In this conversation, we tried to talk about structure in storytelling, the craft of writing a memoir. What are we talking about when we talk about story structure? Listen to find out…

At the end of the episode, we share a few structure-related prompts for you.

• Meli’s reading Doretta Lau’s short story collection How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun (Nightwood Editions, 2014)
• Meli mentioned that Doretta Lau was a recent guest in our writing community (at RachelThompson.co) and when endings came up, Doretta recommended The Last Fifty Pages: The Art and Craft of Unforgettable Endings by James Scott Bell (Compendium Press, 2019)
• Rachel references The Situation and the Story: The Art of Personal Narrative by Vivian Gornick (Macmillan, 2002) and we refer to the book a few more times throughout the episode
• Rachel references Voltaire’s often quoted line, “The secret to being boring is to leave nothing out.” (Which is a translation of, “Le secret d’ennuyer est celui de tout dire,” from the essay “Sixième discours: sur la nature de l’homme” in his book Sept Discours en Vers sur l’Homme, 1738)
• Meli mentions a writing prompt she received from the writer and editor, Dinty W. Moore
• Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative by Jane Alison (Catapult, 2019)
• Rachel refers to her podcast Write, Publish, and Shine where she interviews literary editors about publishing
• Rachel took a memoir outlining course with writer Lilly Dancyger with Catapult
• These memoirs come up once again: Wild by Cheryl Strayed and Liar’s Club by Mary Karr
• Meli mentions Wild Game by Adrienne Brodeur; the audiobook Meli mentions with an interview at the end that clarifies Brodeur’s mother’s present condition is narrated by Julia Whalen
• Rachel references The Rules Do Not Apply by Ariel Levy (Random House, 2017) and her essay Thanksgiving in Mongolia in The New Yorker
• We also talk about Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Riverhead Books, 2017)
• Meli mentions Glennon Doyle’s two books Carry On, Warrior (Scribner, 2004) and Untamed (The Dial Press, 2020)
• And Meli talks a bit about Alain de Botton and his School of Life
• At the end of the episode, we quote from Thinking About Memoir (Sterling Publishing, 2008) by Abigail Thomas
• We also reference Zami, A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lorde (Persephone Press, 1982)

The transcript for this episode is available upon request from [email protected].