MICHAEL JAMIN IS AN Emmy-award winning screenwriter who has been writing for television since 1996. His credits include “Just Shoot Me,” “King of the Hill,” “Beavis and Butt-Head,” “Wilfred,” “Out of Practice” and “Rules of Engagement.” He also served as executive producer and showrunner on “Glenn Martin, DDS,” “Maron” and “Rhett and Link’s Buddy System.” He lives in Los Angeles where he continues to work in TV and is the author of the new collection, A Paper Orchestra, just out from Three Girls Jumping Press. He and I discuss how to write a book-length memoir in essays. Listen in and read along.
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Michael: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Marion: Well, I really love having you here because I work with writers all day long and you have done something that’s really, really hard to do. So let’s jump in and talk about that. The full title of your gorgeous collection is A Paper Orchestra: True Stories. “What if the smallest, almost forgotten moments were the ones that shaped us?” So let’s start there with the value proposition of reading this book: They will either be introduced to this idea for the first time, that small moments have their value, or will have this idea confirmed for us, or we’ll have this idea heightened. This is not a traditional subtitle, and yet it works perfectly to entice us into the collection. If anything, America is a big moments culture with whole industries around our various human rites of passage. So when and how did that small moments idea settle in with you?
Michael: Well, when you read collections or memoirs or collections of personal essays from people, you often see there’s a unifying theme. Growing up in an alcoholic household or my 20 years in prison, or whatever it is. And so when I was writing the book, I was getting this feedback from people in publishing and agents and stuff. They’re like, “Well, what’s the unifying theme?” And I was, “Well, I’ve never had to endure any of those things. I didn’t fall out of a plane. I can’t talk about that.” And people say, “Well, people want to read those stories because those are life-changing events.” And they certainly are, if you were to survive a plane crash, that would change your life. But what about the rest of us who don’t have to endure that? Don’t our lives change as well? Then how? If it’s not the big things, then it must be the little things.
Marion: Yeah, I agree with you completely. I think life has lived in the small moments and in those small moments, we can be illuminative of the large issues of life. I’ve written thousands of words from the little moments of life to illuminate the commitment that marriage is. What dogs have taught me that people can’t teach me. All of those things. But it’s a hard argument to make to some people, they want to write about the weddings and wakes. And I say, “Yeah, don’t read me the eulogy. Show me how you dressed to go to your spouse’s funeral and then you’ll have a scene.” So it’s the little stuff. And this idea of stories fascinates me because memoir written in stories is greatly misunderstood by many writers. Every memoirist needs to know how to write a memoir in essays. And my audience is writers. They think it’s going to be easier than a straight narrative tale. And I work with writers all day long.
More often than not, they want to write their book length memoir in serial tales. And from this day forward, I am telling you the truth, this is the one book I will hand them to read for them to learn how. Because despite being beautifully written, self-contained essays, there is a three act structure with an argument and a build. This is how to write a memoir in essays. So talk about the decision to go one essay at a time, but also, and if you forget to answer the second part of the question, I will remind you to talk about that structure too. But talk first about the decision to go one essay at a time please.
Michael: I think you’re right that part of the danger of people writing a memoir is that they want to tell their life story. But don’t tell your life story. Just tell one story from your life. That’s what your job is to tell one story… And if you could do that over and over again, then people will get a larger picture. And I also think the danger in writing memoir is it’s, “Look how interesting I am.” And that’s not what I want to write. I think it should be, “Look how human I am.” And there’s a real danger in writing memoirs that it really has the potential to be self-indulgent and narcissistic, and no one wants to read that. That’s why you have to concentrate on your humanity. When you ask about the three act structure. I’m hugely inspired by David Sedaris. I love his writing. And so when I decided years ago to write this collection… And at that point I think I’d listened to his audiobooks, I don’t think I ever read in one of his books in print.
But I decided, “Okay, I want to do what David Sedaris does.” And so I bought all his paperbacks and I just started devouring them. I was like, “How hard can it be? I’m a TV writer, this is not going to be hard at all.” Yeah right. And then I don’t remember which book I read, but I was on the first story, the first book that I randomly selected, and I’m halfway through it, the first story. I’m like, “Where’s this going? What’s this guy doing?” And then I got to the end of the first story and it was so beautiful, I almost threw the book across the room. I was like, “Oh no, this is going to be way harder than I thought.”
