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It depends whether you want other people to read it, or whether it's just for your own benefit. If you want to be read, there has to be some element of entertainment. Otherwise it's just a shopping list of misery. There needs to be some structure with a proper story arc - ie you end up somewhere different from where you start, and there's a point to it all - as Rifke says, some learned insight or revelation. It also has to be believable.

Have you read Angela's Ashes? It's a masterclass in memoir writing. The events he describes are about as grim as anything you'll read, but there's a powerful narrative pulling you along, and the most magical, twinkly sense of humour - because most people don't want to wallow in misery for its own sake.
I'll look for Angela's Ashes.
 
It depends whether you want other people to read it, or whether it's just for your own benefit. If you want to be read, there has to be some element of entertainment. Otherwise it's just a shopping list of misery. There needs to be some structure with a proper story arc - ie you end up somewhere different from where you start, and there's a point to it all - as Rifke says, some learned insight or revelation. It also has to be believable.

Have you read Angela's Ashes? It's a masterclass in memoir writing. The events he describes are about as grim as anything you'll read, but there's a powerful narrative pulling you along, and the most magical, twinkly sense of humour - because most people don't want to wallow in misery for its own sake.
thats why i need to meet jason!! dont you see?!?! for my story arc!! i envision my memoir as being like "the remains of the day" where it takes place over a week or two and each new chapter is the butler looking back and meditating on something but meanwhile each day that passes he's getting closer to this event where he will drive and meet some maid or whatever that he used to work with, and it ends with him meeting her. only unlike the remains of the day, my memoir is not going to have such a poignant old-manish flavour but is going to be weird and wonderful like it's authour and it's not going to end with the prospect of romance, but probably, what i predict, with the little snow white sylph that was jason turning into a commonplace meathead or somesuch, because that's the way of the world and any adherence to ideals has no place in it (that hard won morrissey wisdom). i mean, of course i dont have to meet him, i could just make up the ending, but i think it would help if real life could inform my memoir in some way. and i really dont see what's wrong with it. writers are always bugging people for interviews. my interest is merely scientific and fits in with my new philosophy of "do what i want and tell everyone everything". as an artist i should never feel shame about anything.

but you know, funnily enough now that i have contrived a way in which it might be possible to meet him, im sort of over it. i think my real problem was with the idea of things being consigned to the past, unbreachable, and once i think maybe they're not, i sort of stopping caring. it's feeling that my whims and fancies are being opposed that i have a problem with.

by the way, werent you the one who told me to go to neils house just to "at least check it out"?!?:lbf:
 
My library has it. I should have it in 3 weeks. I think it's in audio format.
All 3 in epub should they not get it in.
All good reads.
Regards,
FWD.
 
Don't you do that over there? Have a 'works Christmas do'? No-one really wants to go, but everybody feels obliged. Perhaps it's just the obliged part which is British.
oh yeah, we have work christmas parties over here. we dont call them "works christmas dos' though (in fact, we dont use the term 'do' at all). i think the obliged part must be british. if someone doesnt wanna go they simply dont go. i think most people (other than me) like going though, they like dressing up as tarts and prancing around showing their coworkers how much they've got it going on off hours. or something.

of course ive never worked in professional places with respectable adults so that might make a difference.
 
oh yeah, we have work christmas parties over here. we dont call them "works christmas dos' though (in fact, we dont use the term 'do' at all). i think the obliged part must be british. if someone doesnt wanna go they simply dont go. i think most people (other than me) like going though, they like dressing up as tarts and prancing around showing their coworkers how much they've got it going on off hours. or something.

of course ive never worked in professional places with respectable adults so that might make a difference.

