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"The first narrative is about my trip to Vietnam as a young woman (I was 24). The second narrative is about my childhood with my father, who was a tunnel rat in the war. The third narrative follows my father's recollections of his time in Vietnam ... The hardest part of putting all of these sections together was in finding transitions that worked, and making the narrative flow naturally ... I would often spend hourse working on a transition."

That's Danielle Trussoni describing the awsome task of writing her memoir, Falling Through the Earth. She's our special guest this week, sharing how she created this award-winning book.

Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web publishing.

Jason Boog:
You father's war stories are so vivid. How did you turn hours and hours of tape-recorded conversations into gripping, nearly first-person stories? Any practical advice for aspiring writers who want to turn interview materials into vivid stories?

Danielle Trussoni:
I think that the first thing to understand (from a writer’s point of view) is that nothing in this memoir is direct transcription from a tape. Continue reading...

I listened to the tapes, I spoke with my dad, I reread my journals I kept as a teenager, I listened to music I heard as a kid, and then I put all that away and wrote from memory.

I don’t think that good memoir is possible unless the writer allows her ‘filter’ or the coloration of her own mind to pervade the work.

In my mind, finding my voice and my vision of this book trumped any kind of journalistic agenda or interest.

Want to read the complete interview? Just click here...