Structuring (and Restructuring) Your Memoir
An array of tips for finding the nonfictional form that fits
Hi Everyone,
As several of you know, I’ve been struggling for years to find the right structure for my family memoir. My latest solution is to break it into linked essays, which theoretically should work. But
echoed my frustration when she wrote in a recent chat, “I’m still not solid on how to establish the overall narrative arc of a book length essay collection.”So I decided to take a little tour of my favorite sources of literary intel to see how other writers I respect handle the thorny business of structuring memoir, in general, and collections of personal essays, in particular. The result is by no means a comprehensive list of sources, and it won’t deliver one easy how-to answer, but if you follow each of the free links below and read these articles in their entirety, you’ll likely emerge with a much clearer view of your various options. I know I did!
I also discovered that Icess and I are far from alone in this process of structural uncertainty. I was astounded, for example, to discover this passage, which almost exactly mirrors my experience, in a craft essay by Christine Imperial in Poets&Writers:
When I hit a wall in my writing—poetry, prose, or hybrid work—I realize that the approach I’m taking needs to be disrupted. Instead of pushing against the wall, I must break it down, dismantle the structure, and rearrange it. I become reenergized by the process of rearrangement via disarrangements of the intended or expected sequence of words, images, and sounds.
I am deep in this process of disarrangement now, and the advice from others who have survived it has been inspiring, reassuring, and instructive.
For the record, outside of Substack, my go-to sites for craft intel like this are Brevitymag.com, JaneFriedman.com, and pw.org. Check them regularly if you’re in need of expert insights.
Happy (re)structuring!
The Essay as Experiment
https://www.pw.org/content/the_essay_as_experiment
by Christine Imperial
I turn to this article first because it speaks to the urgent necessity of understanding essay writing as “apprenticeship with failure,” in the words of John D’Agata. All essays are an attempt to figure things out, and so are collections. But success is never guaranteed. What we discover when crafting an essay may be radically different than the answer we thought we were seeking. When we hit the wall, it’s usually a sign that we’ve been too fixated on one direction/structure/answer. The remedy may be to look for new and indirect juxtapositions that reveal the larger meaning we’ve been missing.
Imperial shares her own process:
Thinking of my book as a montage refused a hierarchization of materials and any desire to suture contradiction with explicative narration. In allowing this collage-like method to dominate the writing process, a hybrid form emerged wherein memories, documents, photographs, advertisements, and poetry all comingled, like a montage of images that spoke to the ambivalent tension of living a hybrid identity.
Deciding Between Simple and Complex Memoir Structures
https://janefriedman.com/deciding-between-simple-and-complex-memoir-structures/
by Lisa Cooper Ellison
Tearing apart of piece that you’ve spent months or years assembling can be a scary business. As Ellison writes in this hugely helpful essay, fear and confusion can be paralyzing at this juncture. It can help to step back from the fine details and consider your options objectively before you attempt to dig in. How is the meaning of the story controlled by a simple chronological structure? What happens to that meaning if you use a more complicated form, like a circular or braided structure?
Ellison discusses the importance of understanding your narrative arc and objectives in order to answer these questions. She also highlights the very issue that convinced me, belatedly, to turn my family memoir into a series of essays:
Consider if your memoir chapters feel self-contained, or dive deeply into a concept but don’t necessarily tell a cohesive story with a beginning, middle, and end. If that’s the case, perhaps you’re writing an essay collection.
Memoir Structure
https://amyloujenkins.com/memoir-structure/
by Amy Lou Jenkins
Once you’ve identified your narrative arc and goals, it might help to have an overview of the various structural options available. While I haven’t found any such outline for essay collections, per se, my fellow Bennington MFA alumna Amy Lou Jenkins has created a helpful cheat sheet for 10 basic memoir styles, along with advantages and disadvantages and well known examples for each form.
These include:
Chronological memoir structure
Reverse-chronological memoir structure
Thematic memoir structure
Episodic memoir structure
Circular memoir structure
Braided memoir structure
Frame structure
Hybrid structure
Modified Chronological Structure
Flashback Structure
As Jenkins reminds us, there’s no universal right or wrong choice:
The best structure will depend on the author’s story, the themes you want to explore, and the impact you want to create.
