Becoming a Living Metaphor

When your student makes you cry (in a good way)

I teach and coach people in the art of memoir, and last year I had a unique student. First of all, his nickname is “Doom.” He presents as about 8 feet tall, both in real life and in his career, and usually wears bright red shades and a handlebar mustache. Here’s one teensy part of his official bio: “Colonel Dummar commanded at every level in Special Forces from Captain to Colonel, with multiple combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.” There’s more, much more, including tons of awards, but you get what I’m saying.

So Doom wanted me to teach him how to write a memoir. He wasn’t too excited to talk much about his military life (although he ended up including some of that) but he did want to write a lot about running with Ivan, a fellow soldier. When I say running, I mean running—Doom and Ivan ran with the bulls in Pamplona, in the Boston marathon when the bomb went off not far from where they were, and in a 140-mile ultramarathon across the Sahara desert where Doom’s body began to break down.

NEW & EXCLUSIVE: I have a couple of openings in my memoir program. Do you have a partially written memoir or personal story? Are you looking for some help to get over the finish line? I might be able to help! Scroll down to the bottom for more…

Doom ran dozens of marathons with Ivan, who, by the way, is blind. He served as Ivan’s “Guide Human.” I don’t want to give too much more away, because his book will be coming out one of these days soon and you will need to read it. BUT, he gives a tiny bit of a preview on his Substack (excerpt and link below).

What made me cry? The idea of a living metaphor. Brilliant. You know what a metaphor is—something writers use to help make a story come to life in unexpected ways. One definition: “A thing regarded as representative or symbolic of something else, especially something abstract,” but it’s hard to capture the beauty and magic of a great metaphor. Here are a few good ones:

• “All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” (Shakespeare)

• “Delia was an overbearing cake with condescending frosting, and frankly, I was on a diet.” (Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception, by Maggie Stiefvater)

• “The Lord is my shepherd.” (Psalm 23)

If you’re writing a memoir, you’re going to want to create a few good metaphors. This is most often done well on the rewrite, when you have a pretty good idea of what your story is all about, and how a well-crafted metaphor here or there is going to help. But I’ve never thought of a living metaphor before—it caught me off guard and made me cry. And that’s where Fred comes in. You can read about it for yourself below.

The Unexpected Witnesses: Ivan and I were running the Myrtle Beach Marathon together, connected by a simple string tied to our wrists, as we had done dozens of times at that point and would go on to run many, many more races. As Ivan's guide, my attention was fixed on potential hazards, maintaining our pace, and ensuring we could navigate the course safely. For Ivan, who had lost his sight in service to our country, the marathon represented another boundary to push through, another statement that his blindness would not define what he could accomplish. We had been running together for 4 years, and it was just another marathon.

What we didn't realize, and had not fully discussed at that time, was the witnesses to our journey, not spectators along the sidelines, not our fellow Soldiers, but fellow runners whose lives would be touched by what they saw. Read more….

Enjoy the post, and say hi to Doom for me.

---

Do you have a partially written memoir or personal story?

Are you looking for some help to get over the finish line?

I might be able to help.

Every year I open a program called My One-Year Memoir, where I mentor, teach and coach a small group of people who want to write a memoir or personal story. The program is a full year and the majority of people finish their rough draft in that year. It’s both challenging and rewarding—because so many people want to write their story, but so few ever do. And not only that, I can help you make it the best it can be in that year, using my own experience writing over a dozen memoirs (including two New York Times bestsellers). My goal is always this: to help you write a book the reader can’t put down.

So here’s what’s going on: I’ve had a couple of people exit the group due to extremely challenging personal situations. That means I have a couple of openings. If you have a partially written memoir or personal story, and you’ve gotten stuck for one reason or another—or you just want extra help to write a great book—I’m opening those slots up for 50% off of the usual registration rate.

You can find out a lot more about My One-Year Memoir at my website on two pages, here and here. (Please ignore the “registration closed” banners as I’m not going to make this offer on my website—only here.) If you are interested and want more information, including the cost, you can leave a comment below, or you can use the contact form on my website. I can take a small handful of people, so first come first served!

You’ll start July 1, and the goal will be to finish your book in six months, with my help. Go ahead and reach out; I’m here for you. Is this your year?