Photo Description: A picture of the author’s smiling son on the couch in a red t-shirt holding her first book, “Leading Within Systems of Inequity in Education: A Liberation Guide for Leaders of Color”.
Week Ten
I love a good story especially when the story breaks up the narrative within a non-fiction text.
However, writing a good story within a non-fiction text isn’t as easy as it reads. My first draft is often in narrative form- so much telling, not much showing. In the collaborative book I’m writing, I am leaning into dialogue to break me out of this habit. Writing dialogue is a skillset. It always goes back to voice for me. I’m conscious of ensuring each character’s voice is distinct enough for the reader while not falling into any tropes about how a person should sound, especially a young person’s voice.
When I sent the draft of my first book to my editor, her first comment was that I was missing from the book. She wanted more of me and my stories in the book. I had to go back and look for places where telling my stories enhanced the narrative and then had to figure out what story to tell. I’m a pretty private person (although I write about myself a lot, it is such a small part of who I am on a regular) so it took a while for me to determine which stories I wanted to tell.
This time around, my personal stories are in the high-level book outline. I am brainstorming stories that connect to the themes of each chapter so I’m ready and the task doesn’t feel so intimidating. I currently have two openings for the book. One that starts with a personal story and one that doesn’t. Not sure where I will land but I’m sure my editor and early readers will weigh in…
During my interviews, one of my questions starts with “Tell me a story about…” so I can share the stories of others throughout the text. Most of my follow-up questions are “Can you give me an example or story to explain further?”
Storytelling helps children and adults make meaning of complex ideas and I hope to maximize it as much as possible in my book.
Week ten is a wrap.