Ode to Gratitude: The Magic of Thanksgiving Storytelling from a Child

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” G.B. Stern, Robert Louis Stevenson Children are magical. I hope you’ll bear with me as I share another grandson story, Thanksgiving with a twist. Six year-old Jacob had a half day last week so I,a.k.a. “Nana”,was only too happy to greet him at the bus stop. After a quick snack of peanut butter crackers and milk, we both settled in at the dining room table to tackle our work. “Nana, what can I write about?” he said,after finishing his homework. “How about writing a letter to Santa?” “Na-a-n-a,” eyes rolling,”it’s not even Thanksgiving. Christmas is later.” “Exactly!” I nodded. After...

Posted by on Nov 22, 2011 in Diane Matthews, elements of story, Gratitude, Storytelling, The Power of Thanksgiving | 28 comments

Finding the Story Only I Can Tell: Themes and Threads

“Although nobody’s life makes any sense, if you’re going to make a book out of it you might as well make it into a story.” Columnist Russell Baker on why a memoir needs to tell a story from Your Life as Story by Tristine Rainer (p.39) How many times have you thought: My life is a novel or there is a book inside me? The truth is, if we have lived,we all have stories to tell and we all have our own meanings attached to these stories.Not everyone feels driven to write a book about their life but for those of us who do feel that passion, we have to learn to structure our life events into a story with a beginning,middle and end, a plot, conflict, climax and transformation. As author Tristine Rainer says in her amazing book Your Life as...

Posted by on Sep 13, 2011 in elements of story, identifying themes, Lifewriting Craft, memoir-writing, Storytelling | 15 comments

Lessons from the “Greatest Generation” ~ The Spice in a Story

“LIFE IS NOT A ‘BRIEF CANDLE.’ IT IS A SPLENDID TORCH THAT I WANT TO MAKE BURN AS BRIGHTLY AS POSSIBLE BEFORE HANDING IT ON TO FUTURE GENERATIONS.”  Bernard Shaw.      Before cell phones, twitter, the internet, video games, microwaves, garage door openers and even TV, there was a generation that survived the Great Depression of the 1930′s, fought an honorable war in the 1940′s as they were coming of age and went on to rebuild America in the 1950′s. Their patriotism was high, work ethic strong and priorities clear~God, family, country. They have earned their title of the “Greatest Generation.” They danced to Big Band sounds, pulled together to fight  World  War II,gathered around radios in parlors to...

Posted by on Feb 26, 2011 in elements of story, memoir-writing, Truth in Memoir | 10 comments

Match Point~Can it be Achieved in Memoir Writing?

” YOU KNOW YOU’VE READ A GOOD BOOK WHEN YOU TURN THE LAST PAGE AND  FEEL A LITTLE LIKE YOU HAVE LOST A FRIEND.”~Paul Sweeney. Publishing a memoir is  like achieving a” match point ”, the final point needed to win a match, as in tennis. I pondered the question of achieving this after reading this New York Times  critique of memoir as a genre. The critic claimed that “the glut of memoirs needs to be stopped as we don’t have that many trees left.”  OUCH! My writing circles have been abuzz with responses both acknowledging the drawbacks of publishing memoirs  and defending the  legitimacy of them in the current publishing environment .  It’s always good to know the “devil you are dealing...

Posted by on Feb 5, 2011 in Christian Writers Guild, elements of story, identifying themes, Lifewriting Craft, memoir-writing, Truth in Memoir, Writing for the Soul Conference | 8 comments

Defining “The High Concept”

“I BELIEVE THE ART OF LIVING CONSISTS NOT SO MUCH IN COMPLICATING SIMPLE THINGS AS IN SIMPLIFYING THINGS THAT ARE NOT.” ~ Francois Hertel Before I can shape my individual scenes and vignettes into a story  structure, I have to be able to identify an overriding story idea, the ”high concept” . According to James Bonnett  high concept involves” being able to reduce your story idea into something powerful that the reader will be able to make an emotional connection with~ a logline with a twist”  He goes on to explain that  defining your high concept will “force you to come to terms with what your story is about”. Distilling the complexities of life into a few words is not something I view as simple and I am...

Posted by on Jan 23, 2011 in elements of story, High Concept, identifying themes, Lifewriting Craft, memoir-writing | 14 comments

Have”Blogs” ,Will Travel

‘LIFE IS UNCHARTED TERRITORY. IT REVEALS ITS STORY ONE MOMENT AT A TIME.” Leo Buscalgia in Executive Health Report Sharon Lippincott posed this question on the Yahoo Lifewriters Forum “Is any story too trivial?”. That led me to a special memory about my father . I’ll let you be the judge as to whether this bit of trivia lends itself to a story that would be of interest: Over the past few years as Dad grew more frail,it became important for him to have just the right shoes to support his frail and wobbly legs. When my husband ,Wayne and I came to town, Wayne would take him on little adventures around town:  the hardware store to find a fixture for the bathroom, Wegman’s to buy lottery tickets and have a cup of coffee or his...

Posted by on Jan 13, 2011 in elements of story, Lifewriting Craft, memoir-writing | 16 comments