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| I'm Certainly Living a Ragtime Life. 1900 sheet music cover (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Often when we think of memoirs, we think of people who have had struggles and difficult lives. The heroic stories of overcoming abuse, addictions, health challenges, and other harrowing situations seem to sell books and get media attention. But what if you've led a reasonably normal life where little that was really bad happened to you? Is an easy regular type life worth telling others about?
My life has been interesting by the standards that many would consider, but it's also been a very good and mostly easy life. Oh sure, I've had some kind of bad things that have happened in my life, but in retrospect they weren't that bad. I survived relatively intact with hurts that I've gotten over for the most part.
Divorce is never a good thing from my point of view and I've had two of them. I went through some tough times with those divorces, but they were nowhere near as bad as some divorce stories I've heard. And in the end I think I came out ahead in a better circumstance after each of them. No harrowing divorce or child custody stories there.
So what does one do with a good life when telling the memoir story? With the divorce stories I could dramatize them a bit more than they were, and indeed there were some dramatic story-worthy parts to those. My life on the road is filled with stories that many might find interesting. The years of my childhood might be worthy fodder for memoir. The stories are there. They always are there in any of our lives.
The interest factor comes mostly in the telling of the stories. There have been memoirs that I've read that by all standards should have been fascinating except the storytelling was dull and lifeless. On the other hand I can think of some memoirs that on the surface did not seem extraordinary, but the telling of the stories was so engaging that the books had my attention throughout. A poorly written memoir can turn a great life into a lackluster sequence of events while a well told narration can make a trip to the grocery store unique and interesting.
My good life? How should I tell it? A comic approach can be very entertaining, but comedy is not so easy for all of us. A lighthearted saga filled with hyperbole and fun anecdotes might work well. Or maybe I should just tell it like it was in my own voice.
A good life doesn't have to be a boring life.
Do you like to read well-written accounts of events that don't seem particularly eventful? How does a book about suffering and sadness affect you? Would you rather read about a tragic life or a happy life?
Happy or sad, I like to read about an interesting life. I am reading my cousin's memoir right now and so far it's kinda dull....she really never did much or traveled around so it's just a memoir of where she grew up in NY and her memories of elementary school (so far). I was a little unnerved to see my name and a few general details about me when she was listing all her family members. It would have been nice to have been asked permission to share that. Fortunately I'm sure no one outside the family will read it. So far she has yet to use her sister's name, just saying, 'my sister' so I am assuming that her sister asked not to be named. I would have liked that option.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't mind my name being mentioned in a memoir as long as it was true and not something I didn't want others to know about. It would be good to have a warning though as well as permission.
DeleteLee
I think if told well, there is so much warmth, humor, and so many values tucked into plain and simple lives. Perhaps for the how to tell, you need to first examine the events you plan on highlighting and see what voice or tone will make the most of those. I find it easiest to write about the things and people I care the most about. Perhaps to write from whatever viewpoint flows easiest from you, so that it is never forced and staying true to a feeling, tone or theme over listing every detail. Life & Faith in Caneyhead
ReplyDeleteA natural coherent telling of a story is best no matter what the story is. It can be much easier to relate to a story of a life like our own, but an amazing life is fun to read as well. In the end though it's in the telling.
DeleteLee
I would read a book full of anecdotes and hyperbole. I carry a book with me and I like one I can pick up and read and read later without too much trouble. There is also reading the different point of view.
ReplyDeleteA little honest real life is better than a contrived fictitious world. I think we have so much fantasy today in that we are all holed up in our homes and people just don't get out and relate with one another enough.
I'm a heavy reader and I get that conflict, plot makes a good story. It is just that I can predict too many.
Even when we know how a life turned out it can be interesting to hear that life story told from the viewpoint of the one who lived it.
DeleteLee
I do like to read this kind of memoir...if it's well written. And as you say, the writing IS everything. A really good writer can take the mundane and turn it into something special. I'd say go for it, Lee.
ReplyDeleteYou write it one story at a time, then you decide what order. I had a fairly normal childhood, but when I write about it, it seems interesting even to me.
ReplyDeleteAction verbs come in handy to amp it all up.
ReplyDelete