How to write like Glennon Doyle
Untamed: Stop Pleasing Start Living by Glennon Doyle had been cropping up for me in different places for a while so I decided to order it from the library and see what the fuss was about! Published in 2020, it’s a memoir with a strong message of being your unapologetic, authentic, untamed self.
I read it quickly (admittedly skimmed a few parts - it’s quite long!) and felt her bold energy emanate from every page. This in turn made me think differently about my writing and work. I want to practice that level of confidence and knowing. I used to have a Post-it above my desk saying “be more bold and dynamic” as this is feedback I’ve had about my writing before. That got replaced with “be brave”, which now I’m looking at it feels as if I’m coming from a place of being scared in the first place. So time to return to being dynamic!!
Either way, I decided to write down the lessons I gained about writing a book from reading Glennon Doyle’s Untamed and to share them with you. I also took a closer look at the Prologue and Chapter 1:
Write with energy, confidence, purpose and your own unique, authentic voice.
Open with a scene or image. Untamed has a prologue which is a scene of the author with her family at the zoo. She sees a cheetah trained and tamed to run and chase a bunny for the reward of a steak at the end. Doyle returns to this image throughout the book.
Introduce all of the narrative threads of your book in Chapter 1. In chapter 1, we know that Doyle has left her husband for a woman, then married her. The rest of the book unfolds how this happened. This is the main, present day (of the memoir) narrative thread. The others are: her own journey with bulimia and addiction; and being a mother to girls in this society. Both of these are introduced in the Prologue and Chapter 1.
Use rhetorical devices to get your point across. Glennon Doyle opens Chapter 1 with a compelling, intriguing statement: “Four years ago, married to the father of my three children, I fell in love with a woman.” The second sentence briefly outlines Abby (the woman she fell in love with) driving to Doyle’s parents to share her proposal plan.
Doyle then slows down the pivotal moment of Abby’s return using techniques from fiction - she mentions domestic details, describes the movements of the scene characters (the author and Abby), then shows the intensity of Abby’s love by offering one line of dialogue: “I couldn’t wait,” she said. “I just could not wait another minute.”
This device makes the reader feel as if we are in the room with her. She then reflects on her path to this point and uses short sentences, lists and questions for emphasis.
Offer advice in bite-sized chunks. Doyle’s chapters are very short with a piece of advice or realisation couched in slices of family life. Part two of the three-part book offers four keys or tenets for living: Feel it all; Be still and know; Dare to imagine; and Build and burn. These imperatives, delivered with images and stories to cement them in the reader’s lives, carry Doyle through the long and more complex part three of the book.
Do not shy away from the hard parts. Glennon Doyle’s podcast is entitled: We Can Do Hard Things. And she deals with all sorts of issues in her book: bulimia, addiction, divorce, being LGBTQ+, racism, religion, bringing up boys (as well as girls), vulnerability, and going against societal expectations and social conditioning.
I love taking a closer look at a book that has had an impact on me to see how the author achieved that. This is what helps me learn about writing. I use these insights in my own work and when editing for other people.
Let me know if there’s a book you love that you’d like me to take a close look at. I’ll analyse which writing techniques they use that we can learn from. Preferably something memoir related!
About the author
Mel has written, edited and published poetry, fiction and personal essays as well as academic articles, magazine features and many other third sector publications and web content. Recently, she has been working on Moonpause: a series of plant and moon-inspired lyric essays funded by the Arts Council.