A few years ago, I found myself in the Sandwich, as in “the sandwich generation”. Frank and I cared for our three remaining parents while launching our two adult children into the world. When it was over, I remember thinking it was the end of everything.
Embrace Structure. All my writers can write well. They have a great vocabulary. They can turn a phrase. They understand grammar. What they don’t know is Basic Story Structure. Which is too bad, because it is so simple and it is easily understood and it holds the key to a successful, happy life
Full Disclosure: I’m a plotter. For one thing, my brain just can’t help but analyze everything to death. But possibly more significant? You can’t work in the movie business as long as I did without having a mastery of story structure beaten into you. It becomes part of your DNA.
Turns out, Henri Matisse suffered all through his life from panic attacks and insomnia. According to Peter Schjeldahl in the New Yorker, “He was a self-abnegating Northerner who lived only to work, and did so in chronic anguish, recurrent panic, and amid periodic breakdowns.”
For example, I decided to get serious about my memoir at the tail end of a very difficult time. My family had gone through illness and death. I found myself living someplace where I didn’t know anybody. And of all things, I was fired from a job I didn’t even want in the first place.
When he reached for my throat, Bonnie shrieked. I shrank and rolled my chair out of reach. The line producer pulled the guy away from me and threw him back into his seat. After a shocked silence, the executive-in-charge demanded that he apologize. He didn’t. The meeting went on as if nothing had happened.
Once you’ve completed your draft, take some time away from it. I recommend as much as two months to really get it out of your brain. When I finished the draft of my memoir
Every protagonist makes mistakes. As the protagonist of your own life story, you’ve made plenty. Don’t be afraid to show your flaws and foibles. It will make the reader fall in love with you.
I rode in cars with inappropriate boys instead of doing my homework or practicing piano. It wasn’t long however, before I learned this was not a good strategy for navigating life. I straightened up before doing too much damage.
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