I'm so grateful that this topic was a huge talking point in WYMi6M, as I realized how important it is for the reader to be "zipped up" in the writer's skin. I've since attempted to read a few memoirs that are not written in scene, and I wasn't able to finish them! What a difference in scene makes. Thank you for this post & reminder! 💪🏽
Thank you. This was one of the clearest examples of a scene versus being in a scene. Most importantly, it allowed me to imagine what it would have been like based on how I felt then. I can easily recall how I felt. The details are sometimes not so precise, so I have struggled to make up for that, and I can see the benefits of trusting what my imagination wants to tell me.
Thanks for reading and commenting, Annee. And I am really happy to hear it was helpful. And yes to trusting your imagination and what would have been true.
This is so helpful, thank you! I happen to be writing a scene from when I was 16 in the fall of 1985 and went to Berkeley's notorious Barrington Hall (a countercultural student coop that devolved into drug use and transient housing). Your column reinforces how I'm trying to describe that warped memory and my feelings and sensations while there.
Hi Brooke! I've found your thoughts on topics like this incredibly helpful. I'm a recent subscriber, and your posts about writing good scenes that matter (memoir primer parts I & 2) from December gave me a new understanding of what reflection should be. I printed them out last week and have been rereading, studying, and underlining passages. But I'm still stuck. I tried applying your advice to the first chapter of my own memoir draft, and unless I'm doing it wrong, I'm needing to delete 80% of what I thought was reflection.
A lot of the lines I'm deleting are statements from the narrator with knowledge of the future—is there a place in memoirs for this type of reflection too, perhaps at the very end of a scene so as not to break it up?
If you could do more on this topic, I think others would appreciate the clarification too. I would really benefit from seeing examples of reflection done wrong converted into reflection done right as well as more examples overall. It's easy to spot when the narrator says "I remember/recall" or "Years later" or "Now/Today," etc., but trickier examples would be useful.
And I would definitely attend a workshop(s) on this topic!! Do any of your YouTube videos cover this at all? I apologize for the length of my comment—I'm just confused and really want to understand this!
Thanks for the suggestion, Marisa. I'll keep it in mind for future posts. Was just re-reading Anne Patchett's Truth & Beauty and I do think she does this kind of reflecting even as she writes about the past. At least in Chapter 1. Maggie Smith does reflect from the "now" in You Could Make This Place Beautiful but the narrator is set up to be telling the story from the now. So it's all about the perspective from which you're writing, and when and how you set up that narrative POV. More to come. Thanks for the comment.
This was a hard concept for me so when I started writing memoir, Laura Munson suggested I write in first person present. Not sure I'd write another book that way, but as it turned out, it served the book well because for much of it, I'm running for my life.
Thanks, Brooke. I'm a subscriber, but I also received a forward of this post from one of the women in my R&C group who I think must be tired of me writing "scene!" in the margins of her pages every time she submits. I hope she finally "gets it" from your excellent examples.
I'm so grateful that this topic was a huge talking point in WYMi6M, as I realized how important it is for the reader to be "zipped up" in the writer's skin. I've since attempted to read a few memoirs that are not written in scene, and I wasn't able to finish them! What a difference in scene makes. Thank you for this post & reminder! 💪🏽
Totally agreed, Casey. They're just not as engaging when you're reading people's summarizing of what happened. Scene is Queen!
As a current WYMi6M student, I echo that, Casey! Going back over scenes and realizing how I can reinvent them as "being in" is enlightening.
Thank you. This was one of the clearest examples of a scene versus being in a scene. Most importantly, it allowed me to imagine what it would have been like based on how I felt then. I can easily recall how I felt. The details are sometimes not so precise, so I have struggled to make up for that, and I can see the benefits of trusting what my imagination wants to tell me.
Thanks for reading and commenting, Annee. And I am really happy to hear it was helpful. And yes to trusting your imagination and what would have been true.
“Memoir is about emotional truth.” Yes! That exactly. This is why I read memoir. Thank you for the excellent explanations and tips.
This is so helpful, thank you! I happen to be writing a scene from when I was 16 in the fall of 1985 and went to Berkeley's notorious Barrington Hall (a countercultural student coop that devolved into drug use and transient housing). Your column reinforces how I'm trying to describe that warped memory and my feelings and sensations while there.
Awesome! And interesting!
Hi Brooke! I've found your thoughts on topics like this incredibly helpful. I'm a recent subscriber, and your posts about writing good scenes that matter (memoir primer parts I & 2) from December gave me a new understanding of what reflection should be. I printed them out last week and have been rereading, studying, and underlining passages. But I'm still stuck. I tried applying your advice to the first chapter of my own memoir draft, and unless I'm doing it wrong, I'm needing to delete 80% of what I thought was reflection.
A lot of the lines I'm deleting are statements from the narrator with knowledge of the future—is there a place in memoirs for this type of reflection too, perhaps at the very end of a scene so as not to break it up?
If you could do more on this topic, I think others would appreciate the clarification too. I would really benefit from seeing examples of reflection done wrong converted into reflection done right as well as more examples overall. It's easy to spot when the narrator says "I remember/recall" or "Years later" or "Now/Today," etc., but trickier examples would be useful.
And I would definitely attend a workshop(s) on this topic!! Do any of your YouTube videos cover this at all? I apologize for the length of my comment—I'm just confused and really want to understand this!
Thanks for the suggestion, Marisa. I'll keep it in mind for future posts. Was just re-reading Anne Patchett's Truth & Beauty and I do think she does this kind of reflecting even as she writes about the past. At least in Chapter 1. Maggie Smith does reflect from the "now" in You Could Make This Place Beautiful but the narrator is set up to be telling the story from the now. So it's all about the perspective from which you're writing, and when and how you set up that narrative POV. More to come. Thanks for the comment.
Thank you, Brooke! Excited to learn more. : )
This was a lovely and straightforward distinction between a scene and being in scene. The present moment is all we had or have, then or now.
This was a hard concept for me so when I started writing memoir, Laura Munson suggested I write in first person present. Not sure I'd write another book that way, but as it turned out, it served the book well because for much of it, I'm running for my life.
Laura Munson is a wonderful teacher!
Thank you—very helpful to remember.
Thanks, Brooke. I'm a subscriber, but I also received a forward of this post from one of the women in my R&C group who I think must be tired of me writing "scene!" in the margins of her pages every time she submits. I hope she finally "gets it" from your excellent examples.
Thanks for sharing this with me, Judy. Makes me happy—and motivated!
Good to be reminded. THANKS. Rosie
YES!!! THIS!!!
Love this! Thanks for sharing. 🫶🏻
I absolutely jacked up the setting of scenes in my book.
I'm sorry to hear that, but we live and learn and do better and that's the work of being a writer, right?
This was very helpful in explaining the differences. Just what I needed. Thanks!
And we'll be covering this more in the six-month course. It's good to hear it's helpful!
Very helpful. A good reminder how effective en scene is.
Such a helpful distinction.