Now that dad’s gone and mom is 84 years old and slowly losing her memory, I find myself trying to put together the puzzle pieces of my life. Of their lives. Of how our lives intersected. And, how it all made me into the person I am today. This quest is generating more questions than …
The email landed in my inbox on Saturday afternoon. That’s when they always arrive. Every week, a new chapter released, with video and text lessons, interviews, suggested reading, and of course writing exercises. The subject line read, Writing is Prohibited. I breathed a sigh of relief. After beginning the memoir writing course with an excited …
My journey as a writer began in college. I studied journalism, advertising, and marketing at San Diego State University. It was an interesting combination of liberal arts and commerce. Writing to communicate and writing to persuade and sell. I wrote everything from marketing copy to magazine articles. I even served as senior editor of the …
This is my very first writing exercise from a memoir writing course. The assignment was to write a profile of a person in 200 words. The chair sits empty now, as does the house. The blue recliner positioned just in front of the television. But watching TV wasn’t its primary purpose. Reading was. A retired …
As he handed me off to my future husband, the words escaped quietly from his mouth, “Lucky Dog.” The crowded church was full of wedding guests but those words meant for just two people: my fiancé and me. The softly spoken phrase fell from his lips through a wide smile, his eyes focused directly on …
According to my memoir writing teacher, memoir is about turning our personal stories into art. Art with meaning. Art with a message. Art that heals. Art written in service of others. Art people can relate to and resonate with. Art that provides the reader with a perspective that just might help them in their own …
I’ve written for as long as I can remember. I majored in Journalism in college. But I never considered myself a writer. I was a business person and marketer who wrote, a woman who journaled. I wrote with an agenda: to educate, market, sell, share, and understand and process life. Professionally, I labeled myself an …
I’ve felt called to write a memoir for more than a year. Coincidentally, I realized I’ve been reading memoir for the past few years. Always a nonfiction reader, my previous book choices were usually in the personal development or self help genre. I read to learn, to grow, to understand life… mine and other people’s. …
Studying memoir writing changes the way you view life. There’s a small black spiral bound notebook on my desk. The cover is turned back exposing a blank page, the previous pages already filled with ideas and lists. Ever since enrolling in a memoir writing course, the notebook has become a repository for story ideas that …
