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. (more…)
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 […]
Writing About Family Stories You Don’t Agree With
How do you write about family stories whose interpretation you don’t agree with? We may all have family stories that we feel are wrongly told. When you distort your insights in order not to contradict other people’s take on your story—to “make nice,” your readers will sense that something is wrong. (more…)
Going Beyond Family Myths to What Really Happened
Family myths aren’t always true. Your family myths may be stories your people choose to tell about themselves regardless of what really happened. Myths are stories we tell about how the world seems to us to be organized. Most of us are familiar with the religious myths Greeks and Romans told as they sought to […]
An Effective Strategy to Work Through Writer’s Block
“What can I do about writer’s block?” I am asked regularly by stumped writers. “Pretty much the same as plumber does with a plumber’s block,” I’ll respond. People twitter at this reply. Perhaps it’s because they take my response to their writer’s block question for a joke and they’re anticipating a good punch line. But, […]
Writing Your Memoir One Story at a Time—It Adds Up
Memoir writing does not have to be an intimidating task. Envisioning your autobiography as a series of stories makes the sizable task of writing the stories of a lifetime tolerable and ultimately enjoyable. Lifestories, written singly just as they are told, one by one, add up to a memoir. (more…)