#AmReading Patty Dann’s THE BUTTERFLY HOURS:
transforming memories into memoir

I found THE BUTTERFLY HOURS by chance. I had stopped in at the bookstore one Saturday afternoon for an author event. First thing’s first: I bought the author’s book (KRAZY by Michael Tisserand) and a new pack of stationary. Then, I settled into a plush chair two rows back from the speaker podium. I figured I’d thumb through the book while I waited, but I was twenty minutes early and the author had just arrived and people were still setting things up. So instead, I decided to browse the tables of good reads nearby.

With the store set up for author and audience, furniture had been rearranged. The table of current staff favorites that’s usually parked who knows where sat off to the side but steps in front of me now, with the last copy of Patty Dann’s book directly in my line of sight.

The book’s appearance, meek and thin with a simple cover, drew me in. Its subtitle, transforming memories into memoir, clinched my attention, since I’m in the last stages of editing Family Stories from the Attic with Lisa Rivero and in the midst of my online Flash Nonfiction course. After reading through the first three pages, I didn’t hesitate in my second run at the cashier; having finished the book, I’m eager to recommend it. Dann offers chapter after chapter of advice, encouragement, and examples of how writing prompts work–really, how writing in general works.

You have to do the messy part because even if you write ten pages and you only like one phrase, three weeks later, during lunch or in the middle of the night, you might feel compelled to continue that phrase. If you don’t have that one phrase written down, there will be nowhere to begin.

People sometimes freeze up at prompts, get stuck on the literal meaning of a word or the exact image in a phrase. But Dann suggests that the point of a prompt is to start. Write awkward; write clunky. Prompt or no prompt, just write. Last Sunday I “just wrote” the opening scene to a new story–200 words of awful and 10 words of “this might work” (with those 10 being part of a definition from the dictionary). Still, if nothing was written, I would nothing to revise.

Shut your eyes and listen to the church bell, the train whistle, and the snow falling on the roof. Open your eyes and see how children speak into one another’s mouths rather than their ears. Recall the lilac smell of your grandmother as she bent to kiss your cheek. Touch the dried snakeskin on the ground and imagine the way your throat burned the first time you tried hot peppers.

Paying attention to sensory details like touch, smell, and taste can bring a story to life or a memory back to life, benefitting the writer as well as the reader. For writers, such focus on our surroundings can “open us up,” as Dinty W. Moore says (THE MINDFUL WRITER, another of my favorite reads), “help us to see the story or poem or play or monologue or memoir in everyone and everything.” For readers, intimate specifics make way for greater connections with the work.

There are days, even weeks, or certain months of the year, when you simply cannot write. Don’t bother to feel deflated. Accept the fact that you have time off and fill the well.

Ah, there is my saving grace.

Taste new foods, listen to music from childhood, hike trails you’ve long forgotten, try your hand at watercolors, recite the names of the presidents of the United States, and interview your elders.

Because it’s been several months since I opened the draft of my novel. When anyone asks, How’s the book coming along? I cringe, silently berate myself, dance around my answer, hope they won’t notice the shame in my eyes. I wonder what’s wrong with me, worry about whether or not I will ever finish.

All good questions; all good food for though. But as Dann reminds us, nothing to be ashamed of.

digital sketch of woman looking out of window
self portrait: unfinished sketch

Look at the other creative things you’re doing during those quiet weeks or months. There’s much to be said for how a simple sketch or a twist in the recipe of your favorite meal or a day with the camera may feed your creative side. There are plenty of ways to engage in the work, even with your pen tossed aside. And we need that bounty as much as we need to fill the page.

Every essay I read brings me closer to my idea of how I want ( or don’t want) to write. Every story I edit reminds me of structure, what works and what doesn’t. Every book I find by chance re-energizes and renews my affection for the craft and for the power of story. Some might say this is not writing, but others, like Dann, would suggest that respite from one piece of work or another gives way for a writer to “fill the well” once again.


About THE BUTTERFLY HOURS (from Indiebound.org): Sometimes all it takes is a single word to spark a strong memory. Bicycle. Snowstorm. Washing machine. By presenting one-word prompts and simple phrases, author and writing teacher Patty Dann gives us the keys to unlock our life stories. Organized around her ten rules for writing memoir, Dann’s lyrical vignettes offer glimpses into her own life while, surprisingly, opening us up to our own. This book is a small but powerful guide and companion for anyone wanting to get their own story on the page.

Designs for the New Year: Writing Opportunities in 2017

“The writing career is not a romantic one. The writer’s life may be colorful, but his work itself is rather drab.” ~ Mary Roberts Rinehart

img_0012Hey now, come on, Mary. Writing may not be romantic (though when I type with fingerless gloves I feel very “Jane Austen”), but drab is a little strong. Let’s say painful, gut-wrenching, #ThisPenHatesMe, sure. “Woman found sobbing over red ink and word counts,” yes. But drab? Nope.

If you find yourself in the bla-bla-bla’s of a blank page, you may be in need of a boost in morale, a prompt for inspiration, a bit of camaraderie–a workshop, a course, or an official writers’ huddle.


The Workshop
Join me face-to-face for FLASH MEMOIR.

pexels-photo-204511Saturday, Jan. 21, 2017, 9:30am-noon at the Red Oak Writing tables (11709 W. Cleveland Ave., West Allis, WI). We will define the purpose of memoir and the memoir essay (there is a difference!), look at traditional and nontraditional forms, and talk about strategies for turning a personal experience or story into flash (1,000 words or fewer). We’ll also put pen to paper–because we learn best when we engage with the page! $50. REGISTER via Red Oak HERE.


The Course
Join me ONLINE for in-depth learning on FLASH NONFICTION.

Drawing of online connectionThis 4-week course runs from February 5-March 4, 2017. We will tap into books, videos, podcasts, and samples of great flash nonfiction. We’ll learn about techniques that make this powerful genre work, then put these techniques into practice through writing exercises and peer critique. At the end of the course, you’ll leave with a better understanding of flash nonfiction as a whole, a list of resources for further study and submission ideas, and several new pieces of work under your belt. $90. Information on discounted fees & registration HERE.


The Huddle
Strength in Numbers with THE WRITERS’ COLLECTIVE.

Another great in-person workshop at Red Oak, taught Kim Suhr on Saturday, February 25, 2017, 9:30am-noon. Here’s the description from the website:

Red Oak Writing logoWould you like to increase readership of your book, website or blog? Are you better at singing others’ praises than your own? Are you willing to spread the word about other writers’ work in exchange for expanded exposure?

Spend the morning building a collaborative publicity plan with others who are committed to helping your audience grow. Participants must be willing to promote each other throughout a six-month period. Those who make one “touch” for every member of the group will appear on a “Featured Writers” page at our website with links to their blog, Amazon page, etc. Group limit strictly held at 12 members.

$50. Register for the Writers’ Collective via Red Oak HERE.


And with that, folks, we’re barely into March. Drab is so 2016.
Sign up and get writing in 2017!

I Sew like I Write

img_5266Shades of red and blue in my peripheral, the pedal at my feet, I sew like I write: no plot, no plan. Loose threads at every corner. Straight stitch, back stitch, zigzag for the seam. In the late-night hour, I note the mistakes. That section too wide, the other too slant. With a heavy sigh, I undo a whole line, and the floor is littered with wasted string. I brush the scraps aside, so I can rearrange now. Reconsider. Until finally, with distance and a squint of the eye, the pieces become tiny continents of material easily pushed into form, the narrative always present, patchwork to full.

~

Create whatever causes a revolution in your heart.
The rest…will take care of itself.
~ Elizabeth Gilbert in Big Magic