See Sharon’s bio, photo, and Part 1 of this Q&A.
Q&A with Sharon Lippincott (Question 2):
Q: How important is it to you and your work to function within the framework of a particular definition of “story?” (i.e., What is a story?) What definition do you espouse?
A: Beyond reminding people that stories have a beginning, middle and end, and that they will be easier for strangers to understand if they answer the “Five F questions: who, what, why, when and where,” I don’t espouse any particular definition of story or story form. I encourage people to write in any way that feels natural and spontaneous to them. There is no wrong way to write, and prescribing forms and styles will stifle more people than it will help. Some few will aspire to more polish. That’s great too. There are many fine books, my own included, to help those who want guidance.
I often use the example of one of my grandmothers who wrote her autobiography when she was about seventy. It is short, and consists of disjointed paragraphs that often raise more questions than they answer. She commits nearly every blunder a lifestory writer could imagine. She comes across as a nut case. But … she took the time to do this, and I treasure every word.
My mother began writing her lifestory, but was unable to finish before the end of her life. She didn’t tell anyone about this, and we only found her drafts after her death. What a treasure! I compiled what she had written, editing only to fix typos and correct documented factual errors. The story of her girlhood will live on for generations.
Thus my constant admonition, “Any lifestory you write, no matter how crude and unfinished, is better than writing nothing.”
To date, my personal preference has been for writing short vignettes about specific memories. I now have over five hundred of these vignettes and am feeling the urge to begin compiling selected ones into more coherent memoir format.