memoir

But whose dream is it?

So, who IS telling your story? Whether you’re writing memoir, fiction or screenplay, you need to make important decisions about which characters you’re going to give a voice.

WHO IS YOUR PROTAGONIST?

Who is the main character in your story?

If you’re writing memoir, even though many writers try to avoid it, YOU are the main character.

If you’re writing fiction you need to decide whose story is propelling the overarching narrative – that character’s goals and battles to achieve them is what drives the story forward. They are your protagonist.

If you have multiple protagonists, one character must have slightly more say than the others – this is the character who begins and ends the story. Other voices can be almost as strong but the protagonist has the final say. In my book Thrill Seekers I have three protagonists, Brian, his younger brother Douggie, and Beck, their friend. Because it is Brian’s goal – to protect his brother – that propels the entire narrative, he is the protagonist. He has the first chapter and the last. So think carefully if you’re dealing with multiple character voices and decide which one is the main driving force.

If you’re not sure about who your main character is, ask yourself “WHO HAS THE MOST TO LOSE?”

HOW WILL YOU GIVE VOICE TO THESE CHARACTERS?

If you’re writing memoir, mostly you will need to write in first person, and learn to embrace sentences starting with “I” or learn to cleverly avoid doing so. However, you will also need to include a reflective voice that I like to call, “Wise you now”, between the scenes bringing to life the past, staring “previous you”. You could write the scenes from the past in past tense first person and the reflective sections in first person present tense, or past tense too, depending on how you feel about present tense.

Fiction can also be written in first person, past or present tense, but managing multiple voices like this can be tricky. Thrill Seekers is written this way, each character is in first person present tense. My Cambodian novel, Child of Fortune has two main characters – an Australian traveller and a Khmer survivor of the Pol Pot regime. Both of these women are written in first person, past tense. These days however, due to the Own Voice movement, I would recommend writing characters from other cultures only in third person. I also advise against having only two main characters given voice. This is difficult to manage and becomes a tennis match with one character often overpowering the other. To remedy this, add a third character voice to bring more balance, a plait rather than a ping pong match back and forth.

Most popular in modern fiction is writing in closed third person, past tense. This is the simplest way to manage multiple protagonists. In closed third person, you write using he, she or they in separate chapters that alternate. This method allows for multiple viewpoints and clashing perspectives that has lots of scope for adding interest to your story. However, with closed third person, as with first person, you are confined to what that character has seen and heard and cannot stray outside this perspective.

My latest story, “Shadowman” (Dear Madman in a different incarnation) a literary true crime memoir/novel hybrid, is told in three alternating sections in three different perspectives. The first section is the first-person voice of “the writer”, the second voice is the Shadowman – also in first person. The third section is told in omniscient third person, with the voices of multiple characters, members of the Williams family. Omniscient voice is the “God” voice, enabling the writer to move between character’s points of view within chapters, though I keep them in separate scenes. Modern audiences find this voice confusing, and I must say I found it difficult to manage as well, though I got there in the end.

You can choose to write a character in second person too – the “you” voice – but eventually it becomes synonymous with first person, so is best left to short stories or short sections within your longer piece. It can be used effectively in memoir to give another’s perspective, eg You didn’t say anything. You walked away.

MANAGING POINT OF VIEW

Now you have chosen your POV characters and the voices you will use and how you will animate them, you need to establish the structure and the voices you want within the first section of your book. If you have three POV characters, and you want these voices to interweave (not have separate sections of the whole book – eg Part 1 – Anne, Part 2 – Bob, Part 3 – Grace) you need to set this up right from the start.

For example, Shadowman starts with a chapter from the writer, which establishers her as the main protagonist. The second strand belongs to the Shadowman, and the third strand is the omniscient voices of the family. All three voices have a chapter within the first 10 pages. This lets the reader know what’s going on, who is telling the story, and the pattern to expect right from the start.

AVOID INTRODUCING NEW POV CHARACTERS AFTER THE FIRST ACT

All rules are made to be broken and you can find many examples of characters joining the fray in the second act, or even third, but it is best to avoid doing this. Set up your POV characters in those first 10 pages and then stick with these characters all the way to the end – well one or two may get knocked off!

