Resources for structure of spiritual trial memoir genre

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eruthford

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I'm looking for resources that explain the story structure of a spiritual trial memoir. I read The Plot Whisperer on the advice of my developmental editor and really liked it, and I'm hoping for something like that but as it applies to the religious book market.

I hope this is the right forum for this kind of question... I feel like the "Spanish Inquisition," those idiots who couldn't find the right sketch in the Monty Python episode. People are being nice to me, but they're like, "Uh, hi, we don't do that in this thread-"

Allow me to explain further: I have written an 80,000-word fatherhood memoir about the super-premature birth of our son, who was not expected to survive. In fact, the doctor was telling us at first that he would not provide treatment to him. As my developmental editor explained, a memoir is basically a novel, it's just that it really happened, and it needs a plot question asked at the beginning that isn't answered until the end. The plot question I centered the memoir around was "am I really a father?" This was especially important when it was highly trained nurses and a whole load of super-complicated machines keeping our son alive. There was also a religious component to the story as my wife and I are quite active in our religion (Eastern Orthodox Christianity) and we do believe miracles were involved here. But, we didn't develop or change a great deal in our religion during this time, nor was our marriage strained, so I decided to focus it on the fatherhood question first and had a minor subplot on a religious question.

But, as luck would have it, the thing has went to 175 agents last year (everybody in The Writer's Market and Publishers' Weekly who deals with memoir) and I got a few requests for additional materials but in the end no takers.

Now I am thinking of repurposing the book around "will my faith survive" as the central plot question. At least I will repurpose the first four chapters so that I can start querying religious-book agents. But I don't know a great deal about the religious non-fiction market, and I am looking for guides and such on structure. Something like "The Plot Whisperer." And, I am looking for ideas on how to make a spiritual memoir in an obscure denomination (Eastern Orthodoxy) appeal to the larger Evangelical/Catholic market. And I'm not out to proselytize here.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Eric
 

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I'm looking for resources that explain the story structure of a spiritual trial memoir. I read The Plot Whisperer on the advice of my developmental editor and really liked it, and I'm hoping for something like that but as it applies to the religious book market.

I hope this is the right forum for this kind of question... I feel like the "Spanish Inquisition," those idiots who couldn't find the right sketch in the Monty Python episode. People are being nice to me, but they're like, "Uh, hi, we don't do that in this thread-"

Allow me to explain further: I have written an 80,000-word fatherhood memoir about the super-premature birth of our son, who was not expected to survive. In fact, the doctor was telling us at first that he would not provide treatment to him. As my developmental editor explained, a memoir is basically a novel, it's just that it really happened, and it needs a plot question asked at the beginning that isn't answered until the end. The plot question I centered the memoir around was "am I really a father?" This was especially important when it was highly trained nurses and a whole load of super-complicated machines keeping our son alive. There was also a religious component to the story as my wife and I are quite active in our religion (Eastern Orthodox Christianity) and we do believe miracles were involved here. But, we didn't develop or change a great deal in our religion during this time, nor was our marriage strained, so I decided to focus it on the fatherhood question first and had a minor subplot on a religious question.

But, as luck would have it, the thing has went to 175 agents last year (everybody in The Writer's Market and Publishers' Weekly who deals with memoir) and I got a few requests for additional materials but in the end no takers.

Now I am thinking of repurposing the book around "will my faith survive" as the central plot question. At least I will repurpose the first four chapters so that I can start querying religious-book agents. But I don't know a great deal about the religious non-fiction market, and I am looking for guides and such on structure. Something like "The Plot Whisperer." And, I am looking for ideas on how to make a spiritual memoir in an obscure denomination (Eastern Orthodoxy) appeal to the larger Evangelical/Catholic market. And I'm not out to proselytize here.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Eric

If you like the structure of The Plot Whisperer then why not use it as a model for the new structure of your memoir? Books are books, regardless of the genre they're in and good structures work across the board.

I am concerned that you intend to rewrite it to focus on the religious struggle you had because of your son's premature birth, because as you said, you "we didn't develop or change a great deal in our religion during this time, nor was our marriage strained". If you're writing a memoir about such a difficult time it's probably not wise to rely on something which is untrue for the focus of your book. Tread carefully here.

I don't see a problem with the obscurity of your denomination, to be honest. You should be able to write it so that it appeals to all religions and creeds: the focus is your spirituality and the struggles you had, not the specific religion you follow. In my view (and I've ghosted a few "autobiographies") the biggest problems you face are that you're considering writing something which won't ring true (because it isn't!), and that you've already queried so many agents without a bite.

I hope it goes well for you, though, and that you do find representation and a publishing deal.
 

