STRANGER THAN FICTION? I hear this phrase all the time in questions from students about how to write a family truth that is far more bizarre than anyone would believe. I disagree on the not-believing part, though not with the assertion that some domestic dramas are damn hard to write about. What to do? Here is everything you need to know. [Read more...]
Ripped From the Headlines: How to Write Op-eds
April 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment
WANT TO BE HEARD? Of course you do. My advice? Write an op-ed, one of those opposite-the-editorial-pages pieces that you read every day, learn from, and sometimes pass along to your friends and family. Writing one is easier than you think. Want to know how? [Read more...]
Writing Memoir. News You Can Use: April 26, 2012
April 26, 2012 By 1 Comment
NEWS YOU CAN USE. Maybe you saw these stories. Maybe you missed them, but these are among the pieces I’ve read recently that might elicit some form of short memoir – an op-ed, or personal essay – from you. Once a week I’ll bring you news pieces I find provocative.
Here are some that get me going:
- Burger King goes cage free
- I love it when fact supports fiction
- I’m sorry. The average wedding costs what?
- Violence in America reaches a new low — or high — but this is hideous
- As ever, we depend on the fabulous Frank Deford to ask the hard question
Surely you have something to say using one of these as your news peg.
Looking for inspiration or guidance on how to write a personal essay? Look at my categories for NPR essays, parenting essays, and several other topics. All of the pieces there have been published, or have aired on the radio. If those don’t work, see the interactive calendar for more inspiration. And write on.
See a typo, a grammar flub, my (ever-present) overuse of commas? Point it out, and I’ll throw you in the pool for a monthly free book giveaway. Which book? One of mine – your choice – all of which were professionally copy edited, thank goodness.
Your New Best Friend:
The Deadline Calendar
GO ON, TRY my interactive calendar of emotional high holy days, regular-version high holy days and more. Hover your cursor over a cinnamon-colored date to see what pops up. Use it to start personal essays, radio pieces and op-eds to submit on deadline. How? Look three months out for radio ideas; six to twelve for magazine pieces. Pick it, write it, submit it. You’re a writer. That’s what writers do.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Apr | Jun » | |||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5May, 5 2012Cinco de MayoIt is Cinco de Mayo, commemorating the Mexican army’s unlikely victory over French forces in 1862. This is a great one for everything from a memoir about someone else’s cultural holidays, some food memoir perhaps, or a piece of memoir placed at celebration for the day. | 6 | |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12May, 12 2012Hurricanes Finally Get Named for Men, As WellIt was on this day in 1978 that hurricanes also were named for men. Previously named only for women, this seems like justice, however late. What’s in a name? My sister has something to say about that, named as she is, for a racehorse. I told this story on NPR’s All Things Considered. Have a look. | 13 |
| 14 | 15 | 16May, 16 2012Fiddlehead TimeIt’s Fiddlehead time. Fiddlehead ferns that is, sold and eaten while they are still rolled up. Fiddleheads are the unfurled fronds of a young fern harvested for food consumption. Called a fiddlehead because it resembles the curled ornamentation (called a scroll) on the end of a stringed instrument, such as a fiddle, it is It is also called a crozier since it also resembles the curved staff used by bishops, which has its origins in the shepherd’s crook. Got some food memoir? I lap it up, and write it down here. | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | 22 | 23May, 23 2012The Father of Taxomony is BornOn this day in 1707 was the birth of Carl Linneaus, the man who created order out of chaos by creating a classification system for naming and identifying plants. I created one of those, though mine divides by people, asking if you are either a burger or a burrito. Check it out. | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27May, 27 2012Rachel Carson’s BirthdayOn this day in 1907 was the birth of Rachel Carson, one of the greatest advocates the earth will ever know. The New Yorker magazine took a chance on her, first publishing her in 1951 and in 1962 serializing Silent Spring, in which she took on the subject of the ravaging effects of pesticides. The book is still regarded as the cornerstone of the new environmentalism. She inspires me, and I might write a piece of memoir about reading that book or what she has meant to me. You? What creative inspiration does she provoke in you? |
| 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |||
Writing Memoir? Don’t Try This At Home
April 4, 2012 By 1 Comment
MY FATHER USED TO SAY that you should write everything like a letter home. In a letter home you rarely tell those people who raised you how very great you are, or right you are, or unique. You tend to write about the ideas you are trying on, or the things you’ve tried and failed; how scared you are, or how lonely. You are the small dog when you write a letter home, telling them how you’ve changed or what you’ve witnessed, and while you might wish they were here, they’re not, so get your facts right and put the bold, brash bragging aside, because these guys knew you when, and they can still kick your emotional ass if you get out of line. And they are not alone. [Read more...]
Writing Memoir: Class Notes. March 23, 2012
March 23, 2012 By 3 Comments
THIS WEEK’S CLASS was the first in a new six-week series. I particularly love these first nights, since it brings the challenge back to me to explain what memoir is, what it is not, and what is required to write it. Each time I do this, I do it differently, long ago having abandoned a script I once hid behind for this presentation. Want to know what I said? [Read more...]
Class Notes. The Most Asked Question in Memoir Writing: When is it Done?
March 8, 2012 By 3 Comments
THE MOST FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION in my class is “How do I know when it’s done?” In fact, a piece of writing never really dies, though you are done when a blog post, an essay, even a book has fulfilled the small task you assigned it. If you read your piece even minutes after publication, you’ll see things you would have changed. [Read more...]
Is That A Glue Gun in Your Pocket or Are You Just Really Not Glad to See Me?
March 1, 2012 By 7 Comments
DROP THE GLUE GUN. Back away from the scrapbook. That’s right. Slowly. If you were scrapbooking, you were defaulting to the simplest, most anemic of ways to remember the moments of your life. “Nuh-uh-uh” as we say in my house. No way. Not any more. What’s that you say? Not scrapbooking there, mister? You? You’re the one who is merely telling your tales again at the dinner table, and at work, when you swore that this year you would write them down? No better than a glue-gunner, you’re on notice, as well. C’mon folks: We promised to do better this year. Remember? [Read more...]
Writing Memoir? Include Transcendence
February 23, 2012 By 6 Comments
MEMOIR REQUIRES TRANSCENDENCE. Something has to happen. Or shift. Or merely move. Someone has to change a little. Or grow. It’s the bare hack minimum of memoir. But don’t confuse transcendence with spiritual awakening or conversion. We’re not asking that much of you, particularly in short memoir. We just want to see something happen. And we deserve it, we the reader. We do. [Read more...]
Clever Damage: Writing Memoir About Family Abuse
February 17, 2012 By 18 Comments
WEDNESDAY NIGHT’S CLASS was one of the toughest classes I’ve ever taught. Utterly challenging, the evening was filled with pieces that while wonderful, were also emotionally wrenching. Sometimes there are nights like that, and after every one of them I have been suffused with a rare, nameless emotion. Probably some other language has a word for it. English does not. [Read more...]
On the Road With The Memoir Project
February 15, 2012 By 1 Comment
I’VE HIT THE ROAD, if only in a cyber way. I’m teaching this week online at She Writes, a fine site where women get together and talk about writing. My topic? Memoir, of course. I’m the guest editor this week. It’s a real honor, and in honor of that honor I’m debuting what I call my Memoir Manifesto. But that’s not all. [Read more...]
