I know it is fairly easy to come up with a small list of potential publishers. For example, you can look at the publisher of memoirs you have on your bookshelves. But how did you assemble the full list of agents and book publishers that you eventually used?
Pamela Jane I turned to multiple sources, such as agentquery.com and Writer’s Digest (2014) Guide to Literary Agents. I also did on-line searches for lists of university and small presses who publish memoirs. Writer’s Digest periodically publishes an on-line list of memoir agents as well.
These resources contain a wealth of information that is just waiting for you to utilize. For example, when you go to AgentQuery.com, you can choose Memoirs from the list of: Select Non-Fiction Genre. This currently gives you a list of 421 agents who say they represent memoir authors. As you scroll through the list, you notice that some do not accept email queries but will accept postal queries. Some are not currently accepting unsolicited queries. Pay attention to what they say so that you don’t waste your time. Click on the icon for Full Profile. This tells you about recent deals they have made as well as some personal information, such as where they went to college. All valuable information.
WomensMemoirs: Question #3. Did you always use the same cover letter? If not, how did you modify it?
Pamela Jane As your question suggests, even a really great query letter isn’t appropriate for every agent or publisher. Here’s what I did. I had a standard query letter that I modified according to what the agent or publisher was looking for. If I had something in common with an agent or editor–for example if we both lived in San Francisco at a certain time–I might mention that. This means I tried to learn as much as possible about the agent or publisher before sending my query. It’s easy to forget how many query letters these folks get each day.
Since different agents and publishes require different pieces in your submission package, it’s good to have them all ready to go: tagline (click here for the difference between taglines and loglines), query letter, synopsis, and sample chapters.
And though it sounds obvious, follow exactly what the agent or publish wants. Don’t send more and don’t send less. If they want online submissions, then do that. If they want paper copies mailed, then do that.
WomensMemoirs: Question #4. Pamela, this is when the gloves come off. I have a hard question for you. How long did it take you to complete your memoir?
Pamela Jane You’re right Matilda. I never like it when people ask me that question. Yet so many women spend years on writing their memoir that I don’t mind sharing with this community. It took me twenty-two years. Though this is not unheard of, I think it is unusual. I did a lot of slipping and sliding around before I found my footing, my story. Many writers write books more quickly and, in fact, I wrote my first children’s book on a sugar high during a glucose tolerance test (I don’t recommend this as a writing strategy however!)
The following excerpt from my memoir illustrates the process I went through to discover the story I wanted to tell–or I should say, the story that wanted to be told.
“Story is an elusive thing, and the search for it at times is perilous. You don’t know when you start out on that stony trail if you’ll make it back with a tale to tell, or if a fellow traveler will find the remains of your narrative bleached like bones in the sun. Irresistibly, the story draws you on, impelling you to discover what lies beyond the fixed images you’ve recorded. It’s like Antonioni’s film Blow Up in which a photographer takes pictures in a park of what appears to be a simple tryst between a man and a woman. He develops the film unsuspectingly, but then he begins to look closer. Hidden beneath the seemingly innocent images is a darker one–-a figure with a gun. The photographer blows up the pictures, larger and larger, and discovers what he actually recorded was a murder. The woman was not flirting with her companion, but leading him on, enticing him in front of a hidden assailant. This is what writing a memoir is like. You go back to the past and discover hidden, sometimes dark, forces in the images you recorded. You blow them up and examine them to see what is really there.
“It may not be a sinister figure waiting in the shadows you discover when you examine the past, but self-knowledge, hidden empathy, buried passion.” –Pamela Jane, excepted from her memoir: An Incredible Talent for Existing: A Writer’s Story
WomensMemoirs: Question #5. Thanks Pamela for sharing that snippet of your memoir. I especially love your phrase “a fellow traveler will find the remains of your narrative bleached like bones in the sun.” That is a wonderful visual image. I know I’ve left some narrative remains along the way.
Here’s my last question, Pamela. What suggestions or tips do you have for others working to write and publish memoirs?
Pamela Jane This is the fun part of this interview. I seem to always think in terms of lists. Here are my top four tips.