2 Methods for Structuring Your Memoir
https://janefriedman.com/2-methods-for-structuring-your-memoir/
by Allison K Williams
When we start writing personal nonfiction, many of us naturally gravitate to two approaches. Either we get straight to the point, recording what we find important and why, or we chronicle events and memories as if writing a diary. One approach tends to be deadly dull, the other rambling and impenetrable. They may help you spit out a first draft, but more carefully crafted structures will help you guide the reader to identify and care about the central concern of your memoir or collection up front, before you unspool the whole story by moving back and forth through time.
In this piece, Williams traces two variations on the circular structure, with this important caveat:
Circular structure is great for essay collections but tough for single plot line books, because it’s hard to make a series of attempts satisfying for that long. However, if your memoir is voice-driven—people just want to spend time with your funny or beautiful writing—or a “collage” memoir of dreamy prose-poem scenes, circular may be enough.
Looking at an Eclipse: A Braided Essay About Braided Essays
https://brevity.wordpress.com/2024/01/30/eclipse/
By Lilly Dancyger
One complex structure that seems to be trending these days is the braided essay, which can also be a model for organizing your collection. Dancyger offers a moving personal description of the value of this structure, which harnesses the power of peripheral vision to reveal the essence of a difficult or painful topic by not addressing it head on.
She defines the braided essay thus:
A braided essay is typically defined by its strands—two or more topics or narratives, woven together. But when I think about braided essays now, what defines them for me most clearly is not the shape and rhythm of the weave, but the kinds of stories that the shape and rhythm make possible.
How To Do An Essay Collection
by Kate McKean
Publishing pro
offers additional factors to consider when assembling an essay collection. These include pointers on platforms and pitching. But the key issue when structuring your collection, McKean stresses, is thematic:This should come as no surprise, but your essay collection should be about something. Whether it’s personal essays or essays around a theme or subject, your book needs a thesis or clearly defined point of view…. even if you’re writing a book of criticism or reportage, it still needs to be about a distinct thing. It can’t be here are the best essays on all the topics I’ve ever written and I think they’re pretty good.
Transforming an Essay Collection into a Memoir
https://brevitymag.com/craft-essays/transforming-an-essay-collection-into-a-memoir/
by Chelsey Drysdale
Sometimes the structural overhaul of an essay collection results in conversion to (or back to) a single long-form memoir. Drysdale offers a wonderfully detailed account of her experience working with editor Joshua Mohr of Decant Editorial to do just this. She identifies the through-lines and values that helped her select and integrate the pieces of the puzzle that really mattered— and jettison the rest.
This admission really resonated with me, since deletion is often the most vexing part of revision:
Once I started making tough decisions about what was “earning its space,” it became obvious that four essays I had diligently crafted—one for seven years—were no longer needed. Meticulous dialogue, tornadoes, a sudden death, a doozy of a New Year’s Eve, an atrocious haircut that solidified my resolve to move, and the unlikely prophecy of an obnoxious stranger on a pier all got axed. Somewhere is a crowded cemetery replete with precious darlings I don’t miss.
The naked truth: how to write a memoir
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/dec/14/the-naked-truth-how-to-write-a-memoir
by Blake Morrison
This last one is a bit of a coda. It’s mostly not about structure, but it’s such a valuable overview of the state of the art of memoir [even if it is 4 years old] that I had to include it. You will find a lot of food for thought here, along with insights from many of your favorite memoirists.
The bottom line:
It can’t be all showing and no telling. You may need to spend 30 pages on the events of an hour – then speed through 25 years in two pages. Be bold with chronology. Find ways to keep us interested. We’re in your hands.
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A big thank you, Aimee. I am struggling with structure of my memoir, which I've been writing for years. Your comments and tips are right on time. Kakwasi
All the tips you can amass and pass on will land in welcome hands! More and more and more please . . . .