Thank YOU, Brooke! This is such a wonderfully curated guide and rereading some of the excerpts you picked reminded me of some old book 'friends' I need to pick up again. Thank you
Thank you for another excellent "lesson," Brooke. Your breakdown with examples is so helpful. Second person is one of my favorite voices to use and seems to appear frequently in writing practice sessions when I'm writing to a prompt. You hear the prompt and you just start with first thing that comes to your mind/imagination. (for example.)
Brooke, as usual, you are the craft wizard. Deep into my own journey yous, I find I meander through all of these "you" uses. I think the challenge is weaving them together in the narrative -- so they aren't confusing. Always remerbering what you said about anchors. In one essay using the universal you, my therapist pipes in and says, "Elaine, you should be using your 'I'' statements.";-)
Memoir is such a tricky form -- far trickier than most writers realize -- and this kind of analysis will help us all understand it better, read it better, and write it better. Thank you for this post! I'm going to share it with all our coaches.
I didnt' realize all the ways I used "you" until my manuscript came back from my copyeditor and I had to examine each instance to determine the heavy lifting that "you" was doing and if it was merited or distracting. In many cases, I saw that I defaulted to a rhetorical "you" and while it read fine, it was stronger to root the observation in "I" and put myself back on center stage.
If only I knew then (when writing Under the Birch Tree) what I have learned (from you!) now about memoir writing . . . I wonder what it could have been. But then, on second thought, without having written it exactly as I did, I'd never see how far I've come as a writer, and what my writing is all about today.
Thank YOU, Brooke! This is such a wonderfully curated guide and rereading some of the excerpts you picked reminded me of some old book 'friends' I need to pick up again. Thank you
This is a great post, thank you!
Wonderful post and so very helpful. Thank you!
Thank you for another excellent "lesson," Brooke. Your breakdown with examples is so helpful. Second person is one of my favorite voices to use and seems to appear frequently in writing practice sessions when I'm writing to a prompt. You hear the prompt and you just start with first thing that comes to your mind/imagination. (for example.)
Such a fantastic breakdown of this concept. Thank you Brooke, am going to consider trying to bring YOU into my memoir.
Brooke, as usual, you are the craft wizard. Deep into my own journey yous, I find I meander through all of these "you" uses. I think the challenge is weaving them together in the narrative -- so they aren't confusing. Always remerbering what you said about anchors. In one essay using the universal you, my therapist pipes in and says, "Elaine, you should be using your 'I'' statements.";-)
Ha! This made me smile.
Memoir is such a tricky form -- far trickier than most writers realize -- and this kind of analysis will help us all understand it better, read it better, and write it better. Thank you for this post! I'm going to share it with all our coaches.
Thank you so much, Jennie. I appreciate this, and you!
Very helpful, with clear, interesting examples. Thanks!
Thank you, Brooke. You’ve given us a lot to consider.
I didnt' realize all the ways I used "you" until my manuscript came back from my copyeditor and I had to examine each instance to determine the heavy lifting that "you" was doing and if it was merited or distracting. In many cases, I saw that I defaulted to a rhetorical "you" and while it read fine, it was stronger to root the observation in "I" and put myself back on center stage.
If only I knew then (when writing Under the Birch Tree) what I have learned (from you!) now about memoir writing . . . I wonder what it could have been. But then, on second thought, without having written it exactly as I did, I'd never see how far I've come as a writer, and what my writing is all about today.