Class 1 of Self Editing Your Memoir: What's your story? (Stepping back and charting the premise and reader-friendly hook of your memoir) Taught at BARN, January 13, 2024

2. “You need to consider your
storytelling, and the audience you one
day hope to attract, and how your life
and personality and voice come across
to them. For the first time, you are
inviting strangers into your life story,
and you need to make that mental
adjustment when you’re writing
memoir.”
Mary Karr, The Art of Memoir

3. January: What's your story? Stepping back and charting the
premise and reader-friendly hook of your memoir
February: Who are these people? Evaluating how friends,
family, and foes are treated both fairly and realistically
March: Who's telling your story? Analyzing your narrative voice
and perspective as a storyteller
April: What structure holds this together? Looking at how
individual scenes work together to keep the reader turning
pages
May: Does it flow? Practicing line editing to affect pacing,
atmosphere, and tone
June: Are there distractions? Copy editing for readability and
accuracy

5. Tell us a little about what you’re writing, and
what drew you here.
 Where are you in the writing process?
 Do you have a specific question or concern
you’re hoping this class will address?
 What is a memoir you’ve read recently that
spoke to you?

8.  The Premise: What is the active
question/plot that drives the
story?
 The Promise: What will the reader
gain in their own life from your
experience?

9. On a ten-day visit to San Miguel de Allende,
Judith Gille falls in love…with a hot pink
house on a rundown alleyway. Without
consulting her husband or knowing how
she’s going to pay for it, she makes the
owners a full price offer. Despite a bumpy
start in a new culture, Judith and her
husband eventually befriend their neighbors
on Callejon de Chepitos and form a close
bond with the Cordova clan. As their
affection for the lively Mexican family grows,
so do the complications of their cross-
cultural relationship. When the oldest
daughter seeks to cross the border illegally,
the lives of the two families become
inextricably entwined.
The View from Casa Chepitos puts a human
face on the immigration controversy and
paints an intimate portrait of Mexican life
today. But the story also explores the deeper
issues women of all ages face: affirming their
self worth and purpose, building enduring
relationships, and discovering where it is
they truly belong.

10. Cynt Marshall grew up in a northern California
housing project with a violent father who once
broke her nose, but also with a strong, devoted
mother who kept her family fed and focused,
reminding them, “It’s not where you live, but
how you live.” Heeding her mother’s advice,
Marshall excelled first at school and then in her
professional life, overcoming overt and subtle
racism to become, at forty, one of the first Black
woman officers at AT&T, while also navigating
both grief and joy as she started a family of her
own. All that life experience prepared Marshall
for the day when, at fifty-one, she was
diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer, just one
lymph node from stage 4. Overnight, her life
changed, but her commitment to serve others
did not.
You’ve Been Chosen offers what Marshall calls
“the good, the great, the bad, and the ugly
parts” of her journey through both cancer and
everything that led up to it. Along the way, she
tackles the tough questions we all face: What
will I do with what I have been given? How will I
respond to challenges with both grace and grit?
Where will this new path take me if I keep
moving? And how can I offer something good
back to the world as a result?

12. A plot begins with a protagonist (or protagonists) in a
state of stability, but something happens quickly – in
modern writing usually within the first 5-10 pages – to
change their state of physical or emotional instability,
or both. The protaginist may choose the change, or a
change is thrust upon them.
The protagonist actively seeks a resolution to that
instability, physically or emotionally. They move
forward toward what they want but are thwarted along
the way, facing setbacks and challenges as the stakes
escalate, until at the end there is a moment of
crisis/decision, and a resolution is achieved, leaving
the character changed in some way.

14.  What sets this particular story into motion? What
upends the status quo and creates an instability in
the author’s world?
 How does the instability of this event affect the
author/protagonist? What's at stake for them?
 How does the instability (the crisis, the question, etc.)
progress over the course of the book, steadily
changing and keeping the reader engaged? Are there
identifiable key turning points that create change?
Does the reader feel like they're moving toward
something?
 Does the instability resolve at the end?

16. Memoirs transform ordinary
circumstances into beautiful scenes
that teach a deeper truth.

18. On a ten-day visit to San Miguel de Allende,
Judith Gille falls in love…with a hot pink
house on a rundown alleyway. Without
consulting her husband or knowing how
she’s going to pay for it, she makes the
owners a full price offer. Despite a bumpy
start in a new culture, Judith and her
husband eventually befriend their neighbors
on Callejon de Chepitos and form a close
bond with the Cordova clan. As their
affection for the lively Mexican family grows,
so do the complications of their cross-
cultural relationship. When the oldest
daughter seeks to cross the border illegally,
the lives of the two families become
inextricably entwined.
The View from Casa Chepitos puts a human
face on the immigration controversy and
paints an intimate portrait of Mexican life
today. But the story also explores the deeper
issues women of all ages face: affirming their
self worth and purpose, building enduring
relationships, and discovering where it is
they truly belong.

19. Cynt Marshall grew up in a northern California
housing project with a violent father who once
broke her nose, but also with a strong, devoted
mother who kept her family fed and focused,
reminding them, “It’s not where you live, but
how you live.” Heeding her mother’s advice,
Marshall excelled first at school and then in her
professional life, overcoming overt and subtle
racism to become, at forty, one of the first Black
woman officers at AT&T, while also navigating
both grief and joy as she started a family of her
own. All that life experience prepared Marshall
for the day when, at fifty-one, she was
diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer, just one
lymph node from stage 4. Overnight, her life
changed, but her commitment to serve others
did not.
You’ve Been Chosen offers what Marshall calls
“the good, the great, the bad, and the ugly
parts” of her journey through both cancer and
everything that led up to it. Along the way, she
tackles the tough questions we all face: What
will I do with what I have been given? How will I
respond to challenges with both grace and grit?
Where will this new path take me if I keep
moving? And how can I offer something good
back to the world as a result?

20. 1. If I can’t
summarize the
premise and
promise.

21. 2. We don’t get to the
event that breaks the
author away from
normal soon enough.
3. There aren’t
identifiable moments of
change, or turning
points, along the way.
4. The instability is
never resolved.

22. Does the writer have
enough distance from
this story to tell it?

23.  Childhood/Coming
of age
 Medical
 Travel
 Food
 Professional
 Spiritual
 Humor
 Graphic
 Linked essays
 Hybrid

24. 1. Read your complete memoir draft as if it
was a finished book.

25.  Read it on an ebook app (Kindle, Google Play,
Nook, etc.)
OR
 Print the manuscript and put it in a binder
◦ Change the font
◦ Shrink space between lines
◦ Change margins

26.  Read where you
typically read for
pleasure
 Block 1-2 hours
of uninterrupted
time

27. 1. What stands out to you about the overall
Work in Progress?

28. 2. What is the premise of this work?
◦ What sets the story into motion?
◦ How does the instability/question/situation affect
the protagonist/author?
◦ How does the instability/question/situation
progress and change over the course of the book?
◦ Does the instability introduced at the beginning
resolve somehow at the end?

29. 3. What is the premise of this work?
◦ What are the relatable themes, or life-changing
questions, that will draw a reader to pick up this
book?
◦ What is different about the approach or subject
matter of this book from others like it?

30. 4. Write the Hook of your memoir in 1-2
paragraphs (no more than 200 words).

31. Next Class: February 10, 2024
9:00am – 12:00pm
bethjusino@gmail.com