Siri Kirpal

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OP, I can tell you that spiritual memoirs are one of the hardest to place right now. Unless you have a huge platform (readership). So, don't feel you need to change the focus to fit the market. Work on creating a market for the book you prefer instead.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal
 

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Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

OP, I can tell you that spiritual memoirs are one of the hardest to place right now. Unless you have a huge platform (readership). So, don't feel you need to change the focus to fit the market. Work on creating a market for the book you prefer instead.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

Thanks for the thought. So if spiritual memoirs are one of the hardest to place out there, what's the easiest? I mean I've heard "hardest" a gazillion times -- but what's the other end of that spectrum?
 

eruthford

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I am concerned that you intend to rewrite it to focus on the religious struggle you had because of your son's premature birth, because as you said, you "we didn't develop or change a great deal in our religion during this time, nor was our marriage strained". If you're writing a memoir about such a difficult time it's probably not wise to rely on something which is untrue for the focus of your book. Tread carefully here.

At present, my plan is to play with the first four chapters and see if they can work with a different plot question. And if they don't, I'll give up on that effort and instead turn to self-publishing.

And, by the way, I am presently reading Juniper: The Girl Who Was Born Too Soon, a new preemie memoir that is excellently written, probably the best of preemie memoirs out there. The first 50 pages has a guy getting a divorce, then a guy with two girlfriends, eventually moving in with the second girlfriend, then breaking up with the second girlfriend, then getting back together with the second girlfriend, then going through lots of couples counseling with the second girlfriend, and then the second girlfriend looking for an egg donor and getting a crush on the egg donor, which isn't really bisexual although is sort of erotic because they are, after all sharing a pregnancy. It's all beautifully written, and it's making me feel quite inadequate because my backstory is nowhere near that interesting. I met a girl at church and... married her.
 

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I saw your other thread and this one and I too sort of think you're asking the wrong question, or looking at this in not the right way. I don't think trying to package your book for a Christian market is likely the right plan -- first, because as you note, there's not a big Christian theme to it (no change, etc.), and second because I dunno that market, but if Siri says it's tough, then I presume it's tough.

I'd look at what the issue was with the book in the first place. It wasn't, I'll tell you right now, without having read a word of it, backstory. That's neither here nor there, and one of those 'blah blah divorce, gf, gf...' isn't more compelling, narratively, than the other, 'couple meet at church.'

It's how you frame and work with those and what part they play in the story, which could be none, could be big. If the other person's story had nothing to do with his, I'm guessing, big journey to responsibility and growing up and commitment and yada, but was instead about, say, once the kid, who he got the egg donor for and all that, was born, he freaked and had a crisis of commitment, the backstory wouldn't be the same. It'd be 10 pages about how desperate he was to have the kid and then when she was born with issues he had the problem and there's the bulk of the book.

You could've played up an 'all-American, meets-cute-at-church, settles into the expected perfect suburban life' (I'm just spitballing, I have no idea of your actual story, obviously) thing for 50 pages with descriptions of a backyard church wedding and the cute little fixer-upper house and talking to your 90-yr-old pawpaw about how you wanted a life like his and then it all goes sideways and your picture-perfecct world falls apart and... whatever stakes.

The backstory's content is irrelevant.

Honestly, I think your real problem is burning through that many agents without reconsidering what you were doing.
 

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According to the agent I talked to (and like I said, he's one of the best in this part of the business), the easiest memoirs to place are celebrity and event memoirs. ("Event" meaning things like Hurricane Katrina, 9/11, the Holocaust.) Literary memoirs can also sell, but your craft needs to be outstanding.

In any event (pun intended), to sell most non-fiction, including memoir, you need a large platform...unless your writing is so spectacular an agent can't resist. That didn't happen.

So, 1. Set this memoir aside. 2. Work on your craft. 3. Work on your market. 4. Write something else. 5. Try again with the new work. 6. If it does well, you can revisit the old memoir. But for now, it looks like you'd be wise to leave it be.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal
 

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Thanks for the thought. So if spiritual memoirs are one of the hardest to place out there, what's the easiest? I mean I've heard "hardest" a gazillion times -- but what's the other end of that spectrum?

If you try to rewrite this memoir so that it fits into some easier category to place, you're going to end up with a hot mess.

Your memoir fits in the genre it fits in. If you want to sell it, rewrite it so it's better, more commercial, more gripping. (I've ghosted a few memoirs. Trust me on this.)

At present, my plan is to play with the first four chapters and see if they can work with a different plot question. And if they don't, I'll give up on that effort and instead turn to self-publishing.

Self publishing isn't a consolation prize for people who fail to find a trade publisher. It only works for people who are dedicated, determined, talented and hard-working. And rewriting the first four chapters of your book isn't going to move it into another genre, or make it more saleable. It's just going to change the first four chapters.

