Archive for February, 2009

Since life is essentially very good, but times are hard for a lot of folks just now, I’m posting the following tips to help you write your bio-vignette.  I generally like to send out these tips from my ‘Home’ page in exchange for your email address for my data base (very important!), but today they are yours, no strings attached.  So do me a favor and write a story to capture your mother’s character and keep her spirit alive, just because she deserves it. And, if you would like to contact me with your email address, I’ll welcome that gesture…

10 Secrets to Successfully Write Your Bio-Vignette 

1. Write about the “ordinary.” In the overall scheme of things, the events that ultimately touch us the most, those occurrences when the spirit shines most brilliantly and where the finest memories rest, often have little to do with earth-shaking events.  It’s the elements of day-to-day life that carry the most weight when captured on the written page.
    
2.  Focus is power. Power is focus. Set perimeters for your story so that it won’t get out of control and lose strength. Once your perimeters are set, focus your power by holding fast to just those images and ideas that you intend to record in your memoir. (As time passes, remember that YOU set the boundaries, so you can expand them or draw them in to best fit your work.)
    
3. Don’t let memories slip by. Memory is often ignited by stories written or told to us by others, and there are many mental exercises we can do to shake up the memory bank. While reading and/or daydreaming, keep a note pad nearby to jot down a fleeting memory or image that has floated in so that you can expand upon it later. They have a way of evaporating if you don’t!  
    
4. Make conscious connections. Look at all aspects of your story clearly and write as though you are addressing each event for the first time. Close your eyes and revisit your memories, but don’t just play the old tapes, begin to look at your memories in the light of full consciousness.
    
5. Please yourself first.  Don’t write for the sake of pleasing anyone but yourself. Write your first draft as though you were writing in your own private diary or journal where no one will edit your memories or judge your thoughts. This can be an exhilarating experience.
    
6. Avoid self-sabotage at all costs. Keeping in mind the message conveyed in point #5, don’t be your own worst enemy by becoming overly critical of your writing. You DO have what it takes to write if you will just allow the creative process to flow.
    
7. Hook the reader.  You must work at making your opening inviting by starting your story powerfully.  But this can be done in a rewrite, so that you don’t let the stress of putting the first few words down on paper halt the whole process. Browse the books on your bookshelf or go to the community library and scan the first lines and paragraphs of books that interest you. Take note of what made you want to read on (or what didn’t) and then let your imagination and creativity run free.
    
8. Create essential energy. Life’s energy is the soul of your story. A story written without enthusiasm isn’t worth writing, much less reading. Bring forth your energy to portray the essential energy of each event that you have found worthy of putting down on paper.
    
9. The truth about imagination. Use your imagination in resourceful ways throughout your memoir, but always tell the truth as you see it. Imagination in nonfiction doesn’t mean making things up;  it could mean, however, elaborating on the facts. It is only when you change events that you are veering from the truth. Employ creative license as you craft your bio-vignette.
    
10. Read your story out loud. Try this out on yourself prior to reading it aloud to others, since I can guarantee you will do some rewriting before you want an audience. This is a whole new trip, if you haven’t done it before.  You won’t believe how differently it sounds read aloud rather than the way it sounds inside your head.

~ Daughters and Sons Write Bio-Vignettes for their “Mother Memoir”  ~

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Give the Gift of Story will be given away soon. Don’t delay, enter by Feb 19, 2009, see details below:

• Posted by Cami Walker, Founder of 29Gifts.org, on February 13, 2009 at 2:31pm in Great Giveaways
• View Discussions

Fellow 29Gifts member and author, Lynn Henriksen, has made a generous offer. She’s offering a copy of her book, “Give the Gift of Story,” as well as donating 20% of her book sales for the month of March to help raise the money Mbali (the mother of our movement) needs to make her humanitarian trip to South Africa.

About Lynn’s book:
Give the Gift of Story: Tap Memory and Write Memoir in Five Acts is a stimulating “how-to” book designed to guide you through writing a true short story, a bio-vignette. Activities, memory & writing exercises, and inspiring stories will prompt you to capture your mother’s character in a ‘Mother Memoir,” even if you never thought you could. You will delve into memories with ease, trigger creativity, polish your prose, and find your unique voice. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll be glad you made the journey!

