Movie poster of "Get Low"

If I were teaching a writing class right now, I would require all my students to go see the new movie, Get Low with Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Bill Murray and Lucas Black. Sure that’s an all-star cast, but that’s not the reason for my insistence.

For those who study narrative drive, this movie is masterful in its storytelling.

My writing guru, Sol Stein explains in his book, Stein on Writing, that readers (viewers) are like dogs on a trail. They have picked up a scent; it is the writer’s job to keep “the dogs” sniffing by dropping crumbs of information in the unfolding mystery.

Driving the Depression-era fable of Get Low is the question of why Duvall, who is known by the locals as eccentric and mean, became a hermit living alone in his isolated cabin in the Tennessee woods for forty years. Throughout the movie, we get glimpses of the early, defining experience that made him, but we have to wait for the last ten minutes of the film to learn the full story. (The director’s one misstep is the ending; he should have cut the last two minutes, which did not add power to the story.)

“Writers are troublemakers,” Stein writes. “A pyschotherapist tries to relieve stress, strain, and pressure. Writers are not psychotherapists. Their job is to give readers stress, strain and pressure. The fact is that readers who hate those things in life love them in fiction.”

And that is the ‘Get Low’ on storytelling.

Word of the Day August 28

To my delight, today’s word-of-the-day from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary is “veridical.”

veridical\vuh-RID-ih-kul\

What pleased me most is the sentence the dictionary used to showcase the word:

“All psychotherapies are based on the fact that memory is not veridical, that unconscious desires and fantasies exert their force on us all…” (Henry Kaminer, Weekly Standard, July 31, 2000)

Same goes for memoir writing, which is entirely dependent upon memory and perception — two unreliable powers. A writer’s voice and memory is filtered by emotion. We insert facts and omit others, corrupting the form. Memoir writing is how we make ourselves up — shaping raw experience, identifying cause and effect in events, connecting the dots to conquer experience.

Not only do individuals create their own stories: whole communities, whole countries revise and rewrite their histories so that citizens can live with the country’s identity and historical legacy. “History is what people write down afterward,” one author said recently, “what really happened is something else.”

If perception and memory are so faulty, why write memoir? Because the telling can illuminate something in one’s own truths, it can transform experience into meaning — because how we remember determines who we are. What’s remembered becomes reality and identity.

We do not simply have an experience, William Maxwell wrote in So Long, See You Tomorrow, we are entrusted with it. “We must do something – make something with it. A story, we sense, is the only possible habitation for the burden of our witnessing.”

Memoir comforts us by bearing witness and creating meaning…even though memory is not veridical.

To listen to the interview, go to http://www.theauthorsshow.com/

My new web site showcasing my school presentations has gone live at AIVS (Authors and Illustrators who Visit Schools). Please visit: http://www.authorsillustrators.com/schumer_chapman/schumer_chapman.htm

In a dream last night, I stumbled upon an interesting image of my work. Each book I write is a footstep, marking where I am at that moment in my life.

As American lawyer, orator, and memoirist Rufus Choate once said, “A book is the only immortality.” Books are my way of announcing, “I was here.”

SLOW LOVE by Dominique Browning

I suspect I came to this dream/thought because yesterday I was reading Dominique Browning’s new memoir, Slow Love, an account of how she rediscovered herself after losing her high-powered job as a New York magazine editor. In it she writes: “I begin keeping notes about how I am feeling, what I am doing. Writing has always been my way to absorb things; I often write out my troubles.”

Me, too. And through that process, I define who I am.

Right now, I am trying to decide where to place my foot next.

The Sunday New York Times Book Review reports that, according to surveys by the Codex Group, a consultant to the publishing industry, 47 percent of 18- to 24- year-old w0men and 24 percent of same-aged men say most of the books they buy are classified as young adult. The percentage of female Y.A. fans between the ages of 25 and 44 has nearly doubled in the past four years. Today nearly one in five 35 – 44-year-olds say they most frequently buy YA books for themselves.

Here is the link to the complete article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/books/review/Paul-t.html?_r=1&ref=books

Profile of FSC (second from left) from Make It Better/North Shore Magazine

It’s impossible for us to know who we truly are without knowing something of our mothers.

That’s why Fern Schumer Chapman, a former reporter for the Chicago Tribune and Forbes, has spent years unraveling the enigma that is her mother, who was orphaned by the Holocaust.

Fern’s first book, “Motherland: Beyond the Holocaust: A Mother-Daughter Journey to Reclaim the Past,” became a cult favorite with North Shore book clubs and was a finalist in the National Jewish Book Awards in 2000. The book tells the story of her mother-daughter trip to Germany to visit the town where her mother, Edith, lived until she was 12. In 1938, Edith’s parents sent her to the U.S. to live with relatives in Chicago. Four years later, Edith learned that her parents had died in a concentration camp.

“Much of my adult life has been this slow discovery of my mother’s life,” Fern says. “Trauma is transmitted through families. I was very defined by her experience. Writing was my attempt to understand what shaped her—what shaped me.”

After the publication of “Motherland,” Chapman learned that her mother came over with a small group of children as part of an American rescue effort now known as The One Thousand Children Project. Researching the 1,000 children and talking to her mom prompted Chapman to write a book of historical fiction for young adults, “Is It Night or Day?” She assumes her mother’s voice to tell Edith’s story of immigration and survival. The book, which was published this spring, was recognized as one of Booklist’s Top 10 Historical Fiction Books for Youth for 2010.

And, Fern’s writing brought her closer to her mom. “I am my mother’s voice,” she says. As part of their journey, Fern has talked openly with her mom about the difficulties in their relationship as a result of the trauma. Fern’s mother grew as a result, and Fern forgave her for some of her behavior.

Today, Fern regularly speaks about her mother’s Holocaust experience in schools, museums and for groups. She says of her mom, who attends all of her speaking engagements, “She hears me, she supports me, and she loves me more for speaking the truth.”

Family Stories workshops (All ages) The purpose of this session is to help children learn about their parents’ histories. I work with families in groups as children learn how to ask questions about their parent’s early life experiences and parents share some of their stories. Great opportunity for families to bond.

Parent Book Clubs (Adults or Parent/Child groups) My books have been popular with adult and parent child book clubs. I give presentations to these groups.

Writers Workshop (Grades 3 and up) I teach the craft of writing, inspiring parents and children to develop their own sense of identity through story.

The Chicago Tribune ran an interesting article today about the growing number of adult viewers who watch tween TV. Nielsen recently reported that a special of the Nickelodeon series, “iCarly,” (“iSaved Your Life”) attracted an audience of 12.4 million views, 2.7 of whom were adults between the ages of 18 and 49. The show is designed for kids between the ages of 8 and 13.

Other TV shows have taken advantage of the trend. They include “Good Luck Charlie,” “Phineas and Ferb,” “Hannah Montana,” among others.

The same crossover phenomenon is evident in books. Consider the Harry Potter series, the Twilight series, and other YA/Adult books like The Book Thief and even, Is It Night or Day?. They draw readers from both audiences. A quick glance at the profiles of the readers of these books at Goodreads.com confirms this point.

“We want parents to see themselves in those characters,” says Adam Bonnet, senior vice president of orignial programming for the Disney Channel, “or even to see what they were like as a teen and appreciate what the younger characters are going through.”

Yes, exactly, that is the goal of authors of crossover books, too. “It’s a move back to the all-family type programming that the (broadcast) networks, for some reason, abandoned,” says Dana Ewing, senior strategic planner for the Geppetto Group, a New York-based youth marketing firm.

“These kinds of shows [and books] come with themes that are relatable and relevant to more than just the kids.”

Call for published or aspiring authors searching for guidance and encouragement? Several writers are organizing a group to critique and nurture works-in-progress in a fun, supportive atmosphere. I will lead the group.

Writers with varying pubication experiences will meet at the Warren-Newport Public Library in Gurnee, Illinois on a monthly basis. If you might like to join us, please email me at fernschumer@aim.com.