Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir edited by William Zinsser

  One thing teaching in a Title One public school taught me was that people are interesting.  Each person I encountered was a story unto themselves and after teaching almost a decade, I encountered a lot of people.  As the years accumulated,  I felt a desire in me to preserve these personalities the way others want to capture moments with a camera.

So I set myself to the task of writing.  I learned a lot about writing simply from the practice of it.  One thing I learned is that real life doesn't run along the smooth lines of a story:  conflict, plot, suspense, action leading to a climax, resolution.  Thus, I decided that to make my stories interesting to both myself and to the reader, they needed to fit the story formula.

This, of course, changed my memoir to fiction.  But I think that everyone who has read my stories would agree that the stories flow more cohesively and are a lot more fun to read.

Upon reading Inventing the Truth:  The Art and Craft of Memoir, I was happy to discover that many writers of memoir stumbled upon the same conclusion.

In this anthology of writers' memoirs, we meet many different sort of writers, journalists, novelists, professors at universities who teach all sorts of things not necessarily related to writing but have all written a memoir of some type or other.

Each writer discusses why they wrote from the angle they chose. Russell Bake decided to narrow his memoir to his relationship with his mother and her impact on his life.  This meant leaving out most of his life,  but allowed a straight line to take the reader from A to B without getting side tracked.

Some writers had interesting childhoods.  Jill Ker Conway, a professor, wrote about growing up in Australia.  She shares what motivated her to write about her complicated, personal relationships and the challenges of rising through the echelons of a University as a woman.

Alfred Kazin writes of growing up inside the Jewish culture in Brooklyn.  His objective is to get the reader to see every stoop, traffic sign and the smells coming from the restaurants and see the people brushing by on the crowded streets.

 Toni Morrison believes everyone should look at their historical self, the actual history and the perceptual as a minority.  She believes black writers have two objectives: to say this is my personal history, but also the history of my race.

Annie Dillard doesn't believe in memoirs but rather that we should use our personal experiences to write our stories, so, according to her, it follows that every story a writer pens is really a memoir on some level.

Each writer offers their own perspective and insight in how to write about one's life or at least aspects of it.

Ironically, when I read samples of some of these writers' books on commercial sites, I didn't find their writing very interesting.  Which goes to show that one can write well about a topic without necessarily living up to another person's expectations of that topic.

This book however will be of interest to anyone interested in writing and receiving the ideas and thoughts of successful, published writers.

The Curmudeon's Guide to Getting Ahead: Dos and Don'ts of Right Behavior, ToughThinking, Clear Writing, and Living a Good Life by Charles Murray

I read an article in the Wall Street Journal by Charles Murray about his book, The Curmudgeon's Guide to Getting Ahead.  It intrigued me so I put the book on my Amazon wish list.  My parents gave it to me for my birthday.

This is a book that should be taught in every college and probably twelfth grade in high school.  Murray offers realism to today's entitled, sheltered youth.

It's a short book, I read it in a couple of sittings, and it's funny.  Murray is very witty.

But most importantly he's honest.  Here's what he has to say to the up and coming professionals who hope to get a job and promoted:

Most companies are run by white, middle-aged men (and women) and they are curmudgeons.  That means they are old fashioned and have old-fashioned values.  

So when you use the "F-word" in an  job interview (or twice in one young man's case), you're not going to get the job.

If you have visible tattoos or pierced ears (if you're a man), you're probably not going to get the job.

If you dress like a tramp (man or woman), you're not going to get the job.

If you do get the job and act as if menial work is beneath you, you roll your eyes at the boss or display no social skills (for instance, continue talking to friends in the hallway, oblivious of people trying to get past you), or dress as if you're going fishing, or dancing on bar tables, it's unlikely you'll be first choice to get the promotion, if it's ever offered to you.

Murray makes a caveat and says that none of this applies if you want to work in the entertainment industry or I.T. (Why I.T.?  I don't know.)

Here's the kicker and it's very important:  Because our contemporary American culture has made it taboo to even hint that what someone else is doing might be wrong, your curmudgeonly boss is never going to call you out on the behavior he despises.  But you're not going to get the job.  Or promoted.  You just won't know why.

That's why Murray has written this book.  So you can know beforehand what the person who holds that job in his hands is thinking.  Forewarned is forearmed.