And, by the way, I am presently reading Juniper: The Girl Who Was Born Too Soon, a new preemie memoir that is excellently written, probably the best of preemie memoirs out there. The first 50 pages has a guy getting a divorce, then a guy with two girlfriends, eventually moving in with the second girlfriend, then breaking up with the second girlfriend, then getting back together with the second girlfriend, then going through lots of couples counseling with the second girlfriend, and then the second girlfriend looking for an egg donor and getting a crush on the egg donor, which isn't really bisexual although is sort of erotic because they are, after all sharing a pregnancy. It's all beautifully written, and it's making me feel quite inadequate because my backstory is nowhere near that interesting. I met a girl at church and... married her.

That would be pertinent if you were writing Juniper but you're not, you're writing your own book.

That last sentence could be what makes you unique, you know. You met a girl. You married her. All this happened. You're still together and you're still in love and it's been tough but here you are. Enduring love. It doesn't happen to everyone.


Now read Siri's last comment, and cornflakes, and think carefully about what to do next. Stop trying so hard to make this book the one.
 

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Heh. It's hard, this writing lark. And often frustrating.

What might help you now is getting yourself over to our Share Your Work section, and giving as many critiques as you can manage over the next couple of weeks. That will prepare you for posting your own work for critique: you need fifty or more substantive posts to start your own threads in SYW, but it's also wise to understand how the whole critiquing thing works before asking people to look at your work. Doing this might well give you a lightbulb moment about why your own work failed to attract representation, and how you can improve it without trying to squeeze it into a different genre.

Good luck!
 

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Hi Old Hack,

Yes, that is my eventual goal... I did one mild critique on some Vietnam remembrances from Dr. Doc. I liked the stories, but there wasn't much of a plot to hold them together. I'm at 39 posts right now and am hoping to post some materials in SYW.

I am still going to spend a couple of days noodling around with the order of the scenes and the thoughts surrounding the starkest moments. To shift this manuscript from "fatherhood development" to "test of faith" wouldn't be super hard. It might end up looking ugly, but at least I'll have learned something and can then go back to the original setup.

What I'm most lacking, the agents tell me (when they talk to me) is platform. And, there's some things I can do to improve that, but I am not going to become the "Scary Mommy" or "Momastery" bloggers, who have hundreds of thousands of followers.
 

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I'd think you're also out of date on platform for this particular thing, the way it sounds as if you've set this up.

It's a memoir about your son's time in the NICU or what have you -- the time to gain a platform for that would have been blogging about that while it was going on. I'm not criticizing you for not, I hope is obvious, just saying I don't think you can really hope to gain some kind of blog-type audience for that kind of thing after the fact. Those catch fire or they don't, while they're happening. People tune in for the ongoing news, then, if there are enough of them, publishers may figure a book with all the background and untold stuff can sell to them and their wom pals.

That said, I don't think it's impossible to do without a platform, but it's not a unique subject by any means, thus the book has to be unique, and 'we questioned our faith but stuck with it' isn't any more unique than what you've indicated you've got already. There are a lot of ways to find a unique angle or voice or whatever, but I think that should be your goal, not moving stuff around and inserting stuff about church, or trying to build an audience online for a story that's already sort of happened.
 

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Hi Old Hack,

Yes, that is my eventual goal... I did one mild critique on some Vietnam remembrances from Dr. Doc. I liked the stories, but there wasn't much of a plot to hold them together. I'm at 39 posts right now and am hoping to post some materials in SYW.

Please don't comment on works outside of SYW. It's not appropriate. And if you want to get lots of help with your own work in SYW, you're going to need to do a lot more than one mild critique.

I am still going to spend a couple of days noodling around with the order of the scenes and the thoughts surrounding the starkest moments. To shift this manuscript from "fatherhood development" to "test of faith" wouldn't be super hard. It might end up looking ugly, but at least I'll have learned something and can then go back to the original setup.

Why on earth would you want to produce a book which looked ugly?

If the issue with the book was the order of scenes, agents would have pointed that out to you. They'd have asked if you'd be prepared to make revisions. I think it's probably time you stopped "noodling around" with this one, to be honest.

What I'm most lacking, the agents tell me (when they talk to me) is platform. And, there's some things I can do to improve that, but I am not going to become the "Scary Mommy" or "Momastery" bloggers, who have hundreds of thousands of followers.

I don't think platform is a big issue for books like this, but it's an area I've written in, not an area I've edited. I'd consider how many agents told you this, when they told you this, and whether this might have been part of a form rejection. I read a memoir last year, which told the story of the author's childhood with her abusive and mentally ill mother: An Abbreviated Life, by Ariel Leve. Ms Leve is a journalist but this book wasn't sold off the back of her platform, whatever that is: it was sold because it was so beautifully written, and told such an amazing and harrowing story.

Go and give a heap of critiques in SYW. After a few weeks, post your own work for critique and brace yourself. And meanwhile, stop this noodling around!
 

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Probably not but you could always send the OP a quick PM and ask.
 
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