Evaluating Your First Page for Red Flags
Date: Thursday September 2, 2010
Time: 4 PM PDT |5 PM MDT | 6 PM CDT | 7 PM EDT
Cost: FREE FOR EVERYONE (NAMW Members–The dial in details can be found below–if you can’t see them, simply login to the member area to view this post. If you are not an NAMW member, simply sign up for this free call by using the form near the bottom of this page).
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Our first FREE Memoir Roundtable Teleconversation will be held this THURSDAY, on September 2nd at 4:00 PM PDT|7:00 PM EDT via telephone. Everyone is invited to attend these new FREE monthly Teleconversations. This month, NAMW President, Linda Joy Myers will be joined on the line with Jane Friedman, Contributing Editor at Writer’s Digest. Linda and Jane will discuss and accept your questions regarding the theme of Evaluating Your First Page for Red Flags. The format for this call differs from our Monthly Member-only Teleseminars in that it is an informal discussion Roundtable that you can be part of to exchange ideas with not only the expert but other NAMW members. Besides offering you a direct connection with experts–a benefit that will help you to develop your ideas and hone your skills as you write, edit, revise, and publish your memoir–you will have the opportunity to develop relationships within the NAMW memoir writing community.
Please join us for these special events that are open to the public. No RSVP is necessary for NAMW members. Simply use the dial-in information above. If you are not an NAMW member, simply sign up below! We look forward to meeting you there!
If you are not an NAMW member, sign up below to receive the call-in details via email AND receive a link to an audio recording of the call shortly following the call!
Should I submit a proposal BEFORE completing my book OR wait until I’ve completed/fine-tuned my manuscript and then pitch it?
I ask because it seems publishers want to have input in the ms. So which is the better option? Craft a proposal first and then get the publisher’s input in the ms, or complete the ms entirely and then seek a publisher?
I am writing a memoir. Chapter 1–first six pages–include my hook where I elude to a secret, state the who, what, where & when. I don’t wish to give the actual secret away until 3/4 of the way through the book, when the discovery actually occurs. If Chapter 2 discloses the secret, then my story is over and nobody is interested in reading the rest of my book. I would like to keep them interested by bringing them back to pre-secret days, what life was like and moving forward up until the actual event….all by keeping them intrigued with exotic travels and arrivals, life and school abroad and the like….then POW/BAM!!!!
So, do I disclose the climax in Chapter 2 and flashback? But then what happens when that event arrives in my story, I cannot repeat it!!?????
I would like to write chronologically and 3/4 of the way through the memoir, voila, the climax, then the denouement, which includes three more chapters plus an Epilogue. Is this the way to write my memoir?
Thank you.
Dear Jane and Linda:
In writing the first draft of my memoir, I discovered that my opening chapter flows best when written as a first person narrator. Chapter two and beyond felt as if they were writing themselves in third person omniscient narration.
Are there guidelines regarding what point of view to use to allow our readers to live out story with us?
If so, what are they and when should they be broken?
Is it best to stick to one point of view throughout?
Thank you for your help.
randfan@cox.net
Dear Linda Joy and Jane,
I am interested in a discussion on the tense to use in a memoir. Since memoir is about the past , it seems appropriate to use the past tense. Yet, I sometimes find myself struggling with which tense to use as the present tense has a feeling of being there in the moment . I realize that whatever tense I use,I need to be consistent. I just wonder if there are any rules, written or unwritten, about what is appropriate? The present tense worked well in “Don’t Call Me Mother”,Linda Joy and in Frank McCourt’s “Angela’s Ashes” ,but what advice would you give a new writer like myself who is tackling a memoir- past or present tense or both?
Thanks for your help
Kathy Pooler
http://krpooler.wordpress.com
Dear Linda Joy and Jane
I would like to know if memoirs about Egyptian girls escaping culture, tradition, and arranged marriage is timely. My memoir is about the complexity of the social life, and the modern society which is still controlled by men and their misinterpretation of the Muslim religion. It is the story of two teen age girls and their struggle to liberate themselves from the arranged marriage, and their escape to the West.
Dear Linda Joy and Jane
I would like to know if memoirs about Egyptian girls escaping culture, tradition, and arranged marriage is timely. My memoir is about the complexity of the social life, and the modern society which is still controlled by men and their misinterpretation of the Muslim religion. It is the story of two teen age girls and their struggle to liberate themselves from the arranged marriage, and their escape to the West.
Please advice on how to send you my first page.
Laila