If you’d like to purchase a book, you can visit Lynn’s site to purchase a copy of Give the Gift of Story, and 20% of book sales generated until the end of March will be donated to help fund Mbalis South Africa trip! I encourage you to spend some time on Lynn’s website,  – telltalesouls.com — where she helps keep spirits alive! She has some good writing classes coming up.

Contest Rules: If you’re interested in entering the raffle for one free copy of “Give the Gift of Story,” just leave a comment on this thread by midnight Pacific Time Thursday, February 19, 2009. No purchase is necessary to enter, but you must be a member of the 29Gifts Community Network (i.e. have a profile on this site) in order to enter. Click here to sign up free, if you’re not a member already. The winner will be announced Friday, February 20th, on this discussion thread, and the winner will be also be contacted by email for his or her postal address so we can deliver the prize.

~ Daughers and Sons Write Mother Memoir in a Bio-vignette ~

~Spring sale on Give the Gift of Story guide book~

EMOTION and PASSION are the big buzz words lately. And hasn’t SEX been selling since time began? So what’s new?

  Those three words, emotion, passion, and sex are battered about everywhere I turn from writers’ conferences to blogging tips and to all aspects of media and human conversation.

I‘m not quite sure why all the buzz at the moment.  It’s not as though emotion, passion, and sex in writing or just plain living one’s life are new feelings, ideas, or actions, but they have landed front and center once again.

The daughters (and now sons) who are writing bio-vignettes for TellTale Souls are doing so through the passion of their souls, and emotion is alive in every sentence they put down.  I you haven’t done it, you can still imagine how capturing the essence of your mother’s character in a story to keep her spirit alive, as no photograph could ever do, must come from deep within.

But you say, “I don’t have what it takes, my story won’t sizzle.” “Nonsense,” I answer. What’s more, I guarantee, once you search those hard to reach, dusty corners of the mind seeking those memories filled with passion and emotion that reside in your heart, you will burn with the desire to write a bio-vignette, which is exactly what will make your story sizzle.

 Picture compliments Sonia Simone, Copyblogger

Most of us could talk endlessly or write volumes on emotion, passion, or sex – they are among the fundamentals of life. And so is, I believe, telling your story – your “Mother Memoir.” Sure, you can live without writing one and your mother survive without one written for and about her.  Once she’s gone, your mother will be remembered for awhile by those who know her, and then her picture may be tossed about in the photo box or admired on the family online archive, but the essence of her character set down in a bio-vignette, written as only her daughter or son could tell it, will let her spirit thrive well beyond the photographs.

Sex is in the mix here, definitely, for The Story Woman, but on a higher plane than the searing one on parade daily in the media.  Yes, okay, you know that if it weren’t for the passion and wonders of sex, there’d be no one to write a word or to be written about.

You may also know what I’m about to say, but it wasn’t so apparent to me until I began gathering “Mother Memoirs” written by men. For the first TellTale Souls book, with the mother-daughter theme, I worked mostly with women. Now gathering stories from men for the second book, using the strength of the male voice on mother, I realize that from the start, women and men go about writing in a different way, and they use emotion in a different way. However, I’m not so sure men and women use passion any differently. The sex of the voice sheds a distinctive light on the relationship men and women have with their mothers. Of course, each voice, whether female or male, is unique, but on the whole I see an elemental difference in how the two sexes make “Mother Memoir” their own.

~ Daughters and Sons Write Mother Memoir ~

             Just a couple days ago something extraordinary ‘happened’ to me, that I want to tell you about.
      It was heartwarming, so appropriate for Valentine’s Day – can’t help being a romantic.

