 Lisa Dale Norton |
Writing Narrative Non Fiction
by Lisa Dale Norton April 2009 (Lisa's on sabbatical, back soon. Meanwhile enjoy selected past features here) |
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"That’s the trick of memoir—finding one word brimming with emotion." |
I found a note the other day I wrote months ago about words and how one perfect word can evoke a world of story. That’s the trick of memoir—finding one word brimming with emotion and then chasing the story right out of it. When a reader brushes up against that story, his life bridges over from yours, beckons a parallel time and a place, and he thinks you’ve spoken the language of his soul. |
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"What stories rise for you with these words?" —NORTON |
What stories rise for you with these words? Adventure, ballgame, beach, bicycle, birthday, boyfriend, broken, burn, camp, car accident, dancing, doctor, explosion, failure, fall, favorite shop, fire, first impression, flood, flying, guilt, girlfriend, haircut, hero, hiding place, holiday meal, hurricane, job, lie, locked out, lost, math, mountain, party, pet, picnic, plane crash, political election, rain, reading relative, sailing, school, sister, snowstorm, spring, success, summer, swimming, teacher, travel, tree, trouble, vacation, war, weeping, winter. |
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"Draw one word each day and write a story." —NORTON |
Make your own list. Write each word on a scrap of paper and toss it into an elegant bowl you keep on your desk, or tucked into your writing corner. Draw one word each day and write a story. It needn’t be long, a paragraph, a page—whatever your heart leads you to say. At the end of the week you’ll have a mini-memoir. |
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About Lisa Dale Norton |
Lisa Dale Norton is a regular Authorlink columnist. She is nationally recognized as a writing instructor with a passion for story. Read more about Lisa.
Lisa Dale Norton's new book about memoir, SHIMMERING IMAGES: A HANDY LITTLE |
