FIRST IMPRESSIONS – *West With the Night, by Beryl Markham Though this memoir is considered a classic, I had never heard of it or of Beryl Markham before a Writing Through Life survey respondent suggested it. I was immediately intrigued by the idea of a woman who, raised in Kenya during […]
BACK IN NOVEMBER, I asked if you’d like to see a Reading for Writers series focused on memoir, in which we would analyze one book each quarter together. You responded with a resounding “Yes!” and with many, many excellent title suggestions, ranging from classic to contemporary memoir. In making the […]
TODAY, WE STRADDLE an invisible timeline between two calendar years, one foot raised, prepared to step into the next year. Before we do, let’s engage in a tradition — a worthy one, I think — in which take a look back at the year we’re leaving, to remind us where we […]
WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW what’s in store for WritingThroughLife in 2018? Based on your emails and 2017 reader survey results, I’ve planned several exciting new series and initiatives, some of which have already started. You told me you wanted help with your biggest challenge — to write consistently and […]
THE 2017 READER SURVEY RESULTS ARE IN, and here’s what you told me. Who you are — No real surprise here. The vast majority (95%) of you who completed the survey are women, age 55+ (82%), are retired or work part-time, and have incomes of less than 100k per year. […]
TODAY’S ARTICLE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE the latest in the Read Like a Writer series, in which I would write about how Sue Monk Kidd Structured her memoir, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter. But when Sunday, the day I write my blog posts, rolled around, I found myself procrastinating. […]
WHAT IS IT ABOUT MEMOIR that fascinates and draws us to it in a way that fiction, while entertaining and enlightening, does not? Why do we love reading such intimate, first-person stories of challenge, struggle, and triumph? Is it, as some would claim, a tabloid-style voyeuristic curiosity? Is is that […]
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 […]
This is the fourth in a series on turning memories into memoirs (and memoir-related essays). Click here to read Memories to Memoirs, Part 1, Memories to Memoirs, Part 2, and Memories to Memoirs, Part 3. In Part 3 I wrote about the importance of including vivid details in your writing and gave you […]
