memoir writing

Good Editors Make a Respectable Writer Remarkable

/ Ann Aubrey Hanson / Leave a comment

“A good editor can make a respectable writer remarkable, just like a good parent helps a child become amazing.”―Justin Alcala

I have been working a great deal lately on editing fiction and memoirs. Both require a delicate touch from me as editor: in both, I strive to preserve the voice of the author.

The difficulty with this is that I must show them how to improve their writing while avoiding imposition of my voice in any way. This is where Microsoft Word’s Track Changes and Comments come in handy.

With the author’s permission granted, I make suggested changes to the text, always explaining my changes if I think the reason behind them might not be clear. This might be a grammar point, or it could be a change for impact, for emphasis. Anything I change or suggest is in their power to accept or reject.

Often, I make changes from passive to active voice, which is a concept that takes time to understand. The way I explain is that passive writing is “newspaper reporting” in which this happened and then that happened. More active writing will show what is happening in the moment, rather than reporting it in the past.

If necessary, I will make suggestions about character as well. All too frequently, authors have their characters do something or say something because they “need” them to do or say that to move the story along. But sometimes the author hasn’t clearly considered what the CHARACTER might want to say or do in that instance. Given their own voices, characters can surprise us with their reactions. Where we thought they might be acquiescent, they have another opinion. If, as writers, we allow the character to develop and grow with the story, it often impacts the story in marvelous ways that we had never considered, sometimes turning the book onto a completely different track.

I also discuss motivation, pointing out holes or lack of reason for characters to behave a specific way. Understanding the WHY behind a character’s actions or personality can improve the story and plot significantly, broadening the possibilities for that character within the story. Rather than answering, “I just see him that way,” an author can look deeper into the character and find his or her motivations, the driving force within him or her, which in turn can open up a wide range of story enhancements. I suggest that a character is not just evil because the author needs him to be evil, that is boring. And unimaginative. Rather, I encourage the author to create a backstory for the main characters, and even the supporting characters, so that the author can more fully understand how a character might act.

That is the way to surprise yourself as an author, and certainly to surprise your readers.

The author’s intent is to tell a compelling story, whether in fiction or memoir. To do that, the author must resist becoming predictable. As an author, you must seek the “other perspective,” whether character driven or in response to an event. Rather than walk blithely down a paved path, why not go in the same direction, arrive at the same point, by hopping on rocks in a river? Keep the reader guessing, or at least interested in the journey.

Those are the sort of suggestions I make as an editor. Each story, each memoir, is unique. I help authors to find the uniqueness in their story. Once we find that, the book is immediately more powerful.

That is the gift of a good editor.

Write Your Memoirs, At Least A Few

/ Ann Aubrey Hanson / Leave a comment

I continue to teach my Memoir Writing Workshops in San Diego, and each week I am struck anew by how important it is for each of us to write our memoirs. It doesn’t matter whether we write to publish, but we should write not to perish.

Our stories can be the greatest legacy we give to our children, or to those who come after us. No two people have the same story; it’s simply impossible. Each of us has been dropped into the river of time, within a family, within a legacy already written. We each then go on to form our own legacies, and that is the gift that we can give to others.

I am as guilty as most people who think, who cares? My kids won’t be interested. I’ll just be writing for myself. But when I listen to the stories in my classes, I realize the treasure being conveyed. Stories about the author, about the family that came before and the family that they joined. If not now, then later, these stories will be valued beyond the writer’s greatest expectations, because they will be a piece of the writer, a touch with what has passed.

My class members write about their first encounter with spouses, about moments of great childhood pain that imprinted the adult, and about people in the family long gone, bringing them, if only briefly, back into the flow of time, remembering that they existed and mattered for one moment. What more can any of us ask?

Take the time, as I vow to do, to write about your life. You don’t have to write chronologically. Just jump into a moment in your life and write. Whatever you put to “paper,” your family will enjoy. And if you never share it, at least you will relive the memory and the moment. You don’t have to write about the dark times, not if it’s still too painful. Write, instead, about a childhood triumph, even if it’s one only you know about or might remember. Or write about a fear that haunted, but was then overcome. Or about that game where you made the difference. This can be cathartic, but it can also be invigorating. Remember the you you used to be? Reclaim yourself, as you remember yourself. And live the you you once knew. I dare you!

Memoir Writing

/ Ann Aubrey Hanson / Leave a comment

I think one of the greatest legacies a parent can leave for their children is their life story. This is why I teach a memoir writing workshop in the community every Wednesday morning. Yes, I get a small stipend for teaching the workshop, but that isn’t my primary reason for doing it. I get great delight in helping the members of the class to recall their lives and put them down on paper, for family, friends, and others to enjoy.

We are all put down in a running river of life: our families came before us, and more will follow, but we live for a moment in that river, live a life that no one else lives. Our lives are worth recording, if only to preserve our memories. But there is another reason: our lives will never be repeated. Our times will never be repeated. So often, I have to tell members in my class that people no longer know about things that were commonplace in their lives: from one-room schoolhouses to automated cafeterias, to chokes on cars or “pinning” your girl.

Each life is unique and each should be captured on paper. Not all must be published, but they should be shared. Future generations will enjoy these personal snapshots of life.