The Memoir Project Blog
Writing Memoir. News You Can Use: May 12, 2012
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. [Read more...]
Writing Memoir that is Stranger Than Fiction? So What?
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...]
The Power of Memoir. Listen In.
THE POWER OF MEMOIR is one of my favorite topics. I recently heard this one-minute radio essay that brilliantly argues about the positive aspects of my favorite genre. Please listen in. It’s here.
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 | |||
New Memoir: Love ‘Ems and Leave ‘Ems
I’M TOO NICE about all this, aren’t I? A great defender of memoir, I neglect to tell you just which books make me want to hurl just as much as they might make you want to hurl. No more. Something about a recent birthday changed all that. So let’s have at it, shall we? [Read more...]
Ripped From the Headlines: How to Write Op-eds
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
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.
Creative Inspiration? Look Around
CREATIVE INSPIRATION CAN COME from anywhere. It’s all around you, though most of us are too busy worrying, planning, texting, phoning or talking to notice. The human propensity for missing inspiration is a real shame, especially for writers, who often go far out of their ways to seek such inspiration, forgetting that much like Dorothy’s ruby slippers, it’s right there under their noses. Want some inspiration? You’ve come to the right place. [Read more...]
Writing Memoir: When Imaginary Friends Come to Dinner
PASSOVER IS HERE, and we look forward to our yearly Seder, blended as we will be into another family’s gracious celebration. It’s easier these days since there are only three of us to accommodate at their Seder table. It wasn’t always like this. And when it wasn’t, I got my first best dose of just how accommodating a sister can be. [Read more...]
Writing Memoir? Don’t Try This At Home
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. News You Can Use: April 2, 2012
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:
- There was a flap over this? Well, duh
- The genetic link of PTSD
- Love him though I do, this quote is just the eensiest bit self-serving
- Lookin’ good at 60 and keeping up with the times
- It’s take your dog to work day, every day
- Such good news
- Take your wand and shove it
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.