Memoir Tip #1. Know when to show others your work-in-progress, and when to keep it to yourself. There were times when I casually related an episode from my memoir to a friend and, in doing so, came up with a line or concept that I had been struggling with. Maybe it was telling a funny story to an appreciative audience, for example, that gave me the sense of “not really writing” and loosened up my voice. But if you don’t feel ready, if the moment doesn’t seem right, just wait.
Memoir Tip #2. The memoirs you love and admire are an open classroom on how to write your own; there is no better teacher, editor or coach. You can study others’ books analytically. What is the proportion of dialog to reflection, how are flashbacks or flash-forwards handled, what techniques are employed to keep the pace lively? You can even use colored markers to identify these different elements.
Memoir Tip #3. Memoirs can teach you more than the craft of writing. They can inform your sense of effective story structures. Annie Dillard said that the best memoirs forge their own forms, and this is true, but studying strategies that worked in others’ memoirs is like learning to lace up your skates before taking off on your own.
Memoir Tip #4. Most importantly, be yourself–a memoir is not only a story from your life, it is a reflection of the way you–-and only you–-think. In his book, To Show and to Tell: The Craft of Literary Nonfiction, Philip Lopate writes:
“The story line or plot in nonfiction consists of the twists and turns of a thought process working itself out…tracking the consciousness of the author.”
Your story is not just a sequence of events, but how you looked at them, struggled with them, changed your mind about them, came to terms with them.
WomensMemoirs: Pamela, thanks for sharing your insider thoughts and tips on getting ready for publication. I especially appreciate your last tip. In memoir, each of us writes the story that only we can tell.
More About Pamela
Pamela Jane is the author of over twenty-five children’s books published by Houghton Mifflin, Atheneum, Simon & Schuster, Harper, and others. Her new children’s book, Little Elfie One, illustrated by NY Times best-selling illustrator, Jane Manning, will be out from Harper in 2015. Her book (for adults) Pride and Prejudice and Kitties: A Cat-Lover’s Romp Through Jane Austen Classic was featured in “The Wall Street Journal,” The Huffington Post, and BBC America, among other places. Her own memoir, An Incredible Talent for Existing: A Writer’s Story, will be published in 2016. Visit her at Pamelajane.com or Prideandprejudiceandkitties.com.
Pamela is a writer, coach, editor, and co-founder of First Editing Service for womensmemoirs.com.
Pamela and I recently launched an unusual editing service. We edit the FIRST or FIRST 10 pages of your memoir with the conviction that practicing what you are doing wrong just leads to bad practice. So let us catch problems that occur in your first one page (or ten pages) and we’ll give you a roadmap that will help you navigate the rest of your journey more smoothly.
We put you on the right path, right away.
To learn more about this innovative service, click here now.
Here’s what one client wrote Pamela:
I wanted to thank you for your insightful editing comments on the first page of my memoir along with the synopsis. … In terms of the memoir page, your comments actually solved a dilemma for me as I have toyed with the beginning for a while. I like the solution you offered and made the change you recommended in the order of the paragraphs and presto, problem solved! So thanks so much! M.G-W.
Are You Asking Yourself If You Need an Editor?
Every writer needs an editor. This is true of professional writers. This is true of occasional writers. WHY an editor? Here are just 2 of the many problems that writers face and editors can help clarify:
Problem #1. Writers get overly fond of metaphors, even failing to notice when they get tangled up with each other.
Pamela catches this in the FIRST 1 or 10 PAGES, and puts you on the right road.
Problem #2. Writers want to start at the beginning, even when that part doesn’t engage the reader. Back story can always come later, but we fail to notice.
Pamela provides feedback on your apparent story structure and your opening.
Learn more about EIGHT other problems that Pamela catches. Plus check out our FIRST EDITING SERVICE [click here] and see if it is right for you.
Here’s what another client wrote Pamela recently:
I want to thank you for your brilliant comments on my manuscript. I know that I am, at times, too close to the story and can lose the perspective of the reader. After all, he or she was not along for the journey! –C.L.
