The Butterfly Hours

by Patty Dann

For over twenty-five years, writer Patty Dann has taught a writing class at the YMCA on New York's Upper West Side. Organized into ten rules of writing and adorned with stories from the author's own life and from the lives of her students, The Butterfly Hours is meant to inspire and excite the writer, day by day, page by page.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Memoir

Paperback

First published August 23, 2016

About the author

I love talking with readers - for 1:1s and Book Club visits, find me on Skolay: www.skolay.com/writers/patty-dann

Reviews

[Ali Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this one up randomly at a bookstore. I'm always attracted to books about memoir writing (totally in alignment with my memory keeping endeavors) and this one really filled me up these last few weeks as I was working on some new classroom content. Patty Dann also loves to use one word jumping off points to pull stories from our memories/prompt us to tell more (super similar to my 31 Things and 31 More Things workshops) so I loved checking out her writing style and reading her stories. Quick and easy read. Loved it.

[Sigrun Hodne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This books is presented as a series of writing lessons, I would rather call it an exemplary text - a model. The Butterfly Hours is a memoire in the form of miniatyr prompts, but what is most interesting with this book, is that it is a great demonstration of the personal & private life as a collage, made up of a choir of voices and events. An exemplification of how (in the words of Kierkegaard): Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enchanting. And now I'm timidly considering a few of the prompts at the end. Can't wait to pass around this one precious hard copy to some writer friends in Phnom Penh.

Feeling motivated and grounded about tackling my next writing project.

[Beryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a delight. I have been working my way through all of her prompts which has helped to restore my desire to write.

[Mary Langer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short book is a complete course in writing a memoir while also being a memoir. Dann gives single word writing prompts to jog the memory and then has students write and writes herself about her life. So there are models or mentor texts not only from the author but from her students of all ages. There are several moving passages here, and the reader will want to read more, but that's the point. This book will get you started writing, turning your memories into a memoir. The author is an experienced teacher and I would either include her book in a memoir course or try to use it as a complete course. I will include this title in my bibliography for the Dorothy C. Blakely Memoir Course taught to high schoolers in the high desert of California. I'm so glad to have found it.

[Jude Morrissey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't usually read memoirs, and I'm not particularly interested in writing them, but I thought this book would be an interesting way to kickstart the kiddos' journal writing. It isn't that; but it is a wonderful little book.

Between chapters of practical advice on writing well are little snippets of memoir, primarily from the author's life, but a few from her students, as well. At the end of the book is a list of one word writing prompts for practicing memoir writing.

I recommend this book to anyone who likes to read memoirs, as well as those who want to write, generally, and are looking for some good advice.

[Chuck Nyren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some writers put everything on the page. Dostoyevsky yesteryear, Franzen today. When you finish one of their paragraphs, there isn’t much more to know.

While I might not describe Ms. Dann as a minimalist, she has learned lessons. Her sentences spur your imagination. Her matter-of-fact elegance lifts you slightly off the ground, then startles you.

Solid advice about writing. However, you’ll learn as much (probably more) about art and craft from reading her stories. (And her student’s stories.)

Ms.Dann says, “Do not worry about writing like someone else.”

From now on I’m going to write more like Patty Dann.

[Nora Baskin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was so moved and so taken with this book.I will read it again and I am sure I will be buying it many more times to give to friends. I was, at times heartbroken, and at times elated by her story. I was inspired to write, to teach, to read. At times, my breath was taken away by a turn of phrase, an image, a sentence, a memory. I will put this book on my shelf next to Anne Lamott's Bird By Bird and Stephen King's On Writing and Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking. It is that good, that original, that beautiful.

[Terri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this wise little gem of a book. Brief but rich, to the point but deep and full of story. A fabulous reminder of the power of memory in feeding into our writing storehouse of ideas and inspiration.
Highly recommended for writers wanting to start tapping into their memories to write memoirs and personal essays.

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

From a master teacher this book is a master class in transforming memories into memoir. Laugh out loud, be caught off guard and tear up moments from the author's writings and from some she shared by her students' ten minute writing samples. This book is for anyone who loves to write and who appreciates what writers do.

[Marlena · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a quiet memoir, "the small story of my life on earth." with assignments for writers of memoir interspersed throughout. "Write out of love an anger,"as in other chapters, is fleshed out with vignettes from the author's childhood. Patty Dann reels us while we are not looking. Quietly affecting. I recommend it to all readers of memoir.

[Tiffany Amoakohene · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Butterfly Hours" is the perfect little companion to have by your side before you start to write, while you write, and after you write. Although it’s geared towards writing memoir, the insights are applicable to other forms of of non-fiction and fiction writing.

[Sigrun Hodne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a truly beautiful and elegant book - reads more like a memoir in form of a collage than as a traditional book on how to write. An exemplary text, maybe?

