How to Write Memoir: The Week in Review

MEMOIR WRITERS THINK we’ve got it made. That is, until we sit down to write, and all those stories seem to scatter away from our fingertips. Why does this happen? Who knows? But how about we fix it?

Whenever I find myself hesitating about what to write, I merely go hunting, and since this blog is dedicated to teaching how to write memoir, I thought I’d share my stash with you. So that’s what this is: Your memoir writing shove onto the stage, a weekly round-up of what you need to get writing. Use what you need. Leave the rest behind. Share it with your friends.

Here’s what happened this week in the world of writing memoir. Immerse yourself. Then get to work.

Marion’s choice: The week’s best pieces of short memoir

• John Le Carre on working with Richard Burton in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
• Dan Crane on becoming an adult

Book contract announcements

• Hillary Clinton is writing a memoir
• So is David Axelrod
• Masterpiece executive producer has one on the way, as well

Creative inspiration

• An opera festival director sings out on creativity

Books people have told me about this week

• Madness: A Memoir
• Unwasted: My Lush Sobriety

News you can use to write memoir

• The man behind the first test tube baby
• Middle manager meltdown happens in another kingdom, as well
• College debt and parents
• My baby wrote me a letter, though she might have to wait to mail it

Calls for submissions

• For cancer survivors
• Isis magazine, for undergraduate feminists

Got something of your own to add from the week’s quarry? Please do.