Story Matters
On writing, memoir and self-discovery
Recent Posts
Are You Ready To Begin?
I contemplated writing a memoir for four years before I started writing one in earnest. During those years, I took notes, wrote some scenes, created a list of memories, read other memoirs, played with structure. But I didn’t write consistently. Instead, I wrote when I felt like it, when I […]
Why I Didn’t Publish My Memoir
I’ve worked as a writer ever since I graduated with a journalism degree in 1982. For almost every piece of writing I’ve done, I’ve had a contract to write it ahead of time. I’ve known the topic, the length, the audience, and how much I’d be paid for my efforts.
With […]
Developing Yourself as a Character
When writing with the “I” pronoun, it is not enough to simply describe the events from your point of view – you must consciously develop yourself into a character just like a novelist develops a protagonist. Readers want to know who is speaking the same way they want to know […]
How Writing a Memoir Changes Your Story
I was recently interviewed for a podcast sponsored by the Hoffman Institute. If you’ve never heard of Hoffman, well, let me say that if you’re ready to make some important changes in your life–or, if you’re stuck and have no idea where to turn–you may want to check […]
The Crumpled Note Story
When I was eleven years old, still flat-chested and shaggy-haired, I wrote my father a note explaining in painstaking detail the hurt I felt over some favoritism he’d shown my younger sister. The specific incident is lost to memory, but I remember writing and rewriting that note several times until […]
Your 30-Minute Myth
I have no scientific data to back this up, but I would say—based on experience and observation—that it takes an average of four years to write a memoir, and by that I mean the kind of well-crafted story others would want to read.
In the process, memoirists not only […]
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