Shimmering Images: A Handy Little Guide to Writing Memoir is a short little book full of useful advice and instruction. A “shimmering image” is “a memory that rises in your consciousness like a photograph pulsing with meaning.” Norton defines these as the bedrock of memoir and endeavors to help you mine them from your life.
The book is divided into three parts: (I) The Ideas Behind the Process; (II) The Process; and (III) The Tools To Craft the Process. Norton is pithy and succinct. She makes her point and moves on, which is particularly refreshing in a book about writing. Norton provides useful several techniques and exercises to help you write and revise your memories.
Though I don’t have any plans to write a memoir, I enjoyed this little book and would recommend it to those who have an itch to write about their lives.
The definition of a “memoir” has been hotly debated recently. For Norton’s definition and views on the subject, see this article.
Shimmering Images, by Lisa Dale Norton 
Buy Shimmering Images: A Handy Little Guide to Writing Memoir
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Writing memoirs is fun! I took a class on it in college.
That was an interesting article; thanks for sharing. I love memoirs and posted about that here: http://smallworldreads.blogspot.com/2008/07/sunday-salon-on-memoirs.html
I also reviewed Frey’s book recently: http://smallworldreads.blogspot.com/2008/09/book-review-million-little-pieces.html
I’d like to take a look at the book. Part of my thesis in grad school included several memoir pieces, and I do fantasize about someday completing a collection of memoir in poetry and creative nonfiction….
Someday….!
I’ve been thinking about taking a course on writing memoir, but with a full plate that I am now, I’ll have to defer the plan. This book would be lovely and useful. Thanks for the heads up!
Just wanted to let you know I blogged about your review here.
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