Linda Joy Myers, Ph.D.
I have had the honor of watching Linda Joy Myers expand her passion for helping people heal themselves through writing to creating the National Association of Memoir Writers (NAMW). From therapist and journal writer to memoirist, Linda Joy brought carloads of her clients and students to my home for private plot workshops*** and she always arrived carrying a plate piled high with warm, luscious, and aromatic brownies or other delectable.
Linda Joy wrote and self-published Becoming Whole: Writing Your Healing Story and had such success Jossey-Bass asked her to re-write it. They have just released it as The Power of Memoir—How to Write Your Healing Story. She teaches about the transformative gift but even better she exemplifies the journey.
I asked Linda Joy Myers to share her thoughts about plot and memoir writing.
Memoir Writers—How to be Transformed by your Plot
When I teach memoir writers, I try to integrate several things at once—to honor the stories, often very emotional and raw, that they want to tell. And in a group setting, we strive to respectfully witness each person’s story and to allow emotions to come through. We also struggle with the form of a “true” story. If it “happened this way,” it can seem disrespectful to the story or to what happened to consider changing anything around. However, I know that my job is to help to translate “what really happened” into a story that works.
Sometimes the memoir writers’ eyes begin to glaze over when I start talking about story structure and the narrative arc. ‘‘What do you mean by narrative arc? I want to use my diary and journals for my memoir. Do I have to learn all this technical stuff?’’
The answer is YES!
Developing the craft of writing a story and learning about classical narrative forms, presents more choices to create the best memoir you can write, one that invites your reader into your story world, and keeps them there. It’s also true that when you use dramatic form, you see yourself differently in your story. You can be changed by delving deep into the person you once were through experiencing those moments in scene, being in the body of the person you were in the past.
Because we live and experience life chronologically, often through moments that don’t appear to have a clear understandable meaning, memoirists tend to write in an episodic way—‘‘this happened, then that happened, and after that . . . ’’ When we are deluged by details and feelings, it’s difficult to sort out how much to include, and how to see friends and family as ‘‘characters.’’
But the transition from ‘‘all these things happened to me’’ to choosing and shaping your narrative using the tools of fiction must take place in order to transition from episodic ramblings into a story with a clear narrative arc.
Unlike journaling, a story has a form—a beginning, middle, and an end. Another way to think about this is that your story, your book, needs to have a dramatic structure: Act One, Act Two, and Act Three.
Something significant happens in each scene of the story—this is the point of the scene.
A story has a reason for being told—this is your theme.
The main character, the protagonist—in a memoir it’s you!—is changed significantly by events, actions, decisions, and epiphanies. The growth and change of the main character is imperative in any story, and is the primary reason a memoir is written—to show the arc of character change from beginning to end.
All stories have conflict, rising action, a crisis, a climax, and a resolution. In a memoir, begin with a situation, a problem, something that is off kilter in your world. For instance, if your memoir is about abuse, begin with a scene showing the abuse.
By the end, the story world, the world where the protagonist began, is transformed and the main character—you—has undergone profound change. If there was abuse in your life, or a serious illness, by the end, you have changed your life, confronted the fears that you had, and come to a new place with the problem that you were struggling with at the beginning of the book.
The Narrative Arc and Turning Points
To clarify your choice of theme for your narrative arc, ask the following questions:
What is the main, dominant meaning of my story?
What is my book about? (One sentence.)
How does my book end? What do I want the reader to understand and learn?
To locate the answers to these questions, it helps to find the important emotional turning points in your life and plot them along a timeline. As you discover the 10 to 20 significant moments of change, you will begin to see themes emerge. First make a list of these turning points, keeping in mind that they need to be “big moments” when something significant changed for you.
Then plot them on a timeline. Though your memoir will most likely focus on only part of your life and the significant theme that emerges through this process, it’s a good idea to get an overview, as most people start a memoir thinking they will write about their whole life. At first, you need to get clear about the significant moments of change, and how you ended up different afterwards, because some or even one of these moments may become the focus of your memoir. A memoir is most often a slice of life that focuses on a theme.
For instance, in my memoir, Don’t Call Me Mother, I wrote many stories that I didn’t include because I needed to get them out of my head and onto the page. As I learned about the importance of theme, and learned even more about plot from Martha Alderson, I was able to pare down and cut 56,000 words from the memoir.
I knew that I had to focus primarily on my quest to have my mother accept me, to get her to love me after all, after leaving me when I was four years old. Later, she denied to her friends in Chicago that she even had a daughter. The book begins with her leaving me behind, followed by scenes about my longing for her, and waiting breathlessly for her visits; or later traveling to visit her, to get her to finally love me. My own experience with motherhood is included briefly, as I learn what being a mother entails, and find out how to love and attend to my own children.
At the end of my mother’s life, I realize that she can’t love me, that she was incapable of being different, and I come to terms with my useless quest. I was changed by the end, able to feel love for her as she was dying, because I’d let go of my quest, and saw simply a dying woman in pain who’d done the best she could. Thus, you can see the arc: from a painful, unfulfilled need to finally accepting my mother and seeing our lives through new eyes.
Scenes are like pearls on the necklace of the narrative arc, placing your reader, and yourself into significant moments. To complete your memoir, write it scene by scene, pearl by pearl, and soon you will have a necklace that contains the essence of your life. You will have a story that breathes and lives on the page.
Be brave—write your story. Write it scene by scene, and discover your own transformation as a result.
Thank you, Linda Joy!
Visit Linda Joy Myers' website website
Visit National Association of Memoir Writers website
For more on Memoir Writing and Plot
****For those of you curious, yes, I love welcoming carloads of writers. Contact me if interested in bringing your writers' or critique group for private all-day plot intensives in Santa Cruz. I am also willing to make special arrangements to travel to you.