Episode 31: Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle

Memoir deep dive #6

Here's what I learned from Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle:

-Her book structure was as follows:

Prelude (her wedding day)

Part 1 :The Before Image (childhood to rock bottom, to pregnant, to marrying Craig)

Part 2: The Explosion (being sober and married and a mom is hard, writing is the light in her life, and then the bomb is dropped—Craig confesses that he's cheated on her multiple times)

Part 3: The Transformation (a journey to self-trust, forgiveness, and a new way of being)

Afterword (renewing her wedding vows)

The Prelude and Afterword acted as bookends, mirroring each other.

-She uses a coined term throughout the book: my representative. This is the Instagram version of herself, the one she sends forward to protect herself from harm. The one who tells the world, "I'm fine," even though she's not. She came back to this term again and again, until finally, she has a new understanding of her representative.

-There were a few moments when she wrote with anger that made me feel bad for her husband even though he cheated on her. For myself, I want to try and take out all emotion, all of my thoughts, and just stick to the story. I don't want to coerce readers into taking my side. I want them to decide for themselves how they feel about the different characters.

-The ending felt a little too hopeful, a little too wrapped up in a bow, a little too boring. For myself, I want there to be a punch at the end. I still want it to be happy, but I want to make the reader laugh, or cry, or both. The ending should be a story, and it should grip the reader until the very last words.