A Literary Confession + 3 Writing Tips

Hello, tender friends!

I refuse to be ashamed. I just won’t. When people shamed the author of “Twilight” and got annoyed she had “no writing talent,” I wouldn’t get on board. (I actually studied that book to figure out why it was successful- a topic for another day).

Ok, deep breath. Here it is: I read the Paris Hilton memoir. And I liked it. And I actually gleaned some useful insights from it.

Paris Hilton is four/five years older than me. We’re close enough in age that we remember when everyone loved the Goo Goo Dolls and how it felt to watch the grunge era lose its momentum in favor of sugary pop and manufactured boy bands. We were both teenagers when 9/11 happened. We come from very different backgrounds, but those things create some emotional resonance. Pop culture is a surprisingly strong bond at times.

She was on TV a lot when I was in college, and I remember telling my roommate to stop buying into the stupidity. “That’s dumb. Can’t you watch something else?” I huffed. I couldn’t stand the sound of Hilton saying, “That’s hot” anymore.

But there’s something to be said about growing up in Hollywood and managing to safely age out of dancing on tables. While it’s perhaps too lofty to attribute the word “wisdom” to Hilton’s ghostwriter, she accurately captured the zeitgeist of how it felt to be a woman coming of age in the ’90s and early 2000s.

Oh, and Hilton’s even a mom now.

Here’s what I learned from analyzing the ghostwriting, referring to the ghostwriter as “she” and Paris Hilton as “Hilton”:

1. Animal metaphors are entertaining. She describes Hilton as having “kangaroo strength” in her legs from dancing in heels all night. An effective and memorable way to describe a physical attribute. Try this, as it’s fun: I aspire to have baboon strength in my arms. Cub has monkey energy every morning.
2. Make your heroine impressive in some way, but vulnerable and flawed. She describes Hilton as a savvy business woman who has a 300 million dollar net worth. She also describes Hilton as an “athletic and clever” adolescent. Most of us know that privilege begets privilege, and the likelihood of Hilton ever generating 300 million without her family name is very slim. Still, she portrayed Hilton as a working woman, and even though the fact that she didn’t waitress her way through high school and college isn’t lost on me, she does portray Hilton as preferable to somebody who just sits on their wealth. As for the “athletic and clever” assertion, I didn’t really find evidence of that assertion supported, but I thought the assonance worked well, as I remember it even now. Those adjectives worked because they were pretty unexpected. As for vulnerability, she describes Hilton as being date raped at 15 years old. Whatever your feelings about Hilton’s level of privilege, I think we can agree that nobody deserves that.
3. Find the universal connection with readers. The ghost writer was particularly adept at this. For example, when describing the interaction that led to Hilton’s infamous sex tape, she quotes Hilton as saying that she “had to prove something to him (the boyfriend),” and that she wanted to do “grown up things to be taken seriously.” I’m fairly certain most teenage girls can relate to this. Another one that hit me hard was, “Love people enough to stand up for them. Love yourself enough to stand up for you.” If you grew up in the 90s trying hard to be the “cool girl” who drank beer and never argued with guys even when they were acting like idiots, things like this might speak to you too.

Another quote that I enjoyed was, “Don’t waste energy living a life someone else designed for you. Life is one per customer. Let them do theirs. You do yours.” When I was recovering from illness, I knew I had to break the habit of people pleasing, as I’ve written about before. While I haven’t specifically written in depth about this particular moment, I had a conversation in which I realized that satisfying other people’s expectations was literally killing me.

So I stopped satisfying other people’s expectations. I accepted the fact that they’d be disappointed and that I didn’t care anymore. While “live your best life” has almost become a cliché at this point, it’s what I needed to hear at that time. Hilton’s entire brand is aligned to this idea, and while focusing on “living your best life” can result is selfishness and self-absorption, the concept has its place in life.

Please don’t misunderstand me: I’m not endorsing Hilton’s views on anything. She does describe herself as “officially Catholic” and said she does believe in God, but there were of course things that don’t align with my view of God in the book. I’m not judging where she’s at, just clarifying that some of her views contradict my view of righteous and divine authority.

But of all the books I’ve read this month, this was the most well-written (with the exception of the introduction, which was really awful but not reflective of the quality or style of the rest of the book).

So there it is- I gleaned valuable life lessons and writing lessons from the Paris Hilton memoir.

Ok, tender friends, thank you for stopping by! Given that my last post last week performed terribly (worst stats ever), you may be interested in the fact that I’ll be sharing a food post on Thursday. I’m not sharing it because of the poor stats, but because I’ve just learned a new food trick and have been delighted by it thus far! Next Monday I’ll be sharing coping strategies that changed my mindset and got me thinking positively when I was struggling with being ill.

Thank you for sharing!

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