“Reality” – From Chapter 10 “100 Years in the Life of an American Girl: True Stories 1910 – 2010″ (publishing summer 2013) “Reality” - Chapter 10 — The 2000s, Dylanne White At 10 Dylanne’s three greatest wishes were to be allowed to wear make-up, get a new pair of skinny jeans,
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What’s new in your life? Whatever is new in your life makes a great writing topic. It’s where the energy is. Even if you’re already working on something else, try this: 1. Make a list of what’s new in your life right now — the standouts. Go for 3 to
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“The Gen X Poster Child” — from Chapter 8, “100 Years in the Life of an American Girl: True Stories 1910 – 2010″ (publishing summer 2013) “The Gen X Poster Child” Jenny Isenman, Maryland Born in 1973, Jenny grew up an only child in an affluent suburb with a bedroom
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Journaling was my first best friend growing up. I didn’t know it with that first hardcover diary with lock and tiny key someone gave me for my 10th birthday, but it wasn’t long before I found out just how good it was to write about what was going on and
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Some people worry their life stories won’t translate to the page, that they’ll sound dull (“this happened, then this happened, then this happened”). It doesn’t have to be that way. It’s all in how you shape it. Think of how we live. This happens and then that happens, and then
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Writing the stories of your life doesn’t happen in a day. It takes more than inspiration, writing when the urge strikes. It takes time and dedication. It wants the details that lift the story off the page, that take a reader there along with you, that share you with them
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A new writer asked me a good question the other day. She started writing memoir because she wanted to chronicle her life but only expected to write about the events of her life. She was finding out there was a whole lot more to it, namely, she was hearing she
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Writing memoir is an interesting mix of ingredients. It’s personal story. It’s heartfelt expression. It’s writing in your true voice. But when we want others to read what we’ve written, it has to be all of this and so much more. How do you move a story from the personal
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I learned about shame and writing many years ago. I also learned a good lesson about how third person works in memoir — and doesn’t. A memoir student of mine wrote a story about her family living out of a camper by a river in Tennessee during the 1930s, when
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When people ask what I write, I usually tell them about what I’ve published or plan to publish, I never tell them about my four decades of journaling, those thousands of pages I’ve penned. I don’t tell them about the last six years, when I’ve journaled on the computer so
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