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Acetylene Torch Songs Writing True Stories to Ignite the Soul

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Acetylene Torch Songs aids memoirists and essayists seeking mentorship. Sue William Silverman promotes craftiness and practice over theory.

Image courtesy of interviewee. March 7, 2024

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This video video is a discussion about the author's motivation and insights gained from writing a craft book on creative nonfiction. The author emphasizes the significance of personal narratives and aims to inspire both beginner and experienced writers to explore their own stories. The author advocates for understanding and validating the genre of creative nonfiction, which is often misunderstood as overly reflective or lacking depth.

Key points include the importance of writing from the soul, taking emotional risks, and being vulnerable in storytelling. The author describes the process of crafting personal essays and memoirs, highlighting the need to develop an "aware voice" that reflects on experiences rather than merely recounting them.

The author also shares the idea that memory is fluid and personal, encouraging writers to trust their own narratives and express their truths without worrying about external opinions. The book includes personal essays to illustrate the craft principles discussed in each chapter, emphasizing the collaborative learning experience between the author and their students.

Ultimately, the author asserts that creative nonfiction is as artful as poetry or fiction, aiming to transform personal experiences into compelling narratives that resonate on a deeper level with readers.

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Probably the biggest motivation was my, abiding love

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for the craft and the genre of creative nonfiction.

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I really believe in the importance of personal narrative

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and by writing a craft book, of course, I hope

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to motivate others to write their stories as well.

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And it's not just for beginning writers

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'cause I feel that, you know, even more advanced writers,

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we can all get stuck on a personal essay or a memoir.

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So in some ways, I guess I hope that my book,

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if you are feeling stuck, that it might sort of unstick you

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so that you can kind of move forward with your,

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narrative.

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Um, and I think, creative nonfiction is sort

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of the perfect genre for ordinary people

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and underrepresented voices,

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but feel that they have an important, story to tell,

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you know, a, a life that's worth exploring.

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Um, and I think it's important to depict this kind

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of universality, of kind of seemingly ordinary lives.

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Um, but I also wrote the book

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because the genre is very misunderstood.

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There are a lot of naysayers

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and critics who accuse, creative nonfiction writers

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as naval gazers.

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And like, there's, I'm gonna share

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with you this one headline

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that was in the New York Times book review.

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It was a review of three memoirs,

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and it said, quote, living

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and examine life may be worth living

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writing about it is another matter.

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So there's just this put content put down of,

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of creative nonfiction that of course, makes me so annoyed

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that it makes me wanna write it even more.

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But there's really, it's a lack of understanding

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among critics that creative nonfiction is

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or can be as artful as fiction or poetry.

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Now that said, you have to make your memoir

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or your personal essay into art, which is to say that you go

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beyond just like, this happened

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to me or what happened to me.

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Uh, so you can't just like recount an experience.

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And to do that, I have a chapter in the book on voice.

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So it's a matter of implementing sort of an unaware voice

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with an aware voice.

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And this aware voice is the narrator

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who explores the metaphor of the experience,

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who reflects on the experience, who can delve deep into sort

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of the story behind the story.

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So that a story is kind

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of seemingly about me could also be about you

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because a reader identifies with a sort

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of underlying, emotions.

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It's not traditional, academic research.

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So when writing a settling torch songs, I really,

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learned

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Through, several decades of writing about, myself.

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Uh, I have two memoirs and three essay collections.

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So the research did occur over many decades

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of self-exploration.

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Also, I've been teaching creative nonfiction for 20 years.

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So of course that also helps with the research.

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'cause you have to, to teach, obviously you have

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to understand your topic with deep intention.

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But then it's a matter of sort of deconstructing

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what I learned from the writing in order to sort of clearly

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explain the craft issues to the reader.

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For example, in the chapter on voice, you know, I,

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I already mentioned that aware voice and the unaware voice.

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So I came up with those terms.

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I invented those terms in order to show

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how we do fully realize ourselves as narrators,

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in order, you know, really to turn our lives into art.

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So I came up with those terms, in order to explain

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how voice works in creative nonfiction,

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or like, another concept that I invented was sort

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of this idea of masks in creative nonfiction

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and how we kind of create a sort of metaphoric mask

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as we reveal ourselves as narrators.

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So I, I guess I would say that the research is sort

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of a combination of having written, having taught,

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and then invention of and discovery of terms

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and concepts so that they make sense to the reader.

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It's, it's kind of a matter of

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simplifying concepts without being simplistic.

