I DON’T USUALLY require the students in my memoir class read anything in particular, including my own book on how to write memoir. But every once in a while something is published that is so to the point, so absolutely instructional – and in this case, so short – that I simply must insist. [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...]
Writing Memoir. News You Can Use: March 23, 2012
March 22, 2012 By 2 Comments
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...]
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? Trust, But Verify
March 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment
“TRUST, BUT VERIFY.” Reading those words, I simply smiled from earring to earring. Such good advice. Such good advice for writers of memoir, whose inclination is to think that what they feel is true, and therefore needs no checking. How sure are you that your facts are correct? How sure can you be, and what lengths do you need to go to prove your truth? [Read more...]
Memoir Without a Net: Telling a Tale on the Radio
March 16, 2012 By 3 Comments
I’VE NEVER BEFORE TOLD A PIECE of memoir without notes, or not reading from a manuscript. At least not in public. Of course, I’ve told stories at the dinner table, in the car, and over the phone, but it was something different and utterly new when I was asked to come to the WNYC studios and relate a piece of memoir for the great PRI show, Studio 360. Sitting across a table from a producer, I was asked to just tell it. So I did. The story is about how a piece of art changed my life. Please listen in. Enjoy.
Parenting Memoir: Birthday Party Hell
March 14, 2012 By 2 Comments
My dictionary defines hell as “any place or state of torment or misery.” Well, then, I’ve been to hell on earth and it’s other people’s children’s birthday parties. [Read more...]
Parenting Memoir: Were There Saturdays Before Children?
March 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment
NO DOUBT ABOUT IT: Good parenting requires a healthy respect for forgetfulness and a working knowledge of when to use it. Women who give birth claim that after delivery they forget all about the pain. Since our daughter was adopted, what I’ve forgotten is all the pre-adoption paperwork. That, and what exactly we used to do on Saturday afternoons before our daughter came along. [Read more...]
Writing Memoir. News You Can Use: March 11, 2012
March 11, 2012 By Leave a 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:
- Help “spread the word to end the word”
- And the rich just get…weirder?
- Well, this is just too damn embarrassing
- Or maybe it’s just a little pogonophobia
- Alcohol in movies linked to…wait for it…binge drinking
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.
Memoir Writing on the Air: Me, Studio 360 and an Aha Moment
March 8, 2012 By 2 Comments
THE RADIO IS my favorite medium, and so it is truly a thrill to tell you that I’ll be on the wonderful PRI show Studio 360 this weekend, telling a piece of memoir. Part of their ongoing series of Aha Moments, this is a tale of how a piece of art changed my life. In my case, it was a book. [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...]
