By
Marilee Eaves
After
filling dozens of notebooks with stories and memories, I enrolled in writing
classes in New Orleans and later in Seattle where I lived for 13 years. By this
time, I had amassed a good bit of material and welcomed instruction, hungry to
organize material into a real story. Have a crisp opening sentence! Make your
nuthatch clear! Be sure that each scene you create moves the story forward. And
think like Anton Chekhov:
“Don’t tell me the moon is shining: show me the glint of light on broken
glass.”
Inspiration
for my Memoir
My
memoir was triggered by a grieving son’s response to a condolence letter I
wrote about his mother. I described the ways I perceived and admired his mother,
whom I knew from my grandparents’ poolside in Biloxi. Her son wrote back, praised
my writing and encouraged me to continue writing about Biloxi summers where we
had all spent time.
