IV. Creating Order Out of Chaos: Theme and Structure

q Remember that "books are not written but accumulate" (Atkinson). Each subject will be unique and require different types of research and structure. Some are organized deductively, others inductively. You may know how you want to organize your work at the outset or the structure may develop organically. Mary Clearman Blew says, "The boundaries of creative nonfiction will always be as fluid as water."

q Be selective. Eliminate clutter. You can't possibly use everything you find, and if you did, you might be the only one interested in it. Avoid the temptation to tell the complete story of the family from the Old Country to today. One family tree is worth a thousand words. "Successful family writers limit themselves to specific issues, persons, or periods" (Gouldrup). Perhaps you may want to focus on one living family member, and work your genealogical research into his/her life, with him/her at the center. Or, perhaps focus on yourself and your search for your "roots" (and why) as the center, making it an autobiography/family history.

q Make a point. "A story is a meaningful pattern of events" (Rainer). There should be a sense of reflection. Make connections between a person's/family's life and its significance in a more universal sense. "Stories remembered within a community or family transport the beliefs and values of past generations into the future" (Rainer).

q Your family history must have some sort of continuity: chronological, universal (taste for adventure), geographic, career or talent, or historical. The purpose and audience for your work will be the determining factor in this decision.

q Borrow narrative devices from fiction, like dialogue, conflict and crises, and dramatic scenes. (Imagine your family history as a movie.) Add movement and action to your stories. Establish dominant impressions of people and places.

q Transcend the event and philosophize. Intersperse Summaries, Scenes, and Musing (Judith Barrington, Writing the Memoir). Sometimes you will need to cover a lot of time in a few paragraphs while at other times you may want to zoom in and focus on a shorter span of time or a particular incident. Summary can move time along between scenes. Musing involves reflection, making a judgment, sharing an insight, or expressing an opinion. Try to find an appropriate balance between the three elements.

q Add humor. Exaggeration, understatement, and irony are staples. Dixon says, "It's not enough to see yourself [others/situation] as you are. You must also recognize and the accept yourself. When you start to laugh at yourself, you are accepting yourself as you are." Rainer describes humor as "the unveiling of naked truth."

q Write in your natural style of speaking. Polish your style with active verbs, concrete nouns, sensory appeals, metaphors from your own world and experiences, personification. Avoid clichés and too many adjectives and adverbs.

q Polish your transitions. Build bridges between the summaries, scenes, and musing with creative connections. The other choice is the creative use of "white space."

q Revise. Let it sit awhile. Revise again. Find a good editor. Listen. Agree, compromise, or stand firm if necessary. "There are no great writers, only great re-writers"(Gerard). Buy a good grammar handbook. Read E.B. White's The Elements of Style. It is a classic.