I like the structure you describe. It will allow you, as you say, to sometimes deviate from chronology. I think readers are attracted to biography because of chronology, but they also get tired when the chronology is slavish and amounts to just reporting one damn thing after another.
Congratulations, Ruth, on all the milestones with your children as well as the big one of finishing your draft. And what a wonderful piece this was. Re finding the right structure for a book. Of all the challenges in writing a book, I've always found figuring out the structure to be the most interesting. And finding the answer to be the most gratifying. Furthermore, when I finally do figure it out what I believe it should be, it always feels as if it already existed and had been there all the time, waiting for me to discover it. Fortunately I've never had an editor tell me to change it. To me, once I found my structure, it seemed to exist apart from me, wholly formed. Sort of like our children, except while we're gestating a book, we get to reach inside and move around all the pieces.
Congratulations, Ruth, on submitting your draft! I’m sure it’s a winner. In response to your question, the structure of Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns is brilliant. Three narrators, whom we get to know and care about deeply, convey the 40+ year history of the great migration. Although I didn’t come close, it inspired my writing (over 8 years) of the 90-year (and 1600+ children) history of the Jewish orphans’ home of New Orleans. I look forward to hearing more about your new book!
Fascinating discussion of structure. I had a similar dilemma, given the assignment to write a book called Lost Napa Valley. I put the book together while being treated for chemo in the middle of the pandemic, and I found my themes similarly to how you did. each chapter is chronological, but each has its own theme. Structure is definitely the bones, the words are the flesh.
Love hearing about how you came to the structure for your book. I found Jane Alison's Meander, Spiral, Explode great for expanding how to approach structure, giving writers new frameworks to consider.
This makes me feel better. I'm on the umpteenth draft of my third novel (unless you count the ones that are hidden away) and only over the last month do I feel I am getting it right. As in, nailing the voice and structure. Love the quote about how writers have to feel comfortable living in the unknown.
Ruth, I have tried to reach you a few times about your Anne Frank book. I have recently published a book called "Meeting" Anne Frank and the "two Annes" is addressed but primarily it is an anthology of stories by writers - one as young as 14 when she wrote it - about how they came to "meet" Anne in their own lives. I would love to chat to you about your book and perhaps send you a copy of mine. You might be aware that Bob Dylan recently included a "shout out" to Anne in his recent song "I contain multitudes" in which he sings "I'm just like Anne Frank, Indiana Jones, and those big bad boy, the British Rolling Stones." Enigmatic as always but I think it dovetails into your theme. Thank you. I did Messenger you on this subject as well.
Thank you for this! It's always so helpful to remember that the writing process cannot be rushed. To get myself through the hardest parts of writing, sometimes I keep pushing forward no matter how uncertain I am of what comes next. Other times, I stop, go full rabbit sensing a predator, and just don't move. Patience is vital to writing.
I cannot comment on your question about writing that focuses on structure, but your writing on Shirley Jackson reminded me of something that I have been thinking about. What if you updated "the Lottery" to the present? It would not be about stoning a person to death to ensure good crops and drive out evil omens. It would be about sacrificing 45,000 children and adults every year to preserve our right to have guns. Because there are also over 45,000 gun injuries every year there could also be a last lottery to determine who is killed and who is injured. It would be going to every community in the United States and picking who would be sacrificed on January 1st to preserve the right. The persons would be brought to the town center and shot. It would be a combination Hunger Games and Lottery and would be a more realistic update to these fictionalized works.
I like the structure you describe. It will allow you, as you say, to sometimes deviate from chronology. I think readers are attracted to biography because of chronology, but they also get tired when the chronology is slavish and amounts to just reporting one damn thing after another.
Congratulations, Ruth, on all the milestones with your children as well as the big one of finishing your draft. And what a wonderful piece this was. Re finding the right structure for a book. Of all the challenges in writing a book, I've always found figuring out the structure to be the most interesting. And finding the answer to be the most gratifying. Furthermore, when I finally do figure it out what I believe it should be, it always feels as if it already existed and had been there all the time, waiting for me to discover it. Fortunately I've never had an editor tell me to change it. To me, once I found my structure, it seemed to exist apart from me, wholly formed. Sort of like our children, except while we're gestating a book, we get to reach inside and move around all the pieces.
Congratulations, Ruth, on submitting your draft! I’m sure it’s a winner. In response to your question, the structure of Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns is brilliant. Three narrators, whom we get to know and care about deeply, convey the 40+ year history of the great migration. Although I didn’t come close, it inspired my writing (over 8 years) of the 90-year (and 1600+ children) history of the Jewish orphans’ home of New Orleans. I look forward to hearing more about your new book!
Fascinating discussion of structure. I had a similar dilemma, given the assignment to write a book called Lost Napa Valley. I put the book together while being treated for chemo in the middle of the pandemic, and I found my themes similarly to how you did. each chapter is chronological, but each has its own theme. Structure is definitely the bones, the words are the flesh.
RE: "How do you get yourself through the hardest parts of writing?" Just barely.
Love hearing about how you came to the structure for your book. I found Jane Alison's Meander, Spiral, Explode great for expanding how to approach structure, giving writers new frameworks to consider.
This makes me feel better. I'm on the umpteenth draft of my third novel (unless you count the ones that are hidden away) and only over the last month do I feel I am getting it right. As in, nailing the voice and structure. Love the quote about how writers have to feel comfortable living in the unknown.
Ruth, I have tried to reach you a few times about your Anne Frank book. I have recently published a book called "Meeting" Anne Frank and the "two Annes" is addressed but primarily it is an anthology of stories by writers - one as young as 14 when she wrote it - about how they came to "meet" Anne in their own lives. I would love to chat to you about your book and perhaps send you a copy of mine. You might be aware that Bob Dylan recently included a "shout out" to Anne in his recent song "I contain multitudes" in which he sings "I'm just like Anne Frank, Indiana Jones, and those big bad boy, the British Rolling Stones." Enigmatic as always but I think it dovetails into your theme. Thank you. I did Messenger you on this subject as well.
Thank you for this! It's always so helpful to remember that the writing process cannot be rushed. To get myself through the hardest parts of writing, sometimes I keep pushing forward no matter how uncertain I am of what comes next. Other times, I stop, go full rabbit sensing a predator, and just don't move. Patience is vital to writing.
Many congratulations!
Mazel tov! I just finished reading the diary of Anne Frank -- for the first time!
I cannot comment on your question about writing that focuses on structure, but your writing on Shirley Jackson reminded me of something that I have been thinking about. What if you updated "the Lottery" to the present? It would not be about stoning a person to death to ensure good crops and drive out evil omens. It would be about sacrificing 45,000 children and adults every year to preserve our right to have guns. Because there are also over 45,000 gun injuries every year there could also be a last lottery to determine who is killed and who is injured. It would be going to every community in the United States and picking who would be sacrificed on January 1st to preserve the right. The persons would be brought to the town center and shot. It would be a combination Hunger Games and Lottery and would be a more realistic update to these fictionalized works.