Hemingway’s “One True Sentence” Can Save Your Memoir
A “one true sentence” can save your memoir. I have found the “one true sentence” effective in focusing both my own memoir writing and in the writing of people I have coached and edited.
A First Step to Becoming a Disciplined Writer
Becoming a disciplined writer is a practice. Do you struggle with becoming a disciplined writer on a regular basis and do you wish you could be more focused? Do you ask yourself, “Why is it so hard to write when I really do want to write?” You have to decide to become a disciplined writer
Basics of Good Book Design
I recently received a request for printing information from a reader who asked: I am getting ready to print my memoirs. I’m using Word and trying to figure out what typeface and type size to use. Also, what are the best margins to use? Are there any sources which might provide suggestions about the basics […]
Four Reasons to Take a Break from Writing
When should you take a break from writing? Writing is hard work, and there will be many times when it seems too difficult. You sit at your desk and nothing much comes. Your impulse is to get up to do something—anything—else, as long as it’s not writing! You think of the lawn that needs mowing, […]
Watch out for Word Re-inforcers
Letting words mean what they mean… In a previous post, I wrote about using words more precisely than we often do. Specifically, I pointed out redundant usages. Today I would like to rant about a few other phrases that have come my way recently. I call them word re-inforcers. They are like redundant words but […]
How to Pick up Your Memoir Writing Again When You’ve Slacked Off
How do you pick up your memoir writing again? If you have stopped writing because of a holiday, a vacation, an illness, or lassitude (read: “It’s too hard! I want it to be easy!”), make now—today—the time to pick up your memoir writing again.
Your Life as a Myth Part 3
The following is the third installment of a three-part series on Your Life as a Myth, using myths and archetypes in memoir writing. In this first post of Your Life as a Myth, I wrote about both archetypal patterns in general and about the martyr archetype. In the second post, I wrote about the orphan […]
Your Life as a Myth Part 2
The following is the second installment of a three part series on the use of myths and archetypes in memoir writing. In the first part of Your Life as a Myth, I wrote about both archetypal patterns in general and about the martyr archetype. In today’s post, I write about the orphan and the prince-left-at-the-pauper’s-door. […]
Your Life as a Myth Part 1
In your life as a myth, we discuss myths as the stories we create to express how we perceive the world and life. How we live our lives is determined by the myths we live by, but our lives also reveal our myths to ourselves and to the world. What are your myths? Look at […]