If I were to write the story of our family's recent ordeal, what form would such a book take? Should I keep the blog entries pretty much intact, tacking up emails along the way? Or should I novelize the account, writing the story out in a more conventional narrative style? What if I included the blog entries, but added commentary after each entry? Or should I adopt a time-jumping format, such as what Mitch Albom did in Tuesdays with Morrie-- a principal narrative (the "A story," if you will) punctuated by brief, italicized vignettes from Albom's college-student past (the "B story")? That format is very tempting to me, but might come off as cliche. The other two formats (journal and straight narrative) are more conventional, but are also more accepted.
Hmmm.
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My instinct would be to use the blog entries as source material and craft a more conventional narrative. And having to craft such a narrative may help in dealing with the events emotionally as well. Your mileage, of course, may vary.
ReplyDeleteA painful dilemma I know too well. I'm sorry I have no useful suggestion. Even five years into this book I still struggle with the decision. I'm looking forward to seeing (/reading) how you decide to tackle the problem.
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