Kia ora, next thing to think about is Frame. No not the famous writer, but yes, similar to what a framer puts around a painting or photograph.
Writers use words so the frame is made up of words. A frame in the sense I mean is the outside story inside of which your memoir takes place.
See the way Rick Gekoski frames his life-story by what he calls a bibliomemoir, Outside of a Dog. He chooses a number of books that have been important at various stages of his life, writes about their influence on him and at the same time writes about his life.
In This Piece of Earth, Harvey McQueen frames his life story with a year’s seasonal cycle in his garden. He structures it into two-monthly parts and within those parts as well as writing about the garden he also reveals his life experiences so that by the end of the work we not only know a lot about his garden but we also feel we know a lot about Harvey.
Margaret Atwood in her book about the writing life, Negotiating with the Dead, a series of lectures turned into chapters, also reveals parts of her life-story inside this frame.
The value of finding a frame you like is immense. On a practical level it saves you writing a chronological linear story (nearly always boring both for writer and reader) and means you are free to choose where you put incidents, anecdotes, reflections, as/where they are triggered by parts of the frame story.
On a personal level it gives you the opportunity to write about something you love or loved doing and your readers will be ecstatic. Here they have this rare thing, a book which tells them about something they’ve always wanted to know and at the same time gives them an insight into the life of this clever, fascinating and wonderful writer. You.
Finding a Frame. This is nearly always already there in your life story. It might be recent, it might be something you’ve always enjoyed. Travelling, the adventure of buying a new house, learning to live in a new area, learning to quilt (you don’t have to be an expert), running, favourite music pieces, tramping, plays you’ve loved, your favourite books, making a vegetable garden from scratch, keeping chooks, the possibilities are endless. Think about it – there is something that will work as a frame for your story.
How you plan the structure often depends on the frame. For example Harvey McQueen’s frame was a garden so he divided his book into two-monthly parts that represented the seasonal cycles a gardener experiences. Rick Gekoski’s frame was a particular list of books. No doubt he’s read at least five to fifty thousand books in his lifetime so far but he chose just these few to work as frames for his story. Margaret Atwood’s book naturally falls into the cycle of the six lectures and has lot of great insights and information about writing as well as about her life.
There is a Frame waiting for you. Find it. Write it.