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Um, but then the other thing is that the book,

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in addition to having chapters on craft, I also wrote

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personal essays to accompany each chapter that would kind

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of highlight the concerns of that chapter.

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It's like I couldn't ask a reader to sort of trust me

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and follow my, my guidelines

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and stuff if I couldn't do it myself.

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So I had to, so I did write personal essays to,

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also help sort of highlight the concerns of each chapter.

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Traditionally, in a writing classroom, we are taught to kind

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of embody the self on the page, which means to sort of write

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through the five senses to make ourselves very tangible.

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So somewhere along the way I realize

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that it's equally important, if not more important,

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to also in soul, like E-N-S-O-U-L in soul,

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the writer on the page as well.

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Because to me, soul is the origin

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of creativity and sort of imagination.

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So the soul is the birthplace of sort of the magic

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and the mystery of writing as well.

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It's where we sort of find our empathy

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and the ability to achieve deep self-exploration.

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So as we write,

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we're really turning our souls into art.

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So to write from the soul means that,

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you don't wanna write safe.

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You wanna take emotional risks,

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you wanna take aesthetic risks, you want to be vulnerable

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to reveal your soul.

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And, once you have courage to write your truth,

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then the craft of the genre, you know, that voice,

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the metaphor, the structure that sort

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of arises from the soul.

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And just to give you an example, so one of my,

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memoirs is called Lovesick,

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and it's about recovering from a sexual addiction.

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Now, when I started writing it, you know, I, I, well I felt

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so much shame around it that I want to write the book,

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but I didn't really want to sort

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of expose my unhealthy behaviors.

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Now, obviously you can't do that.

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You have to, you know, be vulnerable and,

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and put yourself out there.

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But, but for a long time I sort of,

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I was very scared about writing it.

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But then what I had to do is I really had to lean into

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that idea of courage, lean into my soul in order to, to,

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to let myself be vulnerable

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and to share my truths on the page.

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So we write creative nonfiction to engage with our readers

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in a very deeply intentional way, so

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that in some ways it almost is like sort

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of a soul touching a soul.

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Like if I'm writing from a very vulnerable place,

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my soul hopefully will touch a reader's soul.

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And the soul really holds all the elements together

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of the craft, the emotion, the aesthetic

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of creative nonfiction so

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that we are writing in this very kind of holistic way

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in order to produce an authentic work of art.

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I teach at a low residency MFA

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and writing program at Vermont College of Fine Arts.

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And so the more I write, of course the more I understand

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creative nonfiction and sort of as many manifestations,

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then the better, you know, able I am to teach it.

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Um, now creative nonfiction, it's sort of this umbrella term

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under which is like memoir, personal essay lyric, essay,

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meditative essay, segmented essay.

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So of course, you know, I have to learn all

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of these sub-genres as, as well as I invented some of my own

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in order to better teach.

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Um, but of course I also learn from my students in

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that if they're struggling with a craft issue, I mean,

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let's say they're writing an essay

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and they don't know sort of what structure it should sort

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of sit in, then we kind of work

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as a team together and try different

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Things together. Like,

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does this essay need, a traditional structure?

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Maybe it needs a more exp experimental form.

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Maybe it should be written, you know, as a,

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as a list, essay.

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But we have to try different things, in order to,

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you know, figure out the best way for this,

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essay to sort of sit.

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So, you know, they learned from me

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and I learned from them as we kind of, you know,

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writing is a very sort of lonely art form,

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but you know, coming together really

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helps, I think both of us.

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And then the other thing, so for Vermont College

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of Fine Arts is this really strong dynamic writing

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community, and I think that that helps all of us as well.

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So, you know, on a really bad day of writing,

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you do have a community to kind of lift you up and

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or on a good day, you know, we'll all sort

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of celebrate your success.

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But, it's really, they really do work hand in hand.

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And I would say, as much as I love to write,

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I also really love to teach.

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And I love that engagement of working.

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You know, being a low residency, I have a chance to sort

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of work one-on-one with the writer.

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And you know, you form very intense

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and you know, intimate bonds.

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So this is a Lene tort songs writing true stories

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to ignite the soul.

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And this essay is from a chapter on sort

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of discovering our obsessions through metaphor.

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And I'm just gonna read a couple of minutes of it.

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It's called The Robbery.

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For my 10th birthday, a jeweler designed a ring

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for me in the shape of a flower.

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I lived on the island of St. Thomas at the time.

