Writing Narrative Nonfiction: Creating a Narrator Readers Love (Part II)

When really horrible things happen, we are challenged as writers of memoir because they force us to find deep, soulful ways to come to terms with how we may have participated in the event, or what that event means in the larger picture of who we were, who we have become. We are pushed to write in ways that pull back the facades and expose the rawness of humanity.

This is hard work. In addition, as writers of memoir we need to: lighten up where possible and make fun of ourselves find meaning in random events and learn to communicate that meaning in such a way that the reader opens his eyes to the world new ways

The most important lesson for the writer of memoir, hoping to create a narrator readers love, is to remember that readers automatically identify with the protagonist, the key character, of a story. It's part of the fundamental role of story in the human psyche. By identifying with the protagonist, we have the opportunity to live events outside our own experience (or sometimes events that mirror our own experience) and grow in ways guided by the writer's wisdom, illumination, and direction.

That's why it's critical that the writer of memoir be authentic and emotionally honest. As writers of memoir, as artists, we have the responsibility to help readers transform their own existence, whether it be with laughter of pathos. When the protagonist of a piece of memoir the narrator is someone NO ONE would want to be, the reader immediately turns off, closes the book and takes a hike to…the Laundromat, for gawds sakes! Anywhere but here with this whiny, blaming, pitiful, weak-spined crustacean…mumble, mumble, mumble….

Readers want heroes to identify with, people who overcome the odds, so when you cast your life as story, you will need to step up to the task of casting yourself as the hero of your life. That is the kind of narrator who will win readers allegiance and love.