 I was raised in a wonderful place in the Turtle Mountains of North Dakota at a little country store, Kelvin, just 4 miles south of the US-Canadian International Peace Gardens and 9 miles north of Dunseith, pop. 800!  We, kids, were the Dunseith Dragons, “Blue & White Dynamite, Fight Team Fight.”  Yes, I’m reminiscing way back to my formative years where  a “man’s” handshake was his word, where the work ethic was not asking, “what’s in it for me,” but rather, “what can I do for you,” where the community came together for what we called a ‘building bee’ if someone lost a home or barn or store to a fire, where we could wander the town without fear or supervision and swim in the lake without life guards (luckily, no one drowned).  Of course those were simpler times then everywhere, but I cherish my childhood where Turtle Mountain Memories are irreplaceable.  A huge piece of my heart lies in the Turtle Mountains and Dunseith, especially Kelvin.

I’m thankful for the Face Book link and Gary Stokes for consciously reconnecting me to that time and place and to those good people.  I joined Face Book just last weekend – had my arm twisted, heels dug-in not to go that route, but I have to say it was a very good thing I joined, because Gary Stokes, the Dunseith Alumni guru with a mighty following for his email Blog-blasts, found me and lured me in.  He then blasted my unassuming response to that message he sent to me literally all over the place!

Little Valentines have been blowing my way the past few days through direct emails and website contacts reawakening in me tender memories, friendships, and ties.  What’s more, many people are interested in writing a bio-vignette about their mothers and sending it to me – others have subscribed to my Blog feed – Wow!  I hope they know I feel that the inspiration they say I’ve given them to write a “Mother Memoir” is truly a gift they’re giving me.

Harking back, once again, to school days, when Valentines were a really big deal, I remember we were allowed to build elaborate hearts and houses and chambers to place on the ledge under the windows inside our classrooms, hoping to attract as many Valentines as possible.  It was a creative time filled with hopes for love and friendship, as well as dashed dreams, if Mr. or Mrs. Right-for-me didn’t deliver the longed-for “Be Mine.”  Politically correct wasn’t even dreamed-up back then, I don’t think; we weren’t expected to give a Valentine to everyone in the class, and each of us knew we wouldn’t get one from everyone else, either.  Most of us had our feelings hurt occasionally, but isn’t that real life? Expectations weren’t such that we believed attention, awards, friends, college, or jobs were a given – we knew we had to work for what we got, in return we learned to value what we did receive.

I value my Valentines past, present, and future.  Thanks for being in my life. I used to think online cards were not sincere enough or the easy way – but I roll with the times and blogs.
I sincerely want you to Be Mine, Valentines . . . xo

Vote the “Kiss & Hug” poll to the right ~~~

The 2009 San Francisco Writers Conference begins just one week from today. It’s a terrific three days of stimulating interaction with the literary community. I’ll be there pitching my book of bio-vignettes, TellTale Souls: Keeping Spirits Alive One Story at a Time.  Wish me luck! And I hope to meet you there…

The Sixth San Francisco Writers Conference
‘Building Bridges to Better Tomorrows’
February 13 – 15, 2009

Key Conference Features 

• Friday, Saturday, Sunday workshops, panels and other sessions
• The 2009 SFWC Anthology: More Bridges (published by iUniverse/AuthorSolutions!)
• Ask a Pro (formerly Speed Dating For Editors) – Asking questions of and pitching books to New York and California editors
• Speed Dating for Agents – Pitching books one-on-one to New York and California agents ($50 option)
• Pitch contests, Open mic readings, Gala party, networking opps galore
• Our San Francisco Writers Conference Writing Contest
• Attendees can receive free feedback on their work from freelance editors

That’s all from me, for the complete run down, go to the SF Writers Conference official website.

I’ll tell you what ”bio-vignette” means to me and what my extensive search for it turned up.

When I began to teach people how to capture the character of their mothers’, I wanted them to tell a short story about “her” that in the telling would give the listener a good idea who this woman is, at her core, by illuminating an anecdote or moments in time on paper.  I asked people to reveal the essence of “her” character in a short and sudden memoir, where “she” is the main attraction.