Yeah, that's me. Hands up, I've done that. Maybe not exactly the tart part. But it's kind of, ' See how sassy and together I am, and not at all like the rest of you sad saps?'
 
thats why i need to meet jason!! dont you see?!?! for my story arc!! i envision my memoir as being like "the remains of the day" where it takes place over a week or two and each new chapter is the butler looking back and meditating on something but meanwhile each day that passes he's getting closer to this event where he will drive and meet some maid or whatever that he used to work with, and it ends with him meeting her. only unlike the remains of the day, my memoir is not going to have such a poignant old-manish flavour but is going to be weird and wonderful like it's authour and it's not going to end with the prospect of romance, but probably, what i predict, with the little snow white sylph that was jason turning into a commonplace meathead or somesuch, because that's the way of the world and any adherence to ideals has no place in it (that hard won morrissey wisdom). i mean, of course i dont have to meet him, i could just make up the ending, but i think it would help if real life could inform my memoir in some way. and i really dont see what's wrong with it. writers are always bugging people for interviews. my interest is merely scientific and fits in with my new philosophy of "do what i want and tell everyone everything". as an artist i should never feel shame about anything.

but you know, funnily enough now that i have contrived a way in which it might be possible to meet him, im sort of over it. i think my real problem was with the idea of things being consigned to the past, unbreachable, and once i think maybe they're not, i sort of stopping caring. it's feeling that my whims and fancies are being opposed that i have a problem with.

by the way, werent you the one who told me to go to neils house just to "at least check it out"?!?:lbf:
Okay, I admit it, I did :lbf: Perhaps it was because you were having such a miserable time, and I felt you needed cheering up, and whatever happened it surely couldn't get any worse. Also because of opportunity - not knowing whether you'd ever pass by that way again. I think I was also swayed by my own Alan Bennett experience (although admittedly my admiration for AB is a bit different to your pining for Neil). Maybe it's a bit different with, you know, REAL people? I don't quite know why my radar is going off, but it is.

Well, I'm not sure whether to feel relief for him or you that he is not longer required as scientific source material. Maybe you could just invent a meeting. The chances are it will be more interesting than real life.
 
A story about Frederick Douglas and his home county which is where I live. The courthouse With the ideologically opposed statues is one I visit almost everyday and a good symbol of the contradictions of the area in general

 
Yeah, that's me. Hands up, I've done that. Maybe not exactly the tart part. But it's kind of, ' See how sassy and together I am, and not at all like the rest of you sad saps?'
the problem is that im no more put together at home than i am at work, hence why it probably has no appeal for me :lbf:

but the thing is also that i work with very small people with very narrow experience of life who think they're "all that" because they got their hair cut like jennifer aniston circa 1993 and they dont realize how hilarious that is and they wouldnt recognize superior intelligence or sophistication if it hit them in the face so there's absolutely no point trying to put forth any image for them anyways. *sigh*
 
Okay, I admit it, I did :lbf: Perhaps it was because you were having such a miserable time, and I felt you needed cheering up, and whatever happened it surely couldn't get any worse. Also because of opportunity - not knowing whether you'd ever pass by that way again. I think I was also swayed by my own Alan Bennett experience (although admittedly my admiration for AB is a bit different to your pining for Neil). Maybe it's a bit different with, you know, REAL people? I don't quite know why my radar is going off, but it is.

Well, I'm not sure whether to feel relief for him or you that he is not longer required as scientific source material. Maybe you could just invent a meeting. The chances are it will be more interesting than real life.
i dont know why you're radar is going off either! examine your radar and get back to me if there's something i need to know!! cause i really dont think it's a big deal at all! i mean, i could make something up, but arent memoirs supposed to be based on real life? writers go to all manner of lengths to examine and research things they have a bee in their bonnet (why do i keep using that term? i hate it! i hate the idea that someone might be envisioning me in a bonnet whenever i use it) over, no matter how small or trite. it's the writers spirit to want to examine and uncover and question and explore. and also im really bad at making shit up, my strength as a writer is all about depicting and dissecting things that have actually happened and showing how it relates to me, that's really the kind of writer i am, which is why i need more experience no matter how contrived it is. its not about being interesting, it's about working with what you've got; it's about not starting off with gold but spinning the dross of life into gold.

what was your alan bennet experience?
 
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