Frank McCourt, A Teacher’s Brush with The Teacher Man

Things are a little grayer all over the world today with the passing of author Frank McCourt, on Sunday, July 19, 2009.  Angela’s Ashes, published in 1996, and the first in a series of memoirs written by McCourt, probably did more than anything in the past two decades to create the heightened desire in writers to preserve and craft their own personal stories. During his years as a classroom teacher in the New York public school system, he “always told his writing students that they were their own best material.” Toward the end of his teaching career and into retirement, he took his own best advice and penned Angela’s Ashes and two subsequent memoirs: ‘Tis: A Memoir, and Teacher Man.

The people who read and enjoyed his books were common folks just like most of us. Some were better off but knew someone–perhaps a neighbor, or their child’s teacher, or their grandparents—who had come from a hard-scrabble upbringing and had a story to tell. Suddenly, everyone wanted to capture their own lives on the page, whether to publish like McCourt had, or to simply create a legacy in words to leave behind for their progeny.

McCourt achieved one of publishing’s highest accolades when he won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography. But he never lost his humble bearings.

I met him, shook his hand and had an opportunity to speak to Mr. McCourt briefly during the 2001 Florida Suncoast Writers Conference. A gentle teacher man, the same age as my father, he had just presented the opening keynote at the conference. He took my hand, turned it over, and said, “I bet you’re a teacher.” I was taken aback, for indeed I was. In fact, I had just started teaching memoir writing courses the semester before at the University of South Florida.

Because of the resurgence in personal storytelling McCourt had spawned, I’d switched from teaching business writing to creative nonfiction writing classes so I could read stories, like McCourt’s, for a living, and help writers write, and perhaps publish, the books of their dreams.

And I shared that with him. He never broke eye contact, and I locked on him, too, reveling in this brief moment with a mentor, a literary icon.

In his characteristic Irish-laden brogue, he thanked me for carrying on something he started “as kind of a bother.”

He winked, then said, “You know, I sometimes still prefer teaching.  Writing is kinda fun, but on the bad days, it can get you down, ya know?”

I agree, both writing and teaching have their flip sides: good days and bad days, great days and blah days.   Whether we’re the student or teaching from the other side of the desk, both are integral parts of the journey to publishing.  The writer’s life is (or ought to be) a lifelong act of learning and figuring things out, as Frank McCourt’s memoirs attest.

What remains a mystery to me is how the iconic Teacher Man figured out I was a teacher by simply taking my hand in his.

Related articles:

In tribute to Frank McCourt, Whose Irish Childhood Illuminated His Prose, Dead at 78

Frank McCourt from photographer David Shankbone’s perspective

Essential Writing Tool: DBNF

Here’s another writing tool I use all the time.  I borrowed this idea from my days as a time management consultant when I used the DBNF file for prospects who weren’t quite ready to buy.

The DBNF file is the perfect solution for those times when you need to kill your lil darlings (you know… those wonderful passages of prose that just don’t quite fit into the current piece of writing).

You know this is good material but it just doesn’t quite fit here.  Yet, you hate to throw out what it took you at least an hour to create.

Solution: create a DBNF file on your computer.

DBNF Stands for Dead But Not Forgotten.

DBNF is your good writing to use elsewhere.  Another time, another day, another blog post, in another story or vignette.

Cut and paste the ‘not working’ content from the current document.  Create a new Word (or text) document.  Save it with an appropriate file name.  Store all your DBNFs in a DBNF folder.  On the computer, or printed out in a manila folder.

BONUS TIP:

Stuck for something to write?  Revisit your DBNF for a story starter or inspiration for a new piece of writing.

Writers: Have The Guts To Cut

The best advice you’ll ever get comes from Kurt Vonnegut:  “Have the guts to cut.”

Don’t be afraid to kill your lil darlings.  I know it took you a long time to write that passage of prose.  I know you think what you wrote belongs.  And maybe it does.  But maybe somewhere else.

A good writer writes clean and spare.  Every word must do new work.  There should be no clutter in your sentences, no extraneous details, nothing that is not essential to the topic at hand.

Clean, spare writing does not mean you avoid description.  But it does mean cutting:

• repetition
• extra adverbs when one strong verb will do
• adjectives when a precise noun will “show” better

To keep your reader’s attention, avoid wordiness.  Strip your sentences to their cleanest form.

Learn to write tight to write right!

3 Levels of Drafting A New Piece of Writing

Several years ago I attended a weekend spiritual retreat organized by the Omega Institute in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.  Some of the notable headliners included Wayne Dyer, Joan Borysenko, James Van Praagh, Loretta Laroche, and  Dr. Brian Weiss.  I enjoyed the presentations by these wonderful teachers, but I’d come for one thing:  to sit at the feet of author Anne Lamott and lap up everything she had to say.

Anyone who has read her bestselling writing how-to book  Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life knows she has a wonderful way with metaphor, and a grand sense of humor.

She tickled her audience that day with her wry wit while teaching us about her recommended 3 stages for writing drafts:

1.  Start with a “down draft.”  Just get it all down.  Write, write, write.  Don’t worry where things might fit in.  Just get it all down before the muse runs away.  Think of the “down draft” as your parking place for ideas, experiences, and memories.

2.  Next, continue with “up drafts.”  Raise your  “down draft” from bare essentials to workable material.  That might mean adding new material, taking things out, moving elements around, shaping the piece of writing toward its publishable form.  Think of the “up drafts” as prettying things up.  This stage of drafting is truly where “writing” takes place and will mean you spend the bulk of your writing time at this stage.  Be okay with “up drafting” 5, 10, 20, even 40 times until you’ve refined your prose.

3.  Finally, attack your prose for the “dental draft”  as you polish and final hone.  During this stage, go deep inside your draft, review every word, every sentence, every paragraph for polishing.

If you’re not 100% certain of your doctoring (or dental) skills, now might be the time to have an experienced editor take a final look.  You’ll want your prose to be bright, shiny and smiling.

June Writing Prompt for Memoir – Your Bedroom

Whenever a group of memoir writers get together, and when we talk about home, the subject always seems to turn toward stories that took place in “our rooms.”  No doubt, our earliest bedrooms made a lasting impression on us because they provided a safe haven.  Or did they?  What went on in your room?  Put pen to page and just write. First thoughts, no censoring. Now go…

• Describe your childhood bedroom. What was the view from your window?

• List one special memory about each of your brothers and sisters (or friends).

Now, take what you have written. Reread. Write for 30 minutes on each of the above over the next few days, or weeks, and develop a short vignette.