Decompressing After a Writer’s Conference: Story [Part 2]

Part 1 (Blogging to Writing) | Part 2 (Story) | Part 3 (Connection)

My genre is memoir. So at Mount Hermon this year, I decided to take the non-fiction morning workshop track.

I ended up getting stuck in room full of writers working on eschatology books, how-to’s teaching high school from a Christian worldview, and guides to working through the aftermath of divorce.  Not what I had in mind.

I just barely fit into the category of non-fiction because even though memoir is technically non-fiction, it should be written more with fiction elements in mind.  Story arc, climax, resolution, character development – all of these are almost as important as anything else.

Story.  On the first day of class, our instructor, Kay Marshall Strom, author of over 20 books, told us that my story is not the story.  My story is only an illustration of a universal truth.

Whatever story I am going to tell is not only a part of the monumental story of humanity, but it is just a vehicle for truths that God wants to tell through me.

Among other things, Kay writes about international issues in the Sudan, India and Indonesia.  She inspired me.  She makes me want to be a part of the community who is saying something.

My truths?  Hope.  Redemption.  Restoration.  My story?  You’ll have to wait for the book.

Sarah Markley blogs at sarahmarkley.com. She is the wife of Chad and the mother to two little girls and is convinced that she is living in the BEST DAYS of her life thus far. She runs, she writes and she works for her husband’s business, usually for free.