Where do I begin?

More than a half, maybe as much as two-thirds of my life as a writer is rewriting.

I wouldn’t say I have a talent that’s special.

It strikes me that I have an unusual kind of stamina.

John Irving

For the past six weeks, since attending Antioch Writer’s Workshop (AWW), I’ve been busy rewriting. My first challenge was finding the beginning for my memoir, A Long Awakening to Grace.

I learned at the Mad Anthony writer’s workshop in April that I wasn’t beginning in the right place. I needed more backstory.

So, I wrote more backstory in preparation for AWW. In my one-to-one critique with Erin Flanagan, I learned that beginning there didn’t really tell the reader what my memoir is about. Clearly moved by my story, she made a suggestion for a place to begin.

Erin Flanagan teaches English language and literature at Wright State University and taught the afternoon short fiction seminar at AWW. She went above and beyond in trying to help me find a beginning for my memoir, spending extra time and offering kind and supportive feedback. She has written two books that are getting great reviews.

Like holographic slivers,

her stories contain a breadth and scope usually found in novels,

telling whole lifetimes in the span of after-dinner coffee.

Flanagan writes with bleak, searing humor about the survivors of collisions

both physical and emotional, and her acute vision is startling,

reminding readers that every loss is the beginning

of a long, new story of healing and replenishing.

So, when I got home from AWW, I began work immediately on a new beginning. Then I read it to my writing partner, Nita, and she groaned, “No, you don’t want to start there,” giving several good reasons why that didn’t work. Combining the feedback from Nancy Pinard at Mad Anthony and from Erin Flanagan at AWW, we were able to identify a starting place that works. Fortunately, Nita has heard my story in its many rewriting versions several times. We've been reading to each other and providing feedback for over two years. I started rewriting again.

I finally have my beginning and am confident now that it is one that works. 

I was so happy when I found John Irving’s quote and to know that I'm in good company. I’ve been aware I’m not a natural when it comes to writing memoir. All those accolades I got in graduate school for the depth of my thinking and the clarity of my writing only go so far when writing creative non-fiction. The craft is very different and I’m learning as I go.  It is clear that I have a compelling story. My challenge is to write it well. Thankfully, like Irving, I have stamina...I call it perseverance. My life is a testament to that.