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REFLECTIVE NARRATOR in WRITING MEMOIR
Writing is an art form. When my words sing out on the page, and my readers are specific with what they especially liked about the piece I’ve written, I am thrilled.
Recently I’ve been writing memoir stories about growing up in the Bronx in the 1960’s. The challenges to the memoir genre seem even more complex than fiction. In memoir, I must work both emotionally and technically. My hope is that my emotional journey engages readers, and that my technical skill as a seasoned writer keeps readers turning the page, hungry for the next scene. My memory of events in my childhood is not perfect but I seek to describe details and relationships as close to reality as I can get.
I believe authenticity is the cornerstone to a job well done. It requires me to dig deep, not just skim the surface with an event that happened in my childhood. I must think about: Why and how it was a significant emotional event for me? What tiny things (details) did I notice at the time it happened in terms of setting, and people’s reactions; not just my own.
A critical ingredient for writing compelling memoir is taking the more difficult step, not only reflecting on memories and events from the past, but also making sense NOW of what happened THEN. This technique is called reflective narrator
Impressive memoir writers are skilled at sprinkling in reflective narrator. The writer becomes a spectator and in essence an interpreter of events that happened long ago. In other words, the writer uses the reflective narrator tool when they analyze what happened and offer insight into what’s realized in the present day as they look back. I must admit that effectively using this tool is a challenge for me. It doesn’t come naturally.
I think what helps is writing the story in ‘first person’ which I believe easily places the writer in a perfect placewith a portal to reflective narrator. It’s when I pop out of the action in the scene and speak from WHO I AM NOW.What’s required is my willingness to seek a deeper level of understanding of my behavior and actions in that scene.
I’ve noticed that memoir writers generally use reflective narrator sparingly. Sometimes it appears at the end of the description of an event or scene. It might be in the form of a summary statement. Alternatively, a writer might start a scene with a bit of reflective narrator. Here’s one example (which I haven’t used yet to begin a story but potentially may use in future):
I warn you that what happened in that barn twenty years ago on a hot August day in Louisville, Kentucky is not something I’m proud of, not something I want to be remembered by.
Two other examples which come from my published memoir work, each from a different short story are:
(from MY BASEBALL CARD COLLECTION – a short story):
I had broken my first glass ceiling at 11 years old. A gambler. I was a ‘girl’ gambler!
(from HIGH SCHOOL HEART – a short story):
I felt abandoned by the boy I loved, a feeling I’d often have again, later in life even when I was the one running away.
Both examples involve me looking back NOW at PAST events.
Reflective narrator is the writer looking for the GREATER TRUTH in their actions taken when they were a younger version of themselves, maybe a time when they were less experienced and likely with little enlightenment.
Stay tuned for next week.
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