LifeStory Briefs
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Whether you're writing your memoir for yourself, for your family, or for publication, the most important thing you can include are the little things. Yes, that's right-the details!
The Difference is in the DetailsIf you doubt that details make a difference, compare these two passages:
Our family always enjoyed going to the beach. We started early in the morning and came back late at night.
Mom, Dad, John, and I loved riding our old bikes along the gravel road to the lake-shore dunes. We would start just at dawn, fueled with hot oatmeal and orange juice, and we never rode home until the summer sun had set into behind the pine trees and the twilight breeze gave us the shivers. Did you notice that each of these paragraphs is just two sentences long? But the second paragraph is made up of a dozen details, lovingly remembered. The second paragraph tells us who, when, where, and how, and almost every word offers some sort of sensual experience. For the reader, the details help to bring the story to life, make the scene vivid and visual, and create the sense of "being there." For the writer, one remembered detail often evokes another, and then another, until the memory yields up an entire scene. Without these concrete details-these clear, sharp images and impressions-both writer and reader are left with only a vague and general idea about what happened. It's the difference between a hazy photograph that offers only an indistinct, out-of-focus outline, and a photograph that is clear and sharp, down to the details.
Capturing DetailsOnce you get used to it, capturing the details isn't hard at all-but it does require you to slow down and pay attention when you're writing. It also requires you to examine what you write to make sure that it is as specific and as detailed as you can make it. Try one or two of these short writing exercises:
Got the General Idea?Once you've mastered the trick of pinning down the details, your writing will be sharper, clearer, more focused-and more memorable. When you write detailed descriptions and detailed scenes, your memoir will come to life, both for you and for your reader! |
DETAILS TRUE OR FALSE?In many published memoirs, you'll find scenes that are full of lively details, down to the food on the table and what people were wearing, as well as what Uncle Carl and Aunt Margaret said to each other-all this in a scene that took place forty years ago! But is it really likely that the writer remembers exactly what happened and what was said, especially if she was only six years old at the time? To tell the truth, probably not. But it probably doesn't matter, as long as the food and the clothes and even the words might have been true. For the memoirist's task is to evoke the past as if it were the present, to make it real and alive and sharp and vivid. And that's what details help you to do, whether they are absolutely factual or maybe slightly fictional. So stop worrying about whether the dress you wore on the first day of school was blue or green, and whether you wore loafers or saddle shoes or sneakers, or if your lunch bag held peanut butter or cheese sandwiches. Imagine the scene as richly as you can, inventing any details that you can't quite remember. Stay true to what might have happened and stop worrying about the rest. Your story will be richer and more fully textured, and your readers will have the sense that they-like you-have been there!
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Last updated: 03/13/00