Shimmering Images: A Handy Little Guide to Writing Memoir

This book is a very short, very easy guide to writing an excellent memoir. It focuses on the idea of a shimmering image, defined as “a memory that rises in your consciousness like a photograph pulsing with meaning.” The author offers a structure for the memoir, a way to “go on a journey with a character who explores a segment of his life.” To get started, the memoirist chooses a slice of her life to focus on. Then she identifies the source of the problem in her life. The shimmering images that take place during that slice of life are the key elements of the story.