Posts tagged reading about writing
Posts tagged reading about writing
Not sure if this should really count as one of my reads, since I more skimmed it than read it. But if you’re writing a memoir, this book by Sven Birkerts is worth picking up. He focuses on how to create a story and find a narrative rather than describing a sequence of events. (I’ll blog about this in more detail at The Traveling Writer at some point.)
“In memoir the story all but requires the dramatic ordering that hindsight affords,” he writes.
This afternoon the doorbell rang, and a package hit the front stoop. It was the most familiar type of box, one with an Amazon logo, and inside were three books I’d ordered in a moment of weakness, including Abigail Thomas’ Thinking About Memoir. It’s a thin book, and an hour after I picked it up, I was done. I skipped the exercises, but now I have something better: notes scribbled on the back of a university campus map about how to improve my manuscript, an idea that will help me dig deeper into my theme.
Usually after I read a book, I give it away. Already-read books feel like clutter, and I always have someone in mind to give each book to, anyhow. But this book will live on my bookshelf. I’ll get around to the exercises someday.
