Play the present against the past. It will make your memoir come alive.
Decision #2 from Sixteen Superpowers Memoir Writers Need to Have. Over sixteen posts, I help you make pacts with yourself so all will go well for you.
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2. Play the present against the past.
YOUR MANTRA: Have two timelines, not one.
What makes memoir dynamic is a dual timeline. You never have just one timeline in a memoir. The past is always pressing against the present, and that’s what makes meaning. That’s where the juice is. The present is asking questions about the past—hard questions that haven’t been asked before.Â
To do this you need a dual timeline, and two characters who press against the timeline: The Remembering Self (the now-You) and The Experiencing Self (the then-You).Â
The Remembering Self lives in the present and has a goal—to make sense of things. The Remembering Self needs a plot in the present moment so she can act it out and make sense of things. She’s doing something more than thinking about this alone in a room.
The Experiencing Self lives in the past and has a goal—to live through it. The Experiencing Self has a plot—maybe it’s a coming of age plot or it’s reinvention.
Both plots need trouble. Because that’s where the stories are. So pick two timelines—present and past—and give them both a dose of trouble.
(HINT: You probably already know the trouble of the past (Experiencing You) plot — that’s probably what got you started on the idea that you have a story to tell, so think through the trouble of the present (Remembering You) and get yourself a plot with trouble.)
DECISION: Identify one simple present-moment timeline and one past timeline that gets resolved because of the present timeline.Â
This is one of the most complicated pieces of crafting a memoir, and it’s one of the most rewarding when you pull it off. Writing teacher Phillip Lopate (The Art of the Personal Essay) calls it the double perspective. For more about this, come over to my Memoir Catalyst series of paid posts about The Remembering Self vs. The Experiencing Self: How to Plot the Dual Timeline in Memoir.
» Or book a call with me, and I’ll help make this make sense for you and your story »
ABOUT SIXTEEN SUPERPOWERS OF MEMOIR WRITERS
It’s easy to write a memoir! All you need to do is write something with universal resonance that is true and comes from your life.
Let’s get real. To write a memoir, you need a basket of superpowers.Â
As a memoir writer with a forthcoming book (BOUNDLESS, coming December 2024 - pre-order here at Bookshop | Barnes & Noble | Amazon and as a book coach/developmental editor who works with memoir writers, I’ve learned quite a lot about tapping into literary superpowers.
What’s enduring about memoir is that it is real, and it matters. A few decisions you make on the front end will determine whether it will go well.
In this series of posts, I give you 16 decisions to install at the beginning of your journey. Make these pacts with yourself, stick to them and you’ll get there!
THE FULL SERIES
Available to paid subscribers.
The Sixteen Superpowers of Memoir Writers: Make These Decisions on the Front End, and All Will Go Well for You
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