“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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“Boom, Dynamite!” — From Chapter 9, “100 Years in the Life of an American Girl: True Stories 1910 – 2010″ (publishing summer 2013) “Boom, Dynamite!” Brianna — Grandville, Michigan Brianna lived in a large house in a woodsy suburb with her older sister, her stay-at-home mom, and her dad, a
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Free Teleseminar Thursday March 7, 2013 4 pm PST 5 pm MST 6 pm CST 7 pm EST Join me for my free teleseminar on creating believable characters in memoir. I’ll be the featured speaker on a Roundtable teleseminar at the National Association of Memoir Writers (NAMW) on how to
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It came as a surprise to me years ago to learn that NOT saying something could be considered lying, at least according to my stepmother, whose opinions on things like that mattered when I was in high school. “But I never said I [fill in the blank]!” I’d protest, when
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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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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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When is a writer vulnerable? How about every day. In her talk “The Power of Vulnerability” on Ted.com (December 2010), research professor at the University of Houston Brene Brown says that part of what leads to a good connection is vulnerability. She says good speakers make a human connection, and
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