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November 12, 2012 | Blog |  5 Comments

After Page One: Experience

By Lisa L. Lewis

A guest post to motivate, encourage, and inspire

 

The Prism of Parenthood: How Life Experience Shaped My Writing

 

I recently read that MFA faculty joke about the number of “dead grandmother” stories they receive from students — young writers for whom this may be their most significant event to date. The author recommended postponing an MFA in favor of first acquiring more experiences and life perspective.

I felt an amused sense of recognition. As an MFA student, I’d written a “dead grandfather” story — my thesis, in fact. And though I’d done so in my early thirties, it took me another decade, including motherhood, to gain the perspective I needed.

At first, my grandfather seemed to be a perfect subject. He’d falsely claimed to be a Pearl Harbor survivor, and was even quoted in the Los Angeles Times about it.  I wondered what had driven his lie.

To answer this, I talked to relatives and friends he’d known as a young man. I spoke to his commanding officer from World War II (he’d been a U.S. Marine, but not until after Pearl Harbor). And I immersed myself in the world of amateur boxing to learn about the sport that had once been his driving ambition.

But there were too many details I didn’t–and couldn’t–know. I played around with writing the story from my vantage point as I tried to discover what had driven his decision, but realized it just wasn’t compelling. In the end, I opted for fictionalized memoir from his point of view and wrote about 80 pages, enough to fulfill my thesis requirements.

Something about it didn’t feel right, however; I couldn’t inhabit his character with any sense of conviction. The piece moldered in a file drawer for several years. I felt both a sense of failure at having given up and an enduring sense of writer’s block.

I finally felt inspired to try again in 2011, having recently overseen our family’s move to a smaller, more conservative community more than 300 miles away.

The move itself was the catalyst. I started writing about the bumpy process of adjusting to our new home while still pining for our old one, about needing to help my two young children settle in despite my own conflictedness, and about some of the deeper family issues that came up in the process. My own experiences helped me view family legacies in a different light.

I’d also taken up kickboxing for exercise and found it a helpful outlet for letting off steam. Suddenly, I had a flash of what it might have been like for my grandfather. I knew he’d been a boxing instructor in the war, training thousands of young Marines before they shipped out to Japan, and that he’d longed to ship out too. But the war ended before he got his chance to prove himself. Perhaps, I thought, at some point the heavy bag he’d used to hone his punches instead became a target for his pent-up frustration.

I knew too that he’d been ineffectual as a father: when my mother was growing up, he hadn’t been there as her protector. Now, as a parent myself, I wondered what it must have been like for him to look back on his life and acknowledge this failure.

When I was in my early thirties, I’d recognized that his story was compelling. But for me, being able to delve in required a fuller perspective, including a better appreciation of the complexities of parenting. I’m able to view his life from a different vantage point, leading me to ask new questions as I try to understand his lie.

Some ideas take a while to come to fruition. I’m grateful for the interviews and the research I did with sources who are now gone. But I’m even more grateful that I can see the aspects of my grandfather’s story in a way I couldn’t have once envisioned.

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Join Literary Mama’s After Page One series. We’re looking for 300 to 500-word guest posts that motivate, inspire, and encourage other mama-writers, and we’d love to feature YOUR thoughts about getting started, getting back to a writing project, integrating writing with motherhood, reading, or having a positive attitude. The list is endless, but here are some questions that might help you get started. We’ll publish a short bio at the bottom of your post so readers can learn more about you and your projects.

Tagged: Personal Narratives

5 replies on “After Page One: Experience”

Laurel Leighsays:
November 12, 2012 at 11:33 am

Nice post, Lisa. It is great to read about the evolution of this idea–how a portion of it became your thesis but the fuller idea needed time to emerge and part of that emergence involved your development personally and as a writer. It can be tempting to whip out a draft and call it good, but the best ideas demand sufficient time to come to their full maturity and ultimate actualization on the page. I hope you do finish this story and I’ll be curious to see where you take it. xo Laurel Leigh

Reply
Lisa Lewis on Literary Mama | Dear Writerssays:
November 12, 2012 at 11:44 am

[…] http://literarymama.com/blog/archives/2012/11/after-page-one-experience.html Share this:Like this:LikeBe the first to like this. Posted in Notes from Laurel Leigh | Tagged Fliegelman's Desire, Lewis Buzbee, Lisa Lewis, Literary Mama […]

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marysays:
November 12, 2012 at 2:59 pm

Lisa:
Great post! I hope this means you’re considering returning to the story of your grandfather and writing it. That tale of his lie is just so ripe with possibilities!
Yours,
Mary

Reply
Colleensays:
November 13, 2012 at 12:47 pm

Your intro sounds as if you, like me, recently read Lee Gutkind’s book, “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up”. I remember the reference to “dead grandmother” stories and feeling bad for the students and grandmothers. Although I very much liked the book, the reference to the student’s stories made me think, “Academics”. Eyeroll. I hope you finish your story, too.

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Elmazsays:
November 18, 2012 at 4:51 pm

thanks for sending it Lisa. I remember the stories and pictures and articles and even the survivor doll, quite well. I hope that you do go back to it.

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