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And this jeweler, whose last name was the same as that

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of a brand named Handgun, presented it

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to me in a blue velvet box opening it,

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my hands warmed as if saturated in magic.

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I believed the ring contained mystical powers,

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the way it nestled on pure white satin.

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Mr. Handgun slipped it on my finger.

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Its scold petals curled inward around five small diamonds

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by birthstone as a protecting the tender center

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of the flower, what Mr.

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Handgun called its ovary.

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Though I didn't understand that word back then,

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wearing the ring, I felt sophisticated like the tourists.

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As I strolled the streets of Charlotte Amelee

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before the ring, I'd only felt like a little girl.

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I frequently visited Mr.

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Handgun shop after school today with no cruise ship in port.

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There weren't any customers. Mr. Handgun was not in sight.

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The displays glittered, emeralds, rubies, gold

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and silver necklaces bright

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as the sun sparked Caribbean sea at times, Mr.

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Handgun let me model the jewelry.

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I would stare at myself in a mirror, imagining

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how I might one day appear as an adult woman.

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In those moments, I was an adult woman.

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Now I heard a small sound. I wasn't alone after all.

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Uh, Russell emanated from behind the blue curtain,

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his workshop, I almost called out

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to alert him to my presence.

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So he wouldn't think I was a thief.

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I didn't, A sudden voice might startle him,

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he might ruin a gem.

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Instead, I walked to the curtain,

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I trailed my hand along the edge, I nudged it aside,

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and I'll leave it there because maybe a reader would want

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to know what happens after I nudged the curtain aside.

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But throughout the, essay, it turns out how this ring

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is, does become sort of a metaphor for myself.

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So creative nonfiction, it really is a deep exploration

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of self-exploration or deep commitment to self-exploration

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and to sort of embrace the idea of taking risks

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and following the narrative wherever it leads.

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So, you know, it's kind, sort of don't hold back.

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You know, if you do, you're really not kind

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of writing from your soul.

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And I also wanna encourage writers to trust their memories.

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For example, if I'm writing about a time when I was growing

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up, so I have an older sister,

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so theoretically I could ask her

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what she remembers about an event, but why would I do that?

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Because like, her memory is gonna be different from my

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memory as well as should be.

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And since I'm writing my narrative, I have

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to trust my own narrative.

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But I think many beginning,

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writers don't fully bel Well, they might believe it,

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but it's hard to sort of trust it to sort

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of trust their memories.

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But so it's important to remember that when writing memoir

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or creative nonfiction,

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and which is to say that we're writing our memories.

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That memory is supposed to be fluid.

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You know, how do you feel about an event now

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is different from how you felt about it maybe five years

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ago, or how you might feel about it

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five years in the future.

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So don't worry what others might think.

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Just trust yourself, claim your truth, be courageous.

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Know that your voice is really important.

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And I also kind of split the process into two parts.

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So the first, the most important thing is

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to get your narrative down on paper.

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Just write it. Don't think about the outside world.

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That's kind of step two.

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So first and foremost, write your narrative, get it down.

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And then if you do wanna worry about whether your

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memory was right or wrong,

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I mean, and there is no right or wrong, just,

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or you, if you wanna worry about

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what the world might think about you, you know, put

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that off till later if you feel like you really

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do need to worry about it.

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I try not to worry about what anybody thinks about me,

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but, you know, but just have those, have those two

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parts separated.

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First write then think about

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what people might think about you.

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So just in sum, it's really important to know

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that creative nonfiction is an artful genre as artful

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as poetry, or fiction.

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And so ignore the people who wanna try to dismiss it

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and just know that writing personal narratives really is

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turning your life into art.

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I.

