Last year when Inheritance A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love by author Dani Shapiro was released, I stared at the book-signing schedule on her website. Not one signing event coincided with my schedule. And she was appearing everywhere.
An author-signing junky from way back, I was distraught. Dani is my go-to memoirist when I need inspiration. I’ve read all her memoirs. Lost count of how many of her books I’ve given as gifts. Inheritance in particular because Dani aptly describes how I felt while searching for my birthmother. (Read Inheritance.) Some of Dani’s books I’ve read multiple times. My copies are dogeared, underlined, margins filled with thoughts and comments about her descriptions of feeling, sensing, and metaphor choices.
What to do?
In the end, I booked myself at Dani’s retreat in California last December, the weekend before final exams at school. Deciding that was stupid given my MFA projects and studies, I canceled and booked myself at her three-day workshop at Kripalu in Massachusetts, February 28 – March 1.
In a room full of ~180+ people, I was skeptical because I’ve studied with Dani in smaller settings. But oddly, the three days I spent listening to her—meditating and writing to writing prompts—felt more intimate.
A version of my timeline
And during the last hour of our time together, it all fell into place for me. A question prompted Dani to talk about using timelines while writing memoirs. Something I am doing for mine. But come to find out, I was missing a secret ingredient. Under her sample timeline Dani drew on the flip chart, she penned: associations, childhood memories, what is universal.
And she commented a story isn’t: I did this, and then this happened, and this happened… A story is held together with threads of insight and associations. Readers read to connect with the universal.
Last year at the Des Moines Book Festival, author Susan Orleans explained during an interview: “The WHY is infinitely more interesting than The WHAT.”
The things under the timeline are what moves a story forward. My timeline requires deeper contemplation. Inquiry into:
Why did I do x?
Why was [it] important?
Things I inherently knew/know, but haven’t taken time to, or been able to articulate until now. (I’ve been writing my memoir about the search for and meeting my birthmother on the day she died for 20 years.)
And the crème de la crème of the Kripalu weekend—Dani finally signed my dogeared copy of Inheritance.
I was one of the lucky friends who was gifted Inheritance. Was my first introduction to Dani’s writing. Loved the book!
Thank you, Julie. Much love.
Dear Ana, what a wonderful letter! Thanks for sharing your experience and insight. You have inspired me to get going on a family memoir that has been smoldering for years in the back of my mind.
Thank you for reading, Susan. I hope your writing is going well. Ana