Being a curmudgeon myself, I didn't need the above advice, it was just fun to read.  But Murray, who is a journalist, also devotes several chapters to writing skills.  As a writer, this part was especially helpful.

He also tells young people not to move so fast into the professional world right after college but rather get out of the sheltered bubble their parents have created for them and see the world.  This could mean joining the military, where a respect for authority-always a valuable trait-is instilled, or the peace corps, or travel and live some where that you have to learn another language and culture.

Finally, Murray finishes the book with an excellent chapter about religion.  He tells young people that he understands that the professors in college they came to respect and love were atheists.  His were, too.  But he doubts that any of them actually studied religion in depth and before they make opinions about something they should make sure they know what they are talking about.

Interestingly, Murray admits his own agnosticism has become shakier since his wife became a Quaker.

If you're a young person ready to go out and get that job.  Read this book.  If your a Curmudgeon like  me, read it to laugh and feel affirmed in your curmudgeonliness. There's a red squiggle under that last word so I must have invented it.  But it fits so it stays.

Maybe I'll write a book called The Art of Being Curmudgeonly.  I'm certainly qualified.

The Making of a Story: A Norton Guide to Creative Writing by Alice LaPlante

 This is probably one of the most useful books I've read yet in learning how to write well. It is used as a part of curriculum in a number of universities. It's broken up into fourteen chapters which are then broken up into three parts. The first part tackles a specific writing challenge, the second part provides writing exercises and the third part includes one or two short stories or excerpts from novels by (mostly) contemporary writers.

Non fiction writers would probably find the first couple of chapters worth reading. LaPlante gives specific strategies in how to make your non fiction book flow like a fiction book, which seems to be the reigning thought in nonfiction books these days. She discusses how to notice the world around us as a writer and how to lose the “writer's voice” when putting those observations on paper.

Other good advice is on how to ensure the reader uses all his senses when he reads your stories. She devotes a chapter on how to give a story shape and how and where to apply epiphanies.

Probably the most valuable thing I got out of the book was on avoiding cliches. Cliched story lines, cliched plot twists, cliched characters and especially...cliches. As I reread my own writing, I'm appalled at how many well-trod expressions I use. But at the same time, I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I don't want my writing to sound hackneyed, but I also think that figurative or metaphorical speech is fast disappearing in our culture because the younger generations are not reading books that use rich vocabulary or colorful expression.

I bought a couple of books that trace the origins of expressions. Where did “red herring” or “white elephant” or “the die is cast” come from? Today's young people don't care because they've never heard of these expressions. This is not a good sign. It tells me that contemporary literature has scraped the meat off writing and has left us with bare bones.

Another good chapter was on showing and telling. Speaking of cliches, since I've started writing and reading books on writing, I've read “show don't tell” until I can't hear it without rolling my eyes. I think anyone who's had to sit through seventh grade English knows this rule by now, but every “writing expert” I've come across shares this “pearl” as though they were flinging a lightning bolt at my head.

Furthermore, LaPlante proves you need both. In Chapter 5 she discusses the importance of narration and when it's appropriate. She shows how an effective writer skillfully dances back and forth between narrating and showing.

She provides an interesting chapter on voice. She defines each of the voices(first, second, third, omniscient) and provides sample writing in each voice . She shows which is the best, which should only be used by Mark Twain or Graham Greene and the tricky art of changing voices inside the same story.

The only complaint I have is that I really did not enjoy her writing examples. With the exception of one short story by the Russian author, Anton Chekov and another by Ernest Hemingway, all are contemporary examples.  And all of them seem to belong to the same “Life Sucks School of Angst”. The only thing I really got from them was a more clearly defined idea of how I don't want to write.

One last chapter was particularly interesting on the importance of editors. She debates their power. How much autonomy should they have over the author's work? Is it a good thing or not? She then gives a fascinating account of one author who won many prizes and became nationally renowned for his work. It now turns out that most of his work was largely rewritten by his editor. This is only just coming out because the author has died and researchers now have access to his archives. In the end LaPlante lets the reader decide for himself by including two short stories-the same short story- supposedly by the same author. One was edited the other not. The difference is like night and day. (Sorry, can't escape cliches.)

If you are a writing student or someone who is serious about honing their skill, I would recommend this book. And if you are a fan of the "Life Sucks School of Angst", you'll even enjoy the samples.

More reviews on writing:

Five books on writing and grammar

Why I Write by George Orwell