Memoir deep dive #21

Here’s what I learned from Here After by Amy Lin:

One way to treat your audience like a genius is to not say the next obvious thing. Where can I leave out what the reader already knows is coming? One approach to this: in every paragraph I write, where can I remove the last sentence? “I stare at the blank ceiling tiles and wonder when Kurtis will call me. I have so much to tell him.”

Expressing negative feelings about a person’s appearance is funnier than directly expressing negative feelings about the person. “Also, I hate Michelle’s haircut.”
When using Anaphora—which is repetition at the start of a sentence or clause—the last line should punch with specificity. “It is the only thing I feel able to do since he died. The only way I am able to say what it is like for me. The only place I can meet grief without being utterly consumed by it.”
The most important place to leave out thoughts and feelings (and only show dialogue and action) is when I’m the most emotional. The angrier I feel, the less feelings should be put on the page.

Mike Pesca

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