To prevent narrators from coming across as a whiny victims, modern memoirs seem to require that the narrators take responsibility for their complicity in the disasters they're recording. There are times in life when s**t happens, when you're standing on a street corner with your back safely against … [Read more...] about I’m Innocent, Officer: Thinking About Memoir. Again.
creative writing
3 (or 4) Terrific Books for Aspiring Writers
Are there books you turn to again and again to inspire your muse or strengthen your writing? This post (and a few to follow) is about those books I most often recommend to my creative writing students. Why? Because each of these books covers a lot of ground in an easy, accessible way. You won't … [Read more...] about 3 (or 4) Terrific Books for Aspiring Writers
How to Become a Writer
If you’ve been doing something else with your life up to now (and who hasn’t?), go ahead and start identifying as a writer. It’s not necessary to tell others that you're a writer, but it’s critical that you tell yourself. Believe it in your heart. Believe it in your soul. You are a writer. You … [Read more...] about How to Become a Writer
Author Daniel Nester’s Take on When You Hate the Book You’re Writing
Even as accomplished a writer as Daniel Nester, the irreverent author of How to Be Inappropriate (love that title!), occasionally hates his manuscript. What follows is my interview with Nester about his writing—when it’s going well and, er . . . not so well. - Lynette What are you working on these … [Read more...] about Author Daniel Nester’s Take on When You Hate the Book You’re Writing
The Making of a Writer
I Had It All Wrong My early fantasies of the writing life bore no relation to reality, saturated as they were with a determined sentimentality. I must have gotten my ideas from photos I came across in which writers were always pensively portrayed in workspaces that overlooked meadows and … [Read more...] about The Making of a Writer
Judi Coltman: When You Hate the Book You’re Writing
It's not uncommon for writers to experience intermittent loathing for the books they're writing. I hate the one I'm working on because it forces me to recall unpleasant details of my search my mother's money—and it shines a spotlight on previously unknown tensions in my small immediate … [Read more...] about Judi Coltman: When You Hate the Book You’re Writing
When You Hate the Book You’re Writing, Series Introduction
It's riveting. It's exciting. If I wanted to, I probably could make it read like a thriller. Yet, here's a conversation I have at least once a week. A friend says, "How's your memoir coming along?" "Which one?" I ask, hoping this friend is asking about the other one, the one I'm writing that I … [Read more...] about When You Hate the Book You’re Writing, Series Introduction
Memoir or Family History? A Deeper Look at the Differences
Introduction While sorting out the question of whether my work-in-progress, My Mother’s Money, is a memoir or a family history, I became intrigued by several thoughtful posts on Virginia Lloyd’s blog addressing this and other questions about what qualifies as memoir. So I invited her to discuss the … [Read more...] about Memoir or Family History? A Deeper Look at the Differences
What Keeps Me From Writing? False Starts
Not in my writing projects. Although I have changed the opening of my memoir, My Mother's Money—or Almost an Heiress—6 times. (I'm still shuffling the pages back and forth between two sections, weighing which one has the stronger hook.) I'm talking about the many times in the past two and a half … [Read more...] about What Keeps Me From Writing? False Starts