This brings us to memoir, a record, chronicle, or account of a person’s life?  According to Inkspell: Memoir is a piece of autobiographical writing, usually shorter in nature than a comprehensive autobiography. The memoir, especially as it is being used in publishing today, often tries to capture certain highlights or meaningful moments in one’s past, often including a contemplation of the meaning of that event at the time of the writing of the memoir. The memoir may be more emotional and concerned with capturing particular scenes, or a series of events, rather than documenting every fact of a person’s life…

Yes, this is what I was asking for, in not so many words!  And not in those words.  I was looking for a more descriptive expression of just exactly how I saw the image of the “mother memoirs” reflected in story. Memoirs can be entertaining, but they are prevalent as cats and perhaps, dare I say, a little monotonous and definitely self-aggrandizing.  And they are generally autobiographical accounts – that is about oneself, rather than biographical accounts about someone other than self.  Whereas, my formulation of bio-vignettes goes beyond entertaining to inspiring and uniting as the story tellers write about someone who holds great significance in their lives.

I looked up the definitions for biography and vignette just now for this blog, since I’ve never been able to find a definition for bio-vignette when I Google.  I felt certain the term bio-vignette would show up, but it didn’t.  Could it be that I’ve personally used that term for so many years that I thought it had been coined?

According to WikiAnswers: Biography is a written story of another person’s life.  An autobiography is a written story of a person’s life written by that person.

According to Merriam-Webster: Vignette is 1: a running ornament (as of vine leaves, tendrils, and grapes) put on or just before a title page or at the beginning or end of a chapter ; also : a small decorative design or picture so placed 2 a: a picture (as an engraving or photograph) that shades off gradually into the surrounding paper b: the pictorial part of a postage stamp design as distinguished from the frame and lettering 3 a: a short descriptive literary sketch b: a brief incident or scene (as in a play or movie).

Have I made up the definition when I put biography and vignette together as bio-vignette?  Coined the term myself? Maybe – you tell me if you can find it anywhere.  My TellTale Souls website actually came up on the first page of my Google search for bio-vignette!  I was amazed.  I placed bio-vignette in the glossary of literary terms in my “how to” guidebook, Give the Gift of Story, when it was first published in 2001, but, of course, that didn’t land it in the American Heritage Dictionary. 

Way back then, for the purposes of teaching people to write “Mother Memoir,” I wrote this definition, “Bio-vignette: Your short, descriptive story capturing the spirit or essence of someone who had a significant impact upon your life.”  I really wouldn’t change that definition much now; it gets the message across.

This is not my attempt to take credit for something if, indeed, credit is due someone else.  Since my searches to find bio-vignette came up with nothing, I’ll claim it as my own.

“I’m hooked, in spite of myself.” Those words from an editor and a woman, who initially didn’t find the idea of “Mother Memoir” to her liking, warmed my soul. 

After reading the TellTale Souls (TTS) manuscript and the “How-to” Gift of Story (Gift) guide book, she went on to make many comments, I’ll share a few: 

 I confess, I needed to be ‘shown’ that this book has value and tremendous appeal. “The Work” made me a believer. There are so many books in the marketplace, and the idea of reading (slogging) through 50 or so stories about other people’s “mothers” didn’t, personally, appeal to me. 

This being said, I found that most of the stories made me cry. I’m jealous of the love they feel for, and felt from, their mothers – stories I don’t have. But, when I read through the Gift of Story guide book, I realized that there were aspects of my mother I could write about and be grateful for, because, Lynn, you provide not only latitude, but also charitable thinking in your framework for writing the bio-vignettes. And your “prompts” heartened and encouraged me. 

I’ve always “seen” my mother as she was, and understood why, even as a child, and I have long since forgiven her for what she could not overcome. But “something else” happened when I was reading Gift, and I now know that I am “healed.” Thank you. 

TTS “primed” the pump, and by the time I got to Gift, I was softened enough and motivated enough that I wanted to seek out an incident or happening that would showcase what was wonderful and unique about my Mother. So, Telltale Souls succeeded in inspiring me to connect with my mother, and Give the Gift of Story succeeded as well, inspiring and teaching me to write a bio-vignette when I never thought I could. 

I met, Vicki Weiland, who wrote the words I’ve quoted above through the Women’s National Book Association-San Francisco Chapter. Take a peek at the site; you may want to become a member, meet wonderful people there just like Vicki, and get involved in the literary community.