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Your Life As Story:
Writing Narrative Nonfiction
Writing Holiday Stories

by Lisa Dale Norton
December 2006

Lisa Dale Norton

Authorlink is proud to welcome Lisa Dale Norton as a regular monthly columnist. She is nationally recognized as a writing instructor with a passion for story. This is the first article in her sries for Authorlink.com. Read more about Lisa.

As I write this I smell pumpkin pie baking in the kitchen. There’s a turkey defrosting in cold water in my sink. The coming weeks will bustle with gatherings, and memories—some good, some not so good. But always they remind us: Our lives are a series of stories waiting to be told. This month I share an exercise for turning holiday events into narrative nonfiction.

"Pay attention to the decorations and music, the words and clothing. . ."
—Norton

Pay attention to the decorations and music, the words and clothing, the weather and food, the silence and undercurrents of conversation. Use your senses; catalog inside yourself all the details, so later you can add them to a story. You don’t have to write anything as you sit across the table from Aunt Josie, but watch for the arched eyebrow, listen for the annual joke, taste each of the dishes just to report.

"Note in your mind key moments that unravel before your eyes. . ."
—Norton

Note in your mind key moments that unravel before your eyes and make a list of the most important ones. You can do it on the back of an envelope at the kitchen table‹just don’t throw out the envelope! The point is this can be a casual tally. Just write down those moments somewhere. They might look like this:

Matthew ate at adult table—first time
Susan arrived late
Kelly dropped the pie!
Steven proposed
Mom cried (first holiday since Dad died)

"Choose from your list three events that feel the most powerful."
—Norton

3.	Within a month of the holiday carve out a block of time and with your laptop or your favorite pen and notebook begin. Choose from your list three events that feel the most powerful. Write them at the top of your first page.

"We’ll call this process narration."
—Norton

Choose one of the events; take ten minutes, and writing as fast as you can describe what happened. Tell the story. Don’t worry about spelling, punctuation, or language. Just blurt out the story. (If you need more time, that’s fine, but ten minutes is a great way to begin.) We’ll call this process narration.

We’ll call this process reflection."
—Norton

Sit back and slip into another frame of mind. Imagine yourself curled in a chair drinking tea, or sitting in the den with a cigar. Whatever the most relaxing setting might be, ramble on over into it and with hand on chin think back to the moment just recorded and write another ten minutes telling the reader what that moment meant to you. Explain why it was important, why it touched you, moved you. We’ll call this process reflection.

"Choose from your list three events that feel the most powerful."
—Norton

6.	Avoid rereading at this point. Instead, work through the other two memories using the same process. Once done, put the stories aside for a few days.
7.	Read what you’ve written. What you will find are three stories using narration and reflection, two of the key craft tools of the narrative nonfiction writer. The stories may be rough and full of typos and sentences that need to be reworked—but you have begun a mini-memoir.

"Separate each event from the others with more white space on the page."
—Norton

Go back to the stories and clean them up. Weave together the narration and reflection to suit your taste. Separate each event from the others with more white space on the page. You now have is three linked stories about your holiday

Congratulations! You’ve written a piece of Narrative Nonfiction.

Happy Holidays!

About
Lisa Dale Norton

Lisa Dale Norton is the author of Hawk Flies Above: Journey to the Heart of the Sandhills (Picador USA/St. Martin’s Press). Her new book, Claiming Your Voice: Writing Stories That Make A Difference, a quick and dirty guide to the writing of life stories, is seeking a home. Lisa teaches for the UCLA Writers’ Extension Program, the Whidbey MFA Program, and has just joined the faculty of the Gotham Writer’s Workshop in New York City. She speaks nationally on her passion: the power of story. She lives in Santa Fe. www.lisadalenorton.com

Your Life As Story: Writing Narrative Nonfiction Writing Holiday Stories

Your Life As Story:
Writing Narrative Nonfiction
Writing Holiday Stories