When writing memoir, the writer Annie Dillard tells us, “There’s nothing you can’t do with [the creative nonfiction essay]. No subject-matter is forbidden, no structure is proscribed. You get to make up your own form every time.’” This makes it a very flexible form. But this same flexibility is a problem, because it means it can be hard to know what to do with all that freedom.
Last week, we looked at Marion Roach Smith’s claim that there are essentially three elements to a memoir: a topic or theme, individual scenes, and the way you put these scenes together in a form. This week, we’re going to explore this in more depth by looking at the essay Momento Mori by the wonderful Bulgarian writer Dimiter Kenarov (see the link here).
The essay is in 12 numbered sections. The structuring of the essay is subtle. Could it have been put together in a different order? Perhaps… let’s see. The beautiful thing about this essay is how each of those sections stands alone, jewel-like, and the author has threaded them together like a necklace.
So this is one way of thinking about structure. What if in writing an essay, you don’t think of it like a big, single lump. Instead, you think of gathering together a treasure trove of beautiful, sharp, fascinating, intricate fragments. And then you string them together…
Extended Writing Exercise
We’re going to work through this essay by reading each paragraph out loud. Then you have a few minutes to write in response to this paragraph. You can write whatever you like. By the end of the session, you will have a sense of the essay as a whole, and a big chunk of your own writing in response to it.
Save these pieces for next time, when we’ll be making use of them, and talking more about structure! Your homework is simply to post one or two sections from today’s class on the discussion board!