Bullets and bracelets insights

Confess I’m a Wonder Woman fan, even at a comics shop, and I feel the need to justify. “I’m a capital-F fan, but you need to understand she’s really, really cool.” But why bother? Why not simply embrace what works for me and gives me pleasure along the way?

George Perez draws Wonder Woman

In 1987, I was 11 and Wonder Woman was relaunched under George Perez’s artistic magic. The relaunch meant I could collect the series from issue one, something I’d never done before. Perez drew heavily from Greek mythology and created characters I still remember better than many childhood friends.

Diana (Wonder Woman) was on a mission: to stop a god gone mad (and later to represent Amazon ideals in man’s world). Then, I was on a mission: escape the abuse of the Northern Territory and return to my faithfully loving Melbourne family. Now, I’m on another mission: tell the story of that escape and the return in my memoir.

A ridiculously simple tool I’ve created to aid my progress forward is the Mission Log. From my sluggish waking moments to my hyped retiring moments, I record the time, and my purpose right now. When completed, I record what I did well and learned lessons.

My first awaress of being on a mission came from Wonder Woman, but now I’m mission-focussed each day. The Log keeps my mind on goals and makes me question how I use my time.

Simplicity on the far side of complexity

Over the past couple months, I’ve read dozens of memoirs. Those that stand out do so for their own unique reasons. Those that fail, do so for similar reasons: they have the structural soundness of a house built on a sand. Filled with memories retold because they’re remembered, not because they have any dramatic function, the book ends up scattered and unfocused. But how can a writer decide what fits – and what needs to be cut?

Since July 1, I’ve been using Dramatica Pro to help answer that question with my memoir. While it’s software aimed at fiction writers, memoirists can find it helpful because creative nonfiction uses many of the techniques of fiction. Notably, it gets the writer to develop a narrative structure, and emphasize the aspects of characters in relation to their dramatic function.

This means that those fondly remembered but out of place anecdotes and characters get cut. Other areas that needed to be fleshed out are developed. Whole characters disappear because they serve no purpose. In short, it helps life make sense.

And what you’re left with is a clear guide to the story you plan to tell. When it comes to the revision – adding and deleting scenes and characters – this clarity allows a writer to move forward with speed and boldness. Readers may not notice the underlying structure, but they’ll enjoy reading a stronger story. One that’s foundations are built on rock.

P.S. So I can put more time into the memoir, and less time blogging about it, I plan to update my blog weekly until further notice.

Zen and the art of characters

Any element of memoir – including characters – must serve the story’s purpose. Some would baulk at the idea of “characters” in memoir – after all, they’re real people, aren’t they? – but the people in the memoir are not the people in reality. The best a writer can hope for is a facsimile of the person; recognizable, but serving the story’s purpose.

And what is this purpose? It differs for each story. In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values where I discussed the application of Pirsig’s philosophy to the writing craft here, and supremacy of trust here, he tells us he’s chosen not to fully develop his characters. Why? Because the characters are unimportant to his story. He lectures readers on a new way of approaching rationality as he crosses the US on a motorbike – rhetoric rules!

Early drafts of mine have suffered from an army of partially developed seen-once characters; their stories only included because I remember them, and often, because of the nature of my book, think they have shock value.

Once I sit down to edit, characters will be culled unless they serve my story’s purpose. A story has four purposes, called throughlines, which I’ll write about later. Througlines are a concept of Dramatica Pro, a tool I’ve written about here.

Consider anything excess which doesn’t support the story. Cut it.

Getting to know your tools

My father was a skilled carpenter, able to take a piece of wood and mold it into a hand, or an ornate bed end, or other delights that made me proud and envious at once.

I wanted to be like Dad, so I’d pick up the chisels and take them to a practice piece of wood. When my results didn’t equal his, I’d get frustrated and give up.

Launching into things without taking the time to learn my tools is something I still do today. When I got Dramatica Pro (or UK readers here), I followed the quick start option. It’s only now, as I take the time to read the manual as part of my goal of five things a day, that I’m realising how powerful it is.

If you have Dramatica Pro, or plan to get it, one thing I want to point out: in the StoryGuide button, when you click it you’re given the option of Level 1, 2, or 3. I mistook this to mean that when you’ve completed Level 1 it will carry you into Level 2, etc. That’s not how it works. Level 1 asks fewer questions, so it’s quicker to complete. Level 3 asks the most. Just depends on how much detail you need for what you’re working on.

My Dad paid a price of years of learning his tools to create beautiful things. I think I’m finally learning.

An unlikely tool

Dramatica Pro (or UK readers here), software created to help writers of novels, short stories, and scripts, seems an unlikely choice as a tool for the memoirist. But what I find useful about it is it helps structure a story on a macro level to create a compelling and satisfying read.

In the first draft of my memoir, I told stories simply because I could remember them. The overall story arc necessary in good creative non-fiction was missing. None of my characters, including myself, had character arcs. It was more autobiography than the memoir I aspired to, following my life’s events in chronological order.

The third draft is somewhat better. Rather than autobiography, the story enters the realm of memoir focusing on the sexual and emotional abuse, and my emerging sexuality. In writing it, I discovered the key relationship in relation to the abuse was between myself and my step-mum. I’d never realised this before. Other people who played significant roles were underdeveloped, including one of the uncles who sexually abused me.

Using Dramatica Pro allows me to see how I need to  rewrite, add, and delete scenes, to meet the needs of the story and character arcs.

I’m devoted to doing five things a day toward completing my memoir. Today, in Dramatica Pro, I added three scenes. I also read one chapter from a memoir, to master the craft by reading. And, of course, created this article.