Chronology and Making a Story Out of Disjointed Anecdotes

I have a substantial portion of a memoir written in the form of a number of disjointed anecdotes. The challenge, for me, is this:

The story I am trying to tell spans over two decades. From my perspective, I can write (and have written) a series of anecdotes, and they will make perfect sense because I have a context for them. The reader doesn't have the benefit of this context.

I've read about and discussed this sort of issue with other memoir writers, and have learned that many writers play fast and loose with time, space, and other details in order to frame the story in a way that communicates the meaning of events to the reader.

That works fine for me. I have some fixed points that I have to maneuver around, but I can figure it out.

I just don't have a good strategy for taking a disjointed collection of anecdotes and putting them together into a cohesive story with a beginning, middle and end. This is mostly difficult because I have a beginning and middle, but since I am still living this story, I don't have a good ending. I'm waiting to see how this ends myself.

How do others deal with this?

Cheers,
Fossie

Thank you.

That's kind of where I'm stuck. I have a theme, but it doesn't inherently suggest a structure for the story. Like you, I find a collection of anecdotes to be normally tedious, and frequently self-indulgent, if there is no point to it - if it doesn't take the reader to some sort of understanding.

The theme (weakly stated) is that it is an apology of sorts, and a story of loyalty and difficult choices when loyalties conflict.

I'll have a look at the book you suggested.

Cheers,
Fossie

JournoWriter said:

Is this the same memoir being discussed in the anonymity thread?

Click to expand...

Yes, it is the same project. The issues discussed in that thread are actually quite incidental - big issues, but not what I hope to focus on.

Without getting into much detail, essentially, a series of increasingly improbable events led to an outcome that is hard for most folks to understand. My hope is that I can show how something like this can come to pass, one seemingly small event at a time.

I started the project as a personal letter, of sorts, to my immediate family, to help them understand some things that otherwise wouldn't make much sense over the past 20 years. Maybe offer a little closure.

As I got into it, it evolved into something that I think I want more people to read.

I'm fond of saying that no one ever acts irrationally - they just act in accordance with the experiences that brought them to this exact moment. When we don't understand why people do things, it is because we don't get to see how they came to that place. And, humans don't like vacuums. They will fill in that lack of insight with conjecture.

Or, phrased another way, conjecture loves ignorance.

I've lived and worked in a lifestyle that is full of these holes that other people fill. I hope to show how most of the reality that belongs in those holes is mundane, and that anyone, under the same circumstances, could come to the same place in life.

So really, this is why I am struggling with a proper story line. I went into this with the idea of just showing a series of anecdotes that collectively explain some nebulous concept.

Though, I think I may have figured it out. I think that I have to end the story in the middle - at the climax, in a way. It doesn't explain what happened after that or how the aftermath played out, but that is inconsequential to the point, really. And, maybe I can muster up the skill to pull off an unsettled ending without making it an unsatisfying read.

I almost think that is the best way to end a memoir, though. Just as life goes on, memoirs don't end. As I think about some of my favourite memoirs, they all sort of end in the middle insomuch as they leave a great deal unresolved.

Still thinking about this ...