Avoid introducing new POV characters after act one, this only confuses readers. If you want to bring in a twist that introduces this new POV character, then at least foreshadow this possibility in the first act. Give us a hint that this may happen, mention their name, make them a part of the story in some way, even if they aren’t yet in the action.

Point of view is important to establish early, so the reader knows which characters they are following. Introduce important characters first up so we know whose side we’re on. Keep the number of characters manageable or add a glossary. But who wants to be checking a glossary all the time – except maybe Tolkien fans!

And if you’re writing short stories keep the number of characters low. The lower the wordcount, the lower the character count.

Introduce all characters and the way you will be telling their side of the story early. If you’re a new writer, stick to one voice, at least to start with. If you want to include other voices, closed third person in alternating chapters is easiest to manage, but all this needs to be set up right from the start. Build trust with your reader by showing them your plan and sticking with that plan.

No randoms! No slipping between points of view without intention. Flag all changes in point of view so we know they’re intentional.

Image by Jana Shannon.

Managing POV can be tricky, so think about it before you rush in, and have a rough plan about how you think it will work. It can be lots of fun writing in a few different voices, but make sure they are balanced, that they are each different and that your one main character has first say and the final word.

Hope that’s useful! GOOD LUCK!

Let me know how you go managing POV.

Lots of love

Edwina xx

At our recent memoir and life writing retreat I came across an article in Womankind magazine about Gloria Anzaldua’s theory of the stages in reconstructing self after trauma. And blow me down if it didn’t also work for structuring trauma memoirs! I’m not saying it’s the only way to heal or that the stages of recovery or stages of a memoir need to follow this order, but for anyone struggling with either trauma or finding a structure for the writing of traumatic events, I hope this will help.

GLORIA ANZALDUA

As with the stages of grieving first put forward by Elisabeth Kubler Ross, there is often a to-ing and fro-ing between stages or phases of emotional growth, sometimes all in one day.

However, a familiarity with how other people have found the experience and stages to identify can be most useful. And for writers having some kind of structure, any kind, is very welcome, especially when grappling with wrestling real-life trauma onto the page.

TRAUMA MEMOIR STRUCTURE IN 7 EASY STEPS!

THE EARTHQUAKE – this is it! The trauma hits and our world is turned upside down. The story we’ve been telling ourselves about ourselves is destroyed and our old beliefs and identity collapses.

Photo by Sanej Prasad Suwal on Pexels.com

LYING IN A HEAP – this is when we’re lying in the debris of our old lives, not knowing who we are anymore. Not knowing which way to turn. We may try to pretend that nothing has changed, we may try to return to who we were before, the lives we used to lead, but find it is no longer possible.

ROCK BOTTOM – we realise the damage has been done and there is no going back to who we were. We are stuck, unable to move, unable to find a way forward. We have fallen to pieces and can see no way to stick ourselves together again.

CALL TO ACTION – you break free from your old ways of coping and reconnect with spirit. We let go of all that no longer serves us and begin to see a way ahead.

RECONSTRUCTING OURSELVES – now is the stage where we collect all those thousands of little pieces we fell into and attempt to put them back together again. Not as the old “us” but a new creation made from the same stuff rearranged, re- membered.

THE BLOW UP – returning to the world and reconnecting with others as our new selves.

EXPRESSION – here we experiment with our new reality and new self, expressing ourselves in creative activities – writing, art, dance music, healing, teaching, spiritual activism.

If you’re writing a trauma memoir you’re in stage 7! YAY! I can certainly relate to all these stages and applaud all of you who, like me and Gloria, have picked up all those mixed up, broken pieces of yourself off the floor and created a brave new you and wonderful new life filled with creative expression.

Creativity is a powerful tool for healing emotional pain. Write it all out, paint it, dance it, play it on a guitar, whichever way works for you. Create beauty from the pain.

Let me know if this structure is helpful to you, in understanding your own trauma journey, or for structuring your trauma memoir. I hope it works for both!

With lots of love

Edwina xxx