Behind the Pages: Shannon Luders Manuel Reveals the Untold Inspirations Behind The One Who Loves You
SLM: Sure. So, the advantage I had was a wealth of information. I was extremely detailed in my journals. I didn’t think about who the audience was, I just poured everything out. I would even write conversations verbatim. The letters work because I feel like they elevated my dad’s own voice and made him a living character. The disadvantages of the journals were that, because there was so much, I had to really decide what information to use. I had someone in my writing critique group say, “you can’t say everything that’s in your journal.” This book is only 1% of what’s in my journals! So, the challenge was what to include and also how to make it literary in tone, instead of: “this happened, and then this happened.” I had to balance the voice of me at the time and the voice of me as an adult with a broader perspective.