Reading Notes (1): ‘Shimmering Images’ and the Mythic Core of Memoir

On Lisa Dale Norton’s guide to writing from the images that won’t let go

Dear Living Dark reader,

I finished reading this book today. Shimmering Images: A Handy Little Guide to Writing Memoir by Lisa Dale Norton (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2008) is a lovely, short book. The term in the title, coined by Norton, refers to those persistent memories that have returned and haunted you all your life, “a memory that rises in your consciousness like a photograph pulsing with meaning. . . . Over and over they come back, knocking at the door of your creative soul, waiting to shed light on your life, waiting to share the wisdom that resides inside them” (28, 29).

Norton presents an entire strategy in this book, a step-by-step guide to surfacing and focusing on these core images and then taking them as both the practical and spiritual heart of a memoir. Impressively, she manages to do this in a way that doesn’t foreclose on possibilities by reducing the work to a cookie-cutter approach. Instead, my sense is that her method expands possibilities by empowering the reader, exactly as she intends.

Along with the specific advice and guidance, and undergirding it all with a real energetic fascination, Norton shares many resonant insights about the mythic power of writing to shape self and world. The book is ultimately as much about that as it is about the act of writing. Or rather, it’s about both of these together.

Here are my top short passages, including page numbers for my own reference. Bold emphases are mine.

1. “Story, the essence of narrative, is art. Writing life stories borders on the mystical because you, the writer, become the master of reality. You make sense of chaos. You bring order to life events through narrative; you attach meaning to events. That act is more than reporting facts; it is an act of creation. Art is creation. Memoir is art.” (10)

2. “You must voice your stories to get beyond them.” (15)

3. “The most audacious story waits behind the one trying to hide. That is the place where you’ll find the most emotion, the most passion, and the most resistance. Resistance in the writing of personal stories is a catchword for story-that-needs-to-be-told. Whatever is behind the resistance has so much energy that you yourself, its author, are scared of it.” (39)

4. “This is all about teasing the Muse to come out of the trees and dance with you around the fire of creation. And I can’t tell you exactly how it works, because we are talking now about forces beyond the ken of ordinary folk.” (69-70)

5. “Go back to all the Shimmering Images [that you have gathered for your current memoir] and ask yourself, ‘What are these about? What is it that is backing up my throat that I want to spit onto the page? What unspoken meaning has come over me?’ And then you write about that.” (73)

6. “Stories order chaos and make sense of our lives. In the process, the story has a magical way of answering old questions and transforming random events into meaning you can carry into the future with grace.” (98)

7. “[W]hatever myth you sculpt from your past will influence your future. That’s what matters to me, because you are creating for yourself a new paradigm, a new way of being in the world, and that can shake things up. That audacious act has within it the seeds of change.” (110)

On a personal note, this book came into my life three or four months ago when I stumbled across it in a thrift store. It was at a moment when my thoughts had been returning pretty regularly for several weeks to the subject of memoir. After so many years of seeing this synchronistic dynamic play out with all sorts of things, I probably shouldn’t feel as surprised or delighted as I do when it keeps happening. But each time, the pleasure is the same.

Shimmering Images is available at both Amazon and Bookshop.org.

Warm regards,

P.S. The Amazon and Bookshop references above are both affiliate links, so I’ll earn a commission if you click through either and make a purchase. I have an affiliate status with both stores but hardly ever use them. I figured I’d start doing more of that in 2026.

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Speaking of books:

“[An] intimate journey into the mystery of creativity and spirit… Cardin weaves practical methods, personal stories, literary references, and mystical insights into a lyrical meditation on what it means to create from the depths of the soul… both deeply personal and universally resonant.”
— BookLife review (Publishers Weekly)

“A guide for writers who welcome the dark and hunger for meaning.
— Joanna Penn

“I can’t think of any [other books] that link the creative act so uniquely or persuasively with spirituality.”
— Victoria Nelson

“A meditation on the silence and darkness out of which all creative acts emerge....A guide for writers unlike any other.”
— J. F. Martel

“Important to any writer ready to see through the self illusion and realize the freedom this brings to any creative work.”
— Katrijn van Oudheusden

Available from all the major stores (Amazon, Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, and so on) in both paperback and electronic editions: