Category: Memoir writing

Posted in fiction, Fiction & Nonfiction Writing, Literary Community, Memoir writing, Novel writing, Travel Writers, Travel Writing

Okoboji Writers’ Retreat, Sept. 22-25

Posted on by Rhonda Wiley-Jones

Want to take your writing to new dimensions? Want to learn from other writers to shorten your own learning curve? Want to rub shoulders with writers from the Washington Post or the New York Times? Want to generate a network of fellow writers interested in helping you grow as a writer?

If so, then the Okoboji Writers’ Retreat, September 22-25, welcomes you to a whatever–conference, retreat and workshop experience–you’ve been looking for.

Where or what is “Okoboji?” It is a lake and a town, a location in northwest Iowa. Though not a typical conference site like Chicago or LA, natural beauty invades the retreat site. Speakers often take their sessions outside on the lawns of the recreation site.

Check it out for its unique format, bevy of faculty members (50+), and variety of learning options.

I’ll serve on the cadre of speakers, as a travel writer, memoirist, and fiction writer. I’ll be a participant and faculty member for the first time. I’ve gotten acquainted with the organizer, Julie Gammack. because of pre-retreat zoom calls with speakers to be sure we understand the culture of this retreat. In one of those calls she told us (I’m paraphrasing) that she believes we (all people around the globe) need writers to make the changes needed in our world. I’m on board with that. The list of speakers illustrates the diversity in writing experiences they bring.

Other faculty members who have participated before indicate that it is three full days of fun exchanges between writers of all levels. Speakers attend as participants, as well. They are available for one-on-one networking, discussing direction for a participant’s next book, or coaching. “The meetings between meetings” can be valuable networking. Relationships have continued past the retreat as long term friendships and/or writing groups emerged during their time at Okoboji.

I can’t wait! Will you join me at Okoboji Writers’ Retreat September 22-25? Let me know if you too are registered, so $100 in your registration will be deducted from your fee.

Can you smell and taste the pisco sour, the national drink of Peru?
Posted in journal writing, Memoir writing, Rolf Potts, Travel Writing

Memories That Can’t Be Caught on Camera

Posted on by Rhonda Wiley-Jones

As I read Potts’ December 27 daily meditation last year (just a few days ago), it gratified my distain for the current culture trend to take photos of everything and everyone in them.

Rolf Potts writes in his book, The Vagabond’s Way, December 27, on page 377, “Make peace with the quiet banalities of domestic familiarity and let memories of past journeys blend with a dream of future ones.”

I’d rather muse over memories of past travels and allow them to blend with the anticipation of future journeys. Today, I recall trips where I could not have expected experiences to offer such magical memories, and I could not have captured the experience in a picture.

I often say, “I can’t remember to take pictures when I travel.” I also believe that photos cannot capture all the senses of significant memories: taste, touch, hearing, sight, smell (as exemplified in the photo above). Let me share some examples where the camera doesn’t do justice to the experience.

MEXICO
The thoughtfulness of a couple who invited my friends and me to their house after having just met us. The tete-de-tete conversations that were held and laughter peeling in their house. Their generosity to share their lives within the Mexican community as US expatriates, having lived in Mexico for over thirty years.

US GRAND CANYON Continue reading “Memories That Can’t Be Caught on Camera” →

Posted in adventure, Memoir writing, Travel, Travel Writing, Women traveling

Getting Lost in Dublin

Posted on by Rhonda Wiley-Jones

The Idea of Getting Lost

Getting lost can be a result of traveling into unknown territory. For many travelers and especially travel writers that’s the point of travel—to get lost, find ourselves in unlikely places, and discover something we could not have imagined just hours before. It’s the thrill of the travel writer, even if it is intimidating or scary.

A Travelers’ Tale of Getting Lost

In Ireland years ago, my mom joined my husband and I at his international conference in Dublin. Typically, the host university would have a robust itinerary for spouses and guests. But not this time.

One day Mother and I took the bus from our guesthouse to central downtown. I don’t even recall what we hoped to see or do. But we had shopped (my mother’s favorite hobby), bought a refreshing drink in the midafternoon and decided it was time to head back.

Map Reading Got us Nowhere

Our map did not match where we were. It didn’t resemble where we wanted to go. We walked and walked to find a street location that would give us our bearings to no avail. We laughed at our combined ineptitude. We walked until we were tired. We laughed at a city that seemed incomprehensible to either of us. We walked until we were parched again.

Finally, we waited in the heat of the afternoon, feet swelling at a bus stop.  

A stern bus driver wanted us on or off the bus. I was taking up time out of his route to step onto the bus to ask directions while mom stood on the street. Exasperated, he demanded, “Both of you. Get on. I’ll take you to the right bus stop.”

The Kindness of Strangers

In the end, he took time out of his route (and possibly at the ire of passengers) to get us to the correct bus stop, headed in the right direction back to our guesthouse, almost late for dinner with my husband.

