Emily - this is one of the best essays I've seen about how to write from or in the middle of an ongoing and difficult story.
I thought my memoir manuscript ended where it should. Then everything shifted, seismically, and I wrote a fourth part. Now I think of those endings - when we write then, maybe when we keep them - as a point in the ongoingness of life where we get to take a breath. Knowing that sometimes that's all it is ... taking a breath.
Yes. After the after. That's exactly it. And oh, yes, how very much I needed it, my son needed it, our family needed it. What a helpful way to think about it.
"...often these stories just continue, because life continues." YES. And we forget this so easily. Our stories don't end where the book ends. <3
I feel like I need to be reminded of this ALL THE TIME with this book, somehow. @_@
Emily - this is one of the best essays I've seen about how to write from or in the middle of an ongoing and difficult story.
I thought my memoir manuscript ended where it should. Then everything shifted, seismically, and I wrote a fourth part. Now I think of those endings - when we write then, maybe when we keep them - as a point in the ongoingness of life where we get to take a breath. Knowing that sometimes that's all it is ... taking a breath.
Thanks for this post.
thank you so much for reading and yay on getting work done! <3
I think that the magic almost always happens in the fourth part. It's just...after the after? somehow we need it, maybe more than anything else.
Yes. After the after. That's exactly it. And oh, yes, how very much I needed it, my son needed it, our family needed it. What a helpful way to think about it.