It’s a slippery thing, writing. You think you are going to create a particular form of writing but then, magically, it recasts itself. The temptation is to wrangle it back into its original form but should you?
I wanted to write a memoir about a particular time in my life and how I worked through the challenges. I read widely about methods of structuring such a book and talked at length to a writer friend about it. I tried to fit what I wanted to say into different arrangements. I became frustrated that each structure seemed artificial and awkward, and didn’t help me tell my story. So, I put it to one side while I thought some more.
Since I wasn’t comfortable with any of the structures, I started to write some of the stories without worrying about how they would form a cohesive whole. That felt good and helped my words onto the page.
Then it came to me: I am writing a series of related personal essays, not a ‘memoir’. It’s been helpful to accept this and I now I can see a way forward with the stories. Sometimes, writing just wants to mutate into something different.