[Barbknowles · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hung on every word in this wonderful book by Patty Dann. The Butterfly Hours helped me to focus my own memoir essays and using examples from her own life made this book breathtakingly lovely.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Patty Dann's book has inspired me to want to write. Her quick write idea is awesome!

[Karenbike Patterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

An easy to read and concise way to begin writing memoir with wonderful examples and prompts.

[Tt Bishop · Rating 4 out of 5]

More about grief/hard times than writing, but a really lovely book nonetheless.

[Cris Saravia OdeMontellano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful. Simple. Useful. I did some of the word exercises together with some friends and it reveals memories you didn't remember you even had. Beautiful experience.

[Rita Schunk · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of those few essential books every writer should read.

[Connor Spearman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book on writing/memoir that really finished strong. Very enjoyable to read and a very interesting way to structure a book on writing.

[Nathan Albright · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a bit disappointed by this little book.  Judging by its title, and subtitle (and especially the note on the title that said that the book had prompts for uncovering one’s life stories), I thought that this book would focus on the emotionally cathartic but occasionally difficult process by which writers turn their stock of memories into a memoir.  This is something that I have personally done on a large scale and that I have done regularly on the smaller scale of the personal essay, but I was interested in seeing if the author had any insights to provide about this task that would be possible to share with others.  After all, sometimes one can do something implicitly but still find it useful to have some sort of explicit procedures for how to deal with the task of writing memoirs.  This book is not that sort of book.  Instead, while this book does have some prompts for writers of memoir and memoir-like material (mostly at the end), this book in general is rather a memoir of the author’s own life experiences and an exploration of her memories, especially the less pleasant ones, as memoir authors tend to dwell on.

This volume is a quarto-sized book that is not even 150 pages and is divided into ten chapters.  After a short introduction the author divides the book into ten lessons.  First, the author discusses that one should write out of love or anger (1) and the author shows both, after which the author says that writing should steal from oneself (2).  After this the author talks about how being a good writer tends to require that one be a good reader (3), and that one should not write with the thought of publication or money (4).  Then the author discusses how one should be a slob (5) as well as recognizing the importance of time spent away from the computer (6).  The author talks about genius (7) as well as the importance of reading one’s work aloud (8) to see how it sounds.  After this the author gives the advice to revise repeatedly (9) and also to be bold and bolder about one’s writing (10), after which there is an afterword, acknowledgements, a list of assignments to help readers with prompts, and some information about the author.  It should be noted that the author gives her lessons mainly through writing about her own life, making this book a somewhat meta memoir about the process of writing a memoir.

Indeed, if we are looking at this book from the point of view of a genre, this book has more to do with autobiography than it does with the memoir.  After all, properly speaking a memoir places someone’s life in a greater context that can be appreciated even if the reader does not know or care anything about the author personally.  One can read a memoir about someone who overcame a difficult childhood (these memoirs are particularly popular) or who survived rape or some terrible disease like cancer, and one can cheer on the author even without being familiar with the author’s life before.  But autobiography makes the focus of the book the author rather than the larger context, and assumes that the reader does know and/or care about that life.  This book is less about the process of dealing with one’s own memories as much as a naval-gazing exercise where the author attempts to look at her own memories of relationships with her family and with boyfriends and husbands and how they shaped where she lived and what she thought, which one really only cares about to the extent that one cares what the author has to say about these things.

[Arleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Butterfuly Hours looks and feels like a quick read. That is, until you realize that these the brief vignettes add up to a significant reading experience. Patty Dann integrates her own
personal experiences with those of a broad variety of students in writing classes she teaches.
A day or two later, the reader has been stimulated by thoughts expressed in anything from a paragraph to a few pages. Somehow it all comes together in just a bit more than 120 pages.
I'm now motivated to sit down with Dann's table of words. Single words to begin writing my
own memories. Something I have tried to do for some time. Feeling eager to write.
Just a short session for my first exercise. Thank you Patty Dann.

[Artemisia Hunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book slowly, a few pages a day, because for such a small book, there was a lot to take in. The Butterfly Hours was probably the shortest book on writing that I’ve read, but the inspiration and advice it contained far outweighed some much heftier volumes on the topic. Did I mention that it’s also written as a memoir? I love memoirs of all kinds and this one proves that you don’t need to include long and very detailed memories to give a very full and deep understanding of a person’s story, or about the things about a life that pertain to life in general.

[Lyn Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although only a relatively short book it is filled with writing ideas from both the author and her students. A good introduction to someone just beginning their memoir journey. The list of one word prompts at the end of the book are an added bonus, providing food for thought.

[Christy Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick and easy read. Informative, with fun writing prompts.

[Carla · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really well-written memoir. I love her personal stories.

[Traci · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting more… better prompt ideas, not every page filled with little memoirs, vignettes and stories.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an excellent read! Patty Dann is a gifted writer. I appreciate her style of writing, sharing seemingly random excerpts from her life meant to be used as keyword writing prompts.

[Aisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such an enjoyable, surprising read.