Hot Flash Friday: Freeze Frame: How to Write Flash Memoir
Today's Hot Flash is lifted entirely from Freeze Frame: How to Write Flash Memoir, my eBook available EVERYWHERE. Oder it today.*
—Dialogue
One of the first things one wouldn’t see in an autobiography or at least very little of is
dialogue. It is not possible to reconstruct dialogue according to memory—unless one used a
secret camera or spy-recording device.
As the author of your memoir feel free to include dialogue. Frank McCourt’s Angela’s
Ashes would only be half as interesting without the use of written dialogue. Frank McCourt
was the consummate Irish storyteller. I can easily imagine him telling some of the same
stories from Angela’s Ashes down at the pub (or pubs, he had a few favorites).
EXERCISE: Devise a flash told completely in dialogue, this can either be straight memoir,
fictional, or a combination thereof. If it helps, write the flash as a small scene. Feel free to
include plot twists and surprise endings. If stuck here is a prompt:
A couple fighting in a car. What are they arguing about? Are they about to arrive or depart a
party? Are they outside the hospital or a bank? Have they simply pulled over to answer the
phone or to let an emergency vehicle get by?
*The link takes you to Amazon, but also available through
—Dialogue
One of the first things one wouldn’t see in an autobiography or at least very little of is
dialogue. It is not possible to reconstruct dialogue according to memory—unless one used a
secret camera or spy-recording device.
As the author of your memoir feel free to include dialogue. Frank McCourt’s Angela’s
Ashes would only be half as interesting without the use of written dialogue. Frank McCourt
was the consummate Irish storyteller. I can easily imagine him telling some of the same
stories from Angela’s Ashes down at the pub (or pubs, he had a few favorites).
EXERCISE: Devise a flash told completely in dialogue, this can either be straight memoir,
fictional, or a combination thereof. If it helps, write the flash as a small scene. Feel free to
include plot twists and surprise endings. If stuck here is a prompt:
A couple fighting in a car. What are they arguing about? Are they about to arrive or depart a
party? Are they outside the hospital or a bank? Have they simply pulled over to answer the
phone or to let an emergency vehicle get by?
*The link takes you to Amazon, but also available through
Apple
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Baker & Taylor Blio
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Baker-Taylor Axis360
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Barnes & Noble
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Diesel
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Flipkart
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Gardners Extended Retail
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Gardners Library
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Inktera (formerly Page Foundry)
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Kobo
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Library Direct
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Odilo
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OverDrive
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Oyster
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Scribd
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Sony
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Tolino
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txtr
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Yuzu
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