An Editor’s Perspective: An Editor is Writing Her Own Memoir, Part 1

Matilda Butler, SCN Editorial Service, #8

Did you know that Story Circle Network (SCN) can help you find an editor? SCN’s Editorial Service (SCN/ES) is a valuable feature of this organization. Kendra Bonnett and I are pleased to be SCN/ES’s co-coordinators. As you may know, we have put together a team of professional editors who are especially attuned to the stories women write. It can be a scary step to have a manuscript professionally edited and we’re here to make that step as easy as possible. If you have questions about the process or the costs, please email either of us–matilda (at) womensmemoirs (dot) com or kendra (at) womensmemoirs (dot) com. We’ll be glad to walk you through the steps or answer any of your questions.

Kendra and I have found the SCN/ES editors are especially writer-friendly. They give clear direction on what to do next in your revision process. Clients of SCN/ES have been delighted with both the process and the result.

Roseanne Rini is one of the SCN/ES editors and she has written several interesting articles for this website. Currently, she is bridging two roles — editor and writer. Yes, she too is working on her own memoir and decided to share her process and thoughts with you. If you’re looking for an editor, you might consider Roseanne. Trust us — your manuscript will always take precedence over her personal writing. By the way, if you are interested in Part 2 to this discussion, please see womensmemoirs.com.

Writing My Memoir: One Vignette at a Time, Part 1
Roseanne Rini

I started writing my memoir as a way of coming to grips with my mother’s death. I had been writing in my journal all along, but for the first time I felt an impulse to tell the story of the last months of her life with a reader in mind. I began with a memorable experience the day of her funeral. What I wrote was just a few paragraphs long, but it seemed to satisfy something. Other short pieces followed. Eventually, these pieces were not just about my mother’s death but also about her life, and my own as her daughter.

I call these little essays “vignettes”: brief anecdotes or sketches, snapshots, complete unto themselves. A memory, a story or an idea would float to the surface of my consciousness and, trusting this process might eventually lead me somewhere, I would write about it, give the piece a title, and add it to my file. Louise DeSalvo, who wrote Writing as a Way of Healing: How Telling Our Stories Transforms Our Lives, a book I highly recommend, calls this stage of the writing process “germination.” As my file has grown, suggesting the possibility of a book-length memoir, I’ve been thinking about how the individual pieces might be organized or woven together. What relation do they have to one another and where might more writing be necessary in order to provide the connections?

It has also occurred to me, however, that a memoir can, like Devotion, by Dani Shapiro, consist entirely of short pieces, without the connections between them being immediately clear. A central concern runs through all of the very brief “chapters” of Shapiro’s book: how she defines herself and especially her spirituality at mid-life, and what her life will be about, what direction it will take, from this point on. However, she touches upon a wide range of topics in relation to this overriding theme, for example, her son’s illness, her relationships with her parents, her exploration of the spiritual practice of metta and her rediscovery of her Judaism. The essays are in some cases as short as a one-paragraph definition: “The Sanskrit word for devotion is bhakta. . . .” or as long as a six- page description of a recent experience or a childhood memory. She seems to leave to the reader the task of perceiving how each selection is related to all the others, but it is clear by the end of the memoir that she has found a certain peace about the issues with which she began and has indeed found her direction.

With my own work, I found myself, not surprisingly, writing more than one piece on any given theme. My strategy thus far has been to group pieces on similar themes and to make a list of the themes to which I keep returning, in the hopes that I might discover a pattern or design. Essentially, this is a matter of discerning the story or stories I am trying to tell. Telling the story of my mother’s dying is taking me into an exploration of the complex connection I had with her. I find myself writing about, among other things, religion, ethnicity, cooking and female conditioning; about the ways we were connected, and the ways we were not. And as I tell her story I am also telling my own.

In Part 2 of this post, I’ve provided two examples from my writing that suggest, as I have discovered, one of my memoir’s major themes. Please see womensmemoirs.com for a continuation of this discussion.

Editing: Five Tips for Surviving the Revision Process

Matilda Butler, SCN Editorial Service, #7

Story Circle Network’s Editorial Service (SCN/ES) is a valuable feature of this organization. Kendra Bonnett and I are pleased to be SCN/ES’s co-coordinators. As you probably know, we have put together a team of professional editors who are especially attuned to the stories women write. It can be a scary step to have a manuscript professionally edited and we’re here to make that step as easy as possible. If you have questions about the process or the costs, please email either of us–matilda (at) womensmemoirs (dot) com or kendra (at) womensmemoirs (dot) com. We’ll be glad to walk you through the steps or answer any of your questions.

