Writing Briefly and Beautifully

In 2003, I turned in the first draft of my book, Waiting Wives: The Story of Schilling Manor, Homefront to the Vietnam War, to my editor. It was over 600 pages. She sent it back and said, “Cut it in half.” She gave me a few suggestions, but ultimately, I was the one that had to cut and continually ask the question - is this moving the story forward, or do I just like what I wrote? Finally, in 2005, my 320 page book was published.

Okay, terrifying story, but what does it have to do with Metallica, The Brevity Blog, and Vivian Gornick’s masterful guidebook on writing, The Situation and The Story? Simple - Brevity is a nonfiction blog where writers submit their writing. Brendan O’Meara wrote a piece for the blog called “What Metallica’s “Black Album” Teaches Us About Writing Briefly.” Finally, the blog reminded me of what I had learned from Gornick’s book many years ago when I had to cut my story in half.

In her book, she writes, “Every work of literature has both a situation and a story. The situation is the context or circumstance, sometimes the plot; the story is the emotional experience that preoccupies the writer: the insight, the wisdom, the thing one has come to say.”

In O’Meara’s piece, he writes, “For the memoir or personal essay writer, it’s not enough to have had this weird/quirky/traumatic experience. It has to serve the reader in some way. This way, the reader can overlay her own experience on yours. You dissolve away, you become a vessel for the reader’s experience. You, in effect, become invisible, but all present.”

I am working on book #2, and I needed these reminders. Perfect words written in beautifully structured sentences that flow effortlessly into purposeful paragraphs will make my story move forward so that the “insight, the wisdom” enters the reader’s mind, leaving an indelible mark on their hearts.

Read Gornick. Read O’Meara. Read The Brevity Blog. And, definitely listen to Metallica

#waitingwives #atriabooks #thesituationandthestory #brevityblog #brendanomeara #metallica #writingpersonalessays #memoirs #mylastmonthsinafrica #lifelonglearner

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Waiting-Wives/Donna-Moreau/9780743470773

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