Why Fiction is the Key to Compelling Memoir: Lessons from Ruth Reichl’s Save Me the Plums

Photo by @foodiesfeed at Unsplash

Find me at a family function or dinner party, and I’m probably caught in a conversation with someone who’s telling me their breathtaking idea for a book. They’ve been writing it in their head for years, sharing bits with friends who are riveted by the real life accounts and feel like it could be the book. 

Then the inevitable line comes: I have the entire thing mapped out. Now, I just need to write it.

Yes. Yes, you do, and this is where it gets tricky.

It’s not enough to have a good story. You need to tell a good story. This is why the elements of fiction are crucial to memoir, which focuses on a specific theme or time period of someone’s life. There is an art to drawing readers in, capturing their attention and leaving them satisfied at the end. 

Compelling memoir leaps off of the pages with internal conflict, details and passion making you forget that it’s not a novel.

Enter Ruth Reichl’s Save Me the Plums.

As someone who also saw the quick demise of the food magazine I once called home, Reichl’s account as the last Editor of Gourmet magazine was an easy yes to my reading list. But what struck me more than how similar our stories were, was how I forgot I was reading a memoir at all. 

Her ability to move through time, introduce characters and craft a story that to its very last sentence had me by the heartstrings is unparalleled. So, if that’s the memoir you want to write, here are some lessons to take with you from Save Me the Plums.

Reel in Readers with a Good Hook

Memoir is a genre people find especially tricky. They believe their story is unlike any they’ve heard before and that that alone will sell their book. 

If you were picking up a book in the fiction section though, you’d probably skip the book about someone’s entire life that’s much ado about nothing. A book jacket cover that reads: Woman overcomes lifelong fears to discover who she truly is.

That could be any book, and it’s not one people will jump to read with that “hook”.

Reichl grabs us with: What happens when a woman lands a dream job at her favorite food magazine, only to be at the head when the ship goes down?

It reads like something you might find in the fiction section or even on the Hallmark channel? Yes, it has your attention.

Play with Space and Time

Telling true stories doesn’t have to be linear or boring. Great memoir mimics fiction writing when it expands scenes as if you’re watching a movie. 

Reichl does this beautifully in a scene where she’s contemplating whether  to take the job at Gourmet and ends up in front of her childhood apartment. We’re taken back to her roots in a realistic way, and yet, the picture she paints is so vivid, you feel like you’re there.

In real life, triggers for the past come up in a million different ways — a particular coffee order, a picture popping up in your social media timeline or finding a sweater an ex left behind — bring out the past by applying it to the present and what it means for you to move forward.

For Reichl, there was a purpose for bringing us to her old neighborhood, and it’s absolutely evident when we leave. Every scene should have a reason for existing, but that doesn’t mean you have to stay in a single moment while you’re there.

Create Full-Blooded Characters

When you’re writing about people you know, it can be scary because you’re dealing with genuine emotions and consequences. However, you also have to be all in on the cast you’re creating, and that includes yourself.

With each character, they have their own wants and needs and it will accelerate or slow down the one thing you really want. In captivating fiction, you feel like you know the other players in the story. There are layers to them that are revealed through their interactions with the other characters.

In Save Me the Plums, Reichl paints a cast of characters you can easily identify — they’re their own people with specific goals and backgrounds. Their dialogue, mannerisms and appearance distinguish them from any other characters. Yes, there’s the advantage of using real people, but think of fictional characters: There have to be unique markers for each one, or they end up running together and readers won’t know why they care.

Don’t skip Reichl’s acknowledgments at the end either. Her note on how many people to include in a memoir, or any book, is one of the simplest and hardest pieces of advice to take as a writer.

Now that you have some good reminders in your back pocket about writing a compelling memoir, get to that writing space of yours and release those fiction fiends waiting to be let go.