Sometimes one of our editors writes a post, giving you the benefit of her thoughts and experiences. Instead of an editor, today I have something a little different to share. Pamela Jane Bell is an author with more than 30 years of writing experience. She has published 26 children’s books with Houghton Mifflin, Atheneum, Simon & Schuster, Avon, Penguin-Putnam, Harper, Mondo, and others. Her books include Noelle of the Nutcracker, illustrated by Jan Brett, which has been optioned for a film, and the “Winky Blue” and “Milo” series published by Mondo. Books in these series have recently gone into Spanish, big book, and CD editions. She is completing her memoir about becoming a children’s book author.

Pamela is a guest blogger on our website and came to us with the idea of 10 tips for the revision process once you get a manuscript back from an editor. As you can imagine, she has worked with a number of editors. We gave her a thumbs up to the idea. Then we came up with an idea of our own. We decided to share the first half of her list with you. You can see the second half of her list here.

Kendra and I have found the SCN/ES editors are especially writer-friendly. They give clear direction on what to do next in your revision process. However, a lengthy email from an editor can seem overwhelming. We think Pamela’s list is an on-target approach to moving forward with changes rather than feeling overwhelmed.

By Pamela Jane Bell

Editorial direction – conveyed in a mysterious language all its own – can be daunting. What does she mean I need foreshadowing? What the heck is “pointing?” How am I supposed to do more “weaving?” Authors who work with editors have to figure out how to translate abstract concepts into concrete changes. Here are five tips for surviving the revision process – that unsettling time after you get comments from your editor.

[By the way, I explain "pointing" and "weaving" at the bottom of this post.]

At times I have read an editor’s suggestions with total dismay. Not only did I feel my work was a failure, I also had no idea how to make the changes the editor wanted, or even understand what she meant. Below are the first five of 10 tips for how to successfully survive the revision process with both you and your memoir intact and improved. These are strategies I’ve discovered through thirty years of working with editors on book revisions. And believe me, I still need them myself (the tips and the editors).

1. Don’t try to take it in all at once

A long letter or (as in my case recently) several single-spaced emails filled with editorial suggestions can feel overwhelming, especially if you’re reading at the end of the day, or when you’re about to take your dog to the vet after he ate your daughter’s earphones and her retainer (true story). Glance over the editor’s letter or email. Then put it aside for a quiet moment when you can really think about what she’s saying.

2. Break down the criticism

It’s helpful to separate the editor’s suggestions into steps, or arrange them in a list. This gives one side of your brain something productive to do while the other side is panicking. A list will also help you to see that revision isn’t an utterly unfathomable process, but a logical step-by-step procedure.

3. Find alternate ways to make the suggested changes

Let’s say your editor wants to know more about a person in the first chapter of your memoir or autobiography. What does the person like to eat, what are her favorite books? These are questions you may not be interested in exploring or that you don’t feel are relevant to your narrative. But chances are your editor is on to something. Listen to her suggestions and find another way to address them that is uniquely your own, and that will take you deeper into your story and your characters.

4. Request clarification

If you are really having trouble understanding what the editor is asking you to do, ask her to clarify. For example, your editor may ask you to drop a hint that the you are hiding something from the reader. Ask her how many sentences she imagines you will need to accomplish this. “Oh, three or four,” she may say, and suddenly the elusive “foreshadow” becomes a much more tangible concept. Most editors are happy to expand on their suggestions.

5. Ask the editor for concrete examples

For me, concrete examples are more helpful than something general, such as “show the narrator falling in love.” Sometimes I even ask the editor to write a few sentences to illustrate what she means, however rough or unpolished. For instance, “She tossed and turned all night, thinking of him, trying to picture his face.” You won’t use what she writes, but it can give you a template to help shape your own language. The template functions like training wheels on a bike; they help get you started revising your memoir until you’re moving along confidently on your own.

*Pointing refers to trimming and shaping your memoir to illustrate its theme – the story you have come to tell. Weaving is taking a thread of your memoir – for instance, how you felt invisible in school – and making sure the issue of invisibility is touched upon or revisited consistently throughout the story.

And don’t forget, you can see the second half of my list here.