FINDING TRUTH IS THE ELEMENTAL TASK OF MEMOIR, and what memoirists struggle with most as we write our stories. I have been reflecting on this aspect of memoir, since reading Ann Churcher’s post, “Memoir Writing: Can’t Find My Way Back Home,” in which she writes: Searching for the truth has […]
WHEN ASKED about their greatest writing challenges, many writers tell me they struggle with making a regular habit of writing. Life gets in the way, they say. And it’s true. That’s because they are attempting to create a new habit, and, as pretty much everyone knows, changing or creating habits can be […]
FIRST IMPRESSIONS – *This Boy’s Life, by Tobias Wolff This Boy’s Life, published in 2007, is already a classic among coming-of-age memoirs. It begins with Toby, age fourteen, and his mother as they run West to hide from an abusive relationship and make their fortune prospecting for uranium. “She was going […]
ARE YOU SELF-CRITICAL? Get down on yourself for making mistakes or not meeting your own standards? If so, you’re definitely not alone. Many of us run a constant inner dialogue that sounds something like this: I can’t do anything right! Who would want to read anything I write? What an […]
WRITING MEMOIR IS A LOT LIKE WRITING FICTION — only with all the made-up parts left out. You have scene (place and time), which is inhabited by characters, dialogue, and action. You have a point of view, usually first person, through which the narration occurs. In addition, memoir also includes reflection, in […]