We giggled at how this intimidating driver had given in to two damsels in distress. The kindness of a stranger was our hero in this story. The afternoon in Dublin was mom’s and my most memorable moment of a two-week Ireland trip.

A “Getting Lost” Story in Song of Herself.

You can find my novel, Song of Herself, on Amazon. In the novel you can find specifically the story of the protagonist, Fiona, getting lost in India and how she found her way to shop for a salwar kameez, on pages 166-168.

I believe, you will enjoy the adventure story of one young horsewoman’s journey to India alone to sell her uncle’s quarter horses. What she discovers along the way is the kindness of others and her own resilience to suffer the same obstacles she faced at home and due to her ability to taken the reins of her life succeed in overcoming those challenges.

Posted in Craft of writing, Editing & Revision, First Sentences, Memoir writing

Three Elements to Create a Strong Opening Sentence

Posted on by Rhonda Wiley-Jones

INTRODUCTION: Writers continue to learn the craft no matter where they are in their writing development. Recently, I read in the January 2022 issue of The Writer magazine an article by Alison Acheson, “In The Beginning: Three elements that create a strong opening sentence,” pages 26-29. Opening sentences have a lot of weight to carry. The author suggests that there are three elements to carry that responsibility of reeling in the reader. Here is my take on reading her article.

Three Elements in First Sentences

CHARACTER: Readers want to have a sense of the main character(s). We may not know their names, but we know something about them that will show up again or throughout the novel.

SETTING: The first sentence will offer a sense of place, maybe a location, time in history, or an event.

EMOTION: This may be indirect or implied by the setting or action or event. We likely won’t be told in the first sentence what the emotion is, but the writer will hint at it. We will get a sense of it.

EXAMPLE

After last week’s example take from fiction, this week I offer a nonfiction example from Frank McCourt’s memoir, Angela’s Ashes . I’ll give you the first sentence then I’ll dissect it to learn what McCourt accomplished in using these three elements. Your take on it may be somewhat different than mine, but that’s okay.

McCourt’s first sentence in Angela’s Ashes, “My father and mother should have stayed in New York where they met and married and where I was born.”

CHARACTER: The reference to the writer’s father and mother suggests they who set the action in motion. Even if we don’t know if the mother and father will be key actors throughout the memoir, we do know that they made a decision that impacted the antagonist, Frank McCourt’s life.

SETTING: The phrase, “… should have stayed in New York,” implies they are all on a journey to some place else. They have left a thriving city where previously good things had happened – the couple met, married, and gave birth to Frank.

EMOTION: The setting, like Hemingway’s, carries a lot of metaphorical and emotional weight. In this case, it provides a hint of regret, remorse, or longing for what is left behind.

Summary

As you can see, the relationship between him and his parents implies that McCourt is young and therefore reliant on his parents at this point in time. His first sentence deftly implies a decision by parents that will come to influence or impact McCourt gravely. What we do not know is that Angela is his mother, nor that her ashes are the cigarette ashes of despair.

As writers, when we can weave or at least hint at the three elements, character, place, and emotion in the first sentence of a story, whether fiction or nonfiction, we have successfully sent a message to readers they are in capable hands.

Next week, I’ll take the first sentence from a fiction short story writer. Join me in this series of investigations on first sentences that convey character, setting, and emotion in some significant way.

Posted in Craft of writing, Memoir writing, Revision, Travel Writing, Writing exercises, Writing Groups

Endings: The Power and Types of Endings

Posted on by Rhonda Wiley-Jones

ENDINGS. Philip Lopate in To Show and To Tell talks about a typology of endings. Here are the kinds that he mentions. This is a summarized list and paraphrased in some cases by me. My travel writing group that meets every two weeks, discussed this list in our last Zoom time together. We are eager to use this list and see where it takes us in add the power and punch of a satisfying ending. Join us in discussing these through this blog post.

Step #1: Identify the type of ending you have used in one of your last stories. 

  1. An image (metaphorical or real)
  2. A pithy saying in a clever or humorous way
  3. A line of dialogue 
  4. A joke (use this one with care)
  5. A question
  6. A quote
  7. An ellipsis (…)
  8. A return of a refrain or a different spin on the phrase 
  9. A new insight
  10. A resolve
  11. A sigh, a shrug, a sudden mood change
  12. A platitude, ONLY IF it is humorous or non-preachy 
  13. A summary in the form of a series of semicolons
  14. Restating conflicting elements (ideas, images, thoughts, etc.) and how to live with them 
  15. ________________________________
  16. ________________________________
  17. ________________________________

Step 2: Develop multiple endings to your next story by trying several of these types of endings. 

Step 3: Choose three of your favorite endings you have written. Think through those and select the most impactful for your story.

Step 4: Add to these types of endings overtime from your own experience and from your reading of others work.

Which ones have you used? Which ones would you like to use in the future? Which ones have you added to this list? I’m curious to learn what you think about the types of endings to our stories.