Exploring the Art of Creative Nonfiction

00:00:00 - Probably the biggest motivation was my, abiding love for the craft and the genre of creative nonfiction. I really believe in the importance of personal narrative and by writing a craft book, of course, I hope to motivate others to write their stories as well. And it's not just for beginning writers 'cause I feel that, you know, even more advanced writers, we can all get stuck on a personal essay or a memoir. So in some ways, I guess I hope that my book, if you are feeling stuck, that it might sort of unstick you
00:00:36 - narrative. and I think, creative nonfiction is sort of the perfect genre for ordinary people and underrepresented voices, but feel that they have an important, story to tell, you know, a, a life that's worth exploring. and I think it's important to depict this kind of universality, of kind of seemingly ordinary lives.
00:01:09 - because the genre is very misunderstood. There are a lot of naysayers and critics who accuse, creative nonfiction writers as naval gazers. And like, there's, I'm gonna share with you this one headline that was in the New York Times book review. It was a review of three memoirs, and it said, quote, living and examine life may be worth living
00:01:38 - So there's just this put content put down of, of creative nonfiction that of course, makes me so annoyed that it makes me wanna write it even more. But there's really, it's a lack of understanding among critics that creative nonfiction is or can be as artful as fiction or poetry. Now that said, you have to make your memoir or your personal essay into art, which is to say that you go
00:02:08 - to me or what happened to me. so you can't just like recount an experience. And to do that, I have a chapter in the book on voice. So it's a matter of implementing sort of an unaware voice with an aware voice. And this aware voice is the narrator who explores the metaphor of the experience, who reflects on the experience, who can delve deep into sort of the story behind the story.
00:02:40 - of seemingly about me could also be about you because a reader identifies with a sort of underlying, emotions. It's not traditional, academic research. So when writing a settling torch songs, I really, learned Through, several decades of writing about, myself. I have two memoirs and three essay collections. So the research did occur over many decades

Exploring Voice and Soul in Nonfiction Writing

00:03:13 - Also, I've been teaching creative nonfiction for 20 years. So of course that also helps with the research. 'cause you have to, to teach, obviously you have to understand your topic with deep intention. But then it's a matter of sort of deconstructing what I learned from the writing in order to sort of clearly explain the craft issues to the reader. For example, in the chapter on voice, you know, I, I already mentioned that aware voice and the unaware voice.
00:03:44 - I invented those terms in order to show how we do fully realize ourselves as narrators, in order, you know, really to turn our lives into art. So I came up with those terms, in order to explain how voice works in creative nonfiction, or like, another concept that I invented was sort of this idea of masks in creative nonfiction and how we kind of create a sort of metaphoric mask
00:04:19 - So I, I guess I would say that the research is sort of a combination of having written, having taught, and then invention of and discovery of terms and concepts so that they make sense to the reader. It's, it's kind of a matter of simplifying concepts without being simplistic. but then the other thing is that the book, in addition to having chapters on craft, I also wrote
00:04:52 - of highlight the concerns of that chapter. It's like I couldn't ask a reader to sort of trust me and follow my, my guidelines and stuff if I couldn't do it myself. So I had to, so I did write personal essays to, also help sort of highlight the concerns of each chapter. Traditionally, in a writing classroom, we are taught to kind of embody the self on the page, which means to sort of write
00:05:23 - So somewhere along the way I realize that it's equally important, if not more important, to also in soul, like E-N-S-O-U-L in soul, the writer on the page as well. Because to me, soul is the origin of creativity and sort of imagination. So the soul is the birthplace of sort of the magic and the mystery of writing as well.
00:05:54 - and the ability to achieve deep self-exploration. So as we write, we're really turning our souls into art. So to write from the soul means that, you don't wanna write safe. You wanna take emotional risks, you wanna take aesthetic risks, you want to be vulnerable to reveal your soul. And, once you have courage to write your truth,

Vulnerability and Soul in Creative Nonfiction

00:06:26 - the metaphor, the structure that sort of arises from the soul. And just to give you an example, so one of my, memoirs is called Lovesick, and it's about recovering from a sexual addiction. Now, when I started writing it, you know, I, I, well I felt so much shame around it that I want to write the book, but I didn't really want to sort of expose my unhealthy behaviors. Now, obviously you can't do that. You have to, you know, be vulnerable and,
00:06:57 - But, but for a long time I sort of, I was very scared about writing it. But then what I had to do is I really had to lean into that idea of courage, lean into my soul in order to, to, to let myself be vulnerable and to share my truths on the page. So we write creative nonfiction to engage with our readers in a very deeply intentional way, so that in some ways it almost is like sort
00:07:28 - Like if I'm writing from a very vulnerable place, my soul hopefully will touch a reader's soul. And the soul really holds all the elements together of the craft, the emotion, the aesthetic of creative nonfiction so that we are writing in this very kind of holistic way in order to produce an authentic work of art. I teach at a low residency MFA and writing program at Vermont College of Fine Arts.
00:08:04 - creative nonfiction and sort of as many manifestations, then the better, you know, able I am to teach it. now creative nonfiction, it's sort of this umbrella term under which is like memoir, personal essay lyric, essay, meditative essay, segmented essay. So of course, you know, I have to learn all of these sub-genres as, as well as I invented some of my own
00:08:35 - but of course I also learn from my students in that if they're struggling with a craft issue, I mean, let's say they're writing an essay and they don't know sort of what structure it should sort of sit in, then we kind of work as a team together and try different Things together. Like, does this essay need, a traditional structure? Maybe it needs a more exp experimental form.
00:09:07 - as a list, essay. But we have to try different things, in order to, you know, figure out the best way for this, essay to sort of sit. So, you know, they learned from me and I learned from them as we kind of, you know, writing is a very sort of lonely art form, but you know, coming together really helps, I think both of us. And then the other thing, so for Vermont College

