My next Nervous Breakdown post is up. Some of you may remember the original blog post it’s based on.
I also wanted to catch up my most recent memoir installments, since I haven’t written about the memoir in some time. They’re basically Part 11 and the beginning of Part 12. There are several more posts coming up for Part 12, and then the last section, Part 13.
Although hearing Joe’s confession and dealing with the aftermath were horrible, even harder was dealing with the actual birth of the child. It was a cold, stormy weekend in January, and so incredibly bleak. Only slightly worse was stupidly going to my parents’ house a week later (which you’ll read about soon).
Now that my memoir will be finishing up in the next couple of months, I’m wondering what I should write about next. I was very gung ho about my murder mystery set in the corporate world, but I’ve written it for NaNoWriMo and feel disappointed. I’ve yet to look at it, but I think because I only had a month to do it, I didn’t try very hard. I based a lot of it directly on my life, which ironically tends to suck the life out of the story. It needs more of a voice.
I always assumed my next memoir would be based on my post-divorce dating misadventures, and would be called Single Asian Female (SAF), or something to that effect. But I’m not sure. If I were to write a straight recounting, it might be boring, or at least I’d find it boring to write. Blogging about dating works because it’s in the moment.
If I went to write SAF, I’ll have to think of a different angle. And there are a million dating memoirs out there. How would mine be different?
I love that TNB post, maybe because in all those situations I would have done the same exact thing (almost, that woman that asked you to switch? she would’ve gotten a much ruder response than what you gave her).
I bet you could write about your dating fun in a way that wouldn’t sound stale or boring, don’t stress to much about the angle.
I love the idea of you writing SAF–I would definitely read your perspective since I know you’re so “angry”. The problem seems to be in the editing process, the story tends to get toned down to make it have more mass appeal. I’m thinking in particular about “The Dim Sum of All Things” (and sequel, “Buddha Baby”) that supposedly describe SF really well and “humourously” tackle the typical SAF barriers. I kind of felt it was a little much, fancying that my own story, if I penned it, would much better reflect the nitty gritty truth. I want to read something closer to the truth, the ambiguity that isn’t “happy ever after”.
thanks wyn. that’s actually good advice – going after the nitty gritty, sometimes angry truth, rather than wrapping the story up in a nice neat chick-lit bow.