I was recently granted
the honor and privilege of helping a World War Two veteran put the polish on
a book describing his wartime experiences in the Pacific. As he wishes to remain
anonymous until the time of publication, I will refer to him as Tom. And Tom
had quite a story to tell.
Now, the most
important thing was Tom telling his story in his own words, his
own voice, with his own recollections. My role in this is part editor,
cleaning up any their-they’re-there issues and such, and part guide, making the story as gripping as possible. Tom wrote everything. I applied the tools of a
writer – particularly the tools discussed in this blog.
The first question
that might come to mind is, “How can those tools apply to non-fiction? There is
only one way to tell the truth.” There is some validity to that, but not as
much as one might think. In the broadest sense, the basic parts of storytelling
are very obvious. The story conflict is obvious – World War Two. It’s autobiographical, so we
know our main character does not die. We know exactly who the hero is, and Tom fits right in as the character who becomes a hero through his actions during
unthinkable times. And having different story techniques, like the Unreliable Narrator method we've discussed, would contradict the entire process. However, other tools can very
much be applied, and this post is about a powerful one – foreshadowing.
Foreshadowing is a
technique where we hint at what is to come. This can be through the symbolism and examples representing events that repeat themselves, or the use of dialogue
hinting at a change further along in the story. We will get to all of these in time, but this post is about the non-fiction genre. In non-fiction, symbols, examples, and metaphors may never
have happened. However, a very powerful use of foreshadowing is to reveal a
part of the story in advance, then go back and tell the story leading up to
that point.
I recently finished
Bryan Cranston’s autobiography, A Life in Parts. Mr. Cranston talked about
growing up in California amidst a troubled family dynamic, coming of age, jobs and
adventures, his introduction to acting, and all the struggles before he made it
big. That alone is enough to make for a good read, and I am sure fans of Bryan
Cranston would not be let down. But what made it truly intriguing was that he
didn’t tell the story that way. Rather, he used a little foreshadowing to draw
in the reader, and they were hooked.
Even though Bryan
Cranston grew up in southern California, the book opens during the filming of a
particularly intense scene from Breaking Bad. His infamous character, Walter
“Heisenberg” White, is watching someone die and choosing to not save them. Mr.
Cranston then explains the personal shock that overcame him during the filming
of this terrible scene, and how it shook him to his very core. The description of the moment is surreal,
traumatizing, and deeply disturbing, and it all emerged from the kind of person
he tried to be his whole life.
The next chapter then goes to his
early days growing up in California and his whole life narrative.
By telling the story
out of order for just one chapter, the reader is drawn in. The reader
experiences an intense, dramatic moment, and wants to
know more. Furthermore, when the next chapter is about a child living in the LA Valley, the reader wants to know the path that led from A to B. A seed has been planted. The reader knows that life will lead
to that point, and wants follow whatever path goes there. The
truth has been preserved, yet the storytelling has been improved because of one
little bit of foreshadowing.
This brings us back to
Tom, who grew up in south Chicago during the Great Depression. To tell the
story of his life from a kid skipping stones across the filthy Cal-Sag river
all the way to a Navy Petty Officer in the Pacific makes for a fine story, and
very much worth reading. It’s a story that needs to be told, a period of life
few people these days would ever understand, and an attempt to comprehend what
happens when an innocent man serves thirty months in Hell. People would read
that. Someone might even by the story rights.
But what if the first chapter was sin mid-November, 1944? The story starts with Tom and his buddy walking down a beach
outside the harbor as the tide comes in. The water is dark-red and too
thick for the waves to foam. They see the water is awash
with fuel oil and human remains from a ship they lost the day before, the
Pacific slowly returning the remains of the dead. Tom goes to the shoreline, kneels to the
water’s edge, and says a prayer for all the lost souls.
The next chapter is a young Tom skipping stones across the Cal-Sag during the Great Depression.
Both are the same
story, but you tell me – which one would you read first?
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