Thank you for this, Aimee. I've been grappling with the front matter for my memoir about three years living at a Zen temple and martial arts Dojo. Reading Strayed's prologue and your front matter feels like it's given me a bit of clarity!
Hi, Aimee, I agree with Turner---having the definition and examples of different sorts of front matter DOES matter to those of us writing--- I love the opportunity to see how your mind behind the writing works, although I'm not sure it fits with the memoire...it is wonderfully cerebral but I like memoir (just a personal quirk) to be less cognitive and more emotion based with vivid imagery. Hence my preference for an opening is the vignette in which you and your Dad sit up all Christmas eve working on the jigsaw puzzle and your culminating interchange. That is what gives me a deep connection with you, your Dad, and the way you see the world. I would want that to be my first contact with you and this memoire. Patty Cogen....still in Seattle
Such a powerfully moving preface/intro/ pitch, Amy. And so valuable to me, a memoirist struggling with my own preface/foreword/intro. I had never fully understood or contemplated these choices before , so I thank you.
Thank you for this, Aimee. I've been grappling with the front matter for my memoir about three years living at a Zen temple and martial arts Dojo. Reading Strayed's prologue and your front matter feels like it's given me a bit of clarity!
Hi, Aimee, I agree with Turner---having the definition and examples of different sorts of front matter DOES matter to those of us writing--- I love the opportunity to see how your mind behind the writing works, although I'm not sure it fits with the memoire...it is wonderfully cerebral but I like memoir (just a personal quirk) to be less cognitive and more emotion based with vivid imagery. Hence my preference for an opening is the vignette in which you and your Dad sit up all Christmas eve working on the jigsaw puzzle and your culminating interchange. That is what gives me a deep connection with you, your Dad, and the way you see the world. I would want that to be my first contact with you and this memoire. Patty Cogen....still in Seattle
Such a powerfully moving preface/intro/ pitch, Amy. And so valuable to me, a memoirist struggling with my own preface/foreword/intro. I had never fully understood or contemplated these choices before , so I thank you.