Six Reasons to Join a Long Distance Memoir Writing Program
Memoir writers—as all writers—work in isolation. When you join a memoir writing program—a forum, you not only get answers to persistent questions or reassurance to debilitating doubts, but you form community as you persist in the long, lonely task of writing. (more…)
Be Committed to Writing and Spare Me of People Who Are “Interested” in Writing
“Committed” to writing is about the writing itself, while “Interested” in writing is about self-image. “Wanting to write” a book, “trying to write” one, “being interested in writing” doesn’t make it. It never does. (more…)
More on Using Precise Language
Many memoir writers are under the impression that you need to have an extensive vocabulary to write. An extensive vocabulary can only help you–if by “extensive” you mean many precise words—not just “big” ones. More important is using precise language. (more…)
Destiny and Fate: Have You Placed These Concepts at the Center of Your Memoir?
Over the years, I have found that the concepts of destiny and fate, which explained so many things for Greeks in the centuries before the Christian era also explains so much about the characters of a memoir. (more…)
Book Publishing Tips: Better Book Production is Possible
My most recent book, A Sugary Frosting / A Memoir of a Girlhood Spent in a Parsonage, made its way to publication. To launch it, as many readers know, I created an advanced reader community and was able to gather 90+ people who volunteered to write a review for Amazon. (more…)
Preparing for A Successful Book Launch
I’m finished writing the text for my next book, A Sugary Frosting/A Memoir of A Girlhood Spent in a Parsonage. What follows is a synopsis of what I am doing to promote the book so that its natural audience is aware of it. (more…)
Mechanics of Writing a Memoir: It’s not all Inspiration
Mechanics of writing a memoir – the work of writing a stories and how life can insert delays & provide contemplative times yet leave time left to write. (more…)
I Finish A Sugary Frosting: Notes on the Memoir Writing Process
I am in the very last days of the memoir writing process and polishing A Sugary Frosting / A Memoir of a Girlhood Spent in a Parsonage, the early lifestory of my deceased spouse, Martha Blowen. It’s a time to make sure I have written what I want to write and to check grammar and […]
Tell the painful truth in a memoir, or why washing family laundry in public is difficult
Anyone writing a memoir must face the challenge of how to tell the painful truth of his or her story at the same time as one does not want to cause harm or pain. My latest memoir A Sugary Frosting has brought me face to face – personally – with the challenge of telling the […]