Writing, Community, and the Journey of Self

00:09:36 - community, and I think that that helps all of us as well. So, you know, on a really bad day of writing, you do have a community to kind of lift you up and or on a good day, you know, we'll all sort of celebrate your success. But, it's really, they really do work hand in hand. And I would say, as much as I love to write, I also really love to teach. And I love that engagement of working.
00:10:06 - of work one-on-one with the writer. And you know, you form very intense and you know, intimate bonds. So this is a Lene tort songs writing true stories to ignite the soul. And this essay is from a chapter on sort of discovering our obsessions through metaphor. And I'm just gonna read a couple of minutes of it. It's called The Robbery. For my 10th birthday, a jeweler designed a ring
00:10:38 - I lived on the island of St. Thomas at the time. And this jeweler, whose last name was the same as that of a brand named Handgun, presented it to me in a blue velvet box opening it, my hands warmed as if saturated in magic. I believed the ring contained mystical powers, the way it nestled on pure white satin. Mr. Handgun slipped it on my finger.
00:11:12 - by birthstone as a protecting the tender center of the flower, what Mr. Handgun called its ovary. Though I didn't understand that word back then, wearing the ring, I felt sophisticated like the tourists. As I strolled the streets of Charlotte Amelee before the ring, I'd only felt like a little girl. I frequently visited Mr. Handgun shop after school today with no cruise ship in port.
00:11:47 - The displays glittered, emeralds, rubies, gold and silver necklaces bright as the sun sparked Caribbean sea at times, Mr. Handgun let me model the jewelry. I would stare at myself in a mirror, imagining how I might one day appear as an adult woman. In those moments, I was an adult woman. Now I heard a small sound. I wasn't alone after all.
00:12:21 - his workshop, I almost called out to alert him to my presence. So he wouldn't think I was a thief. I didn't, A sudden voice might startle him, he might ruin a gem. Instead, I walked to the curtain, I trailed my hand along the edge, I nudged it aside, and I'll leave it there because maybe a reader would want to know what happens after I nudged the curtain aside.

Embracing Truth in Creative Nonfiction Writing

00:12:53 - is, does become sort of a metaphor for myself. So creative nonfiction, it really is a deep exploration of self-exploration or deep commitment to self-exploration and to sort of embrace the idea of taking risks and following the narrative wherever it leads. So, you know, it's kind, sort of don't hold back. You know, if you do, you're really not kind
00:13:22 - And I also wanna encourage writers to trust their memories. For example, if I'm writing about a time when I was growing up, so I have an older sister, so theoretically I could ask her what she remembers about an event, but why would I do that? Because like, her memory is gonna be different from my memory as well as should be. And since I'm writing my narrative, I have to trust my own narrative. But I think many beginning,
00:13:54 - but it's hard to sort of trust it to sort of trust their memories. But so it's important to remember that when writing memoir or creative nonfiction, and which is to say that we're writing our memories. That memory is supposed to be fluid. You know, how do you feel about an event now is different from how you felt about it maybe five years ago, or how you might feel about it five years in the future. So don't worry what others might think.
00:14:25 - Know that your voice is really important. And I also kind of split the process into two parts. So the first, the most important thing is to get your narrative down on paper. Just write it. Don't think about the outside world. That's kind of step two. So first and foremost, write your narrative, get it down. And then if you do wanna worry about whether your memory was right or wrong, I mean, and there is no right or wrong, just,
00:14:55 - what the world might think about you, you know, put that off till later if you feel like you really do need to worry about it. I try not to worry about what anybody thinks about me, but, you know, but just have those, have those two parts separated. First write then think about what people might think about you. So just in sum, it's really important to know that creative nonfiction is an artful genre as artful as poetry, or fiction.
00:15:38 - and just know that writing personal narratives really is turning your life into art. I.

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