And again, I read everything once just to enjoy and then easily three or four times to kind of study what he was doing. And this is the problem of being a TV writer, is that as a TV writer, I’m getting paid to be a mimic. My job is to capture the voice of the show or the voice of the characters, but not my own voice. If I do my own voice, I get fired. And so when I first started writing the stories in this book, I found myself, the first two stories I wrote, I go, “Well, I’ll just do what David Sedaris does. He’s wildly successful. I’ll just write the way he does.” And I was very happy with the first couple stories, and then I set them aside, and then I read them with fresh eyes a month or two later, and I thought, “This is terrible.” It just felt like a pale imitation of what he was writing. It felt like I was trying to be him and failing at it.
And then I had to figure out, “Well, what’s my own voice?” And then I spent months figuring out, “What is Michael? Who’s he? What does he say? How does he respond to things?” As if I was a character. And then what I kept on coming back to was because I’m so well-versed in three-act structure, all the TV shows and movies that I’ve done, it’s always three-act structure. I just thought, “I’ll just go back to that since I know how to do that.”
Marion: Yeah. And it works. And that’s what every piece of memoir needs is a three-act structure, absolutely. There’s so much similarity between screenwriting and writing memoir, and it’s a worthwhile thing to study screenwriting to learn how to do it. To read scripts, to learn how to tell a story well, I think. But let’s also talk about the eye. Because I think a screenwriter has an eye. You have a long successful career as a screenwriter, and it has at least one thing in common with poets, which is the need for the precise detail. You just don’t get the space to go on and on, but you have to nail it in a gesture, a word. So please kind of chicken and egg this for us a bit. I read the stories about your parents reading you stories as a kid, about you being very non-sports oriented. So you were more than not suited for the indoor life of someone who spends a lot of time with words. But what else developed this eye to know, and then to choose those smallest of almost forgotten moments that you argue shape us most?
Michael: Well, I’m drawn as a screenwriter. I’m not into the big Marvel movies, the superhero movie… I’m not into that. I would much rather watch a small character piece movie, and I get so much enjoyment out of that, because they don’t do many of those anymore. And so that’s what I was trying to do with this book. And people say, “Well, are you going to turn it into a TV show?” I don’t know, maybe. The goal was to write a book. If I wanted to write a TV show, I just would’ve written more TV shows. And so the goal was for me to explore not just how to rebrand myself, but how to write in a different genre. I don’t know. I found it so satisfying and I just want to do more of it. That’s it.
Marion: Oh, I’m so glad to hear that. That’s very encouraging to me. I’ll go wait by the bookshop door right now, so that would be good. So, my favorite of these details that I just referred to in my previous question is when you’re forced by your parents to go to a judo class. And when the instructor instructs you to put on the outfit, you ask where the belt loops are and he responds, “The belt doesn’t hold up the pants, it keeps the robe shut.” And you respond, “Oh, so it’s more of a sash.”
Michael: That’s the wrong guy for a judo class.
Marion: Right. And there’s some serious characterization right there. We get it. So, talk about turning that eye on yourself and getting yourself right at various stages of your life. How is that to do?
Michael: Yeah, so the character of Michael is me and I just dial it up just maybe ten percent, just so that those characteristics stand out a little bit so that we get a clearer sense of who I am. It’s me, I’m just turning up just a tiny bit. So some of the dialogue right from that story is from when I was like ten. So this is many, many years ago. So of course I don’t remember the exact dialogue for a lot of the conversations, but I remember how I felt at that moment. So it’s easy for me to reenact those conversations because I strongly remember how I felt so I can re-piece it. And then it’s true enough, in other words, it feels true.
Marion: Well, you’re the kind of kid who would say, “Oh, so it’s more of a sash.”
Michael: That I remember. That I said.
Marion: It tells us everything we need to know in this story. And so it’s the context. It’s these concentric circles of context that are essential for a story to work. That dialogue just nails that story right to the floor. It’s perfect. Was it a joy to rediscover that quote? Was it one of those moments where you threw back your head and laughed? Did you scare the living daylights out of yourself by remembering it? What happened as you typed, “Oh, so it’s more of a sash.”?
Michael: Oh, this poor kid.
Marion: Yes.
Michael: I vividly remember running my hand down the cinder block wall as I was going to the basement where that Judo studio was and I remember having cried in the car. It didn’t occur to me until I was writing it that I’d go, “Oh, as if the walls had just had a good cry as well. They were damned from having cried as well.” That didn’t occur to me until I was writing it. And so a lot of this book was just re-piecing parts of my memory and actually figuring out who I am in the process and just discovering it with you at the same time.
Marion: Isn’t it lovely?
Michael: Yeah.
Marion: Isn’t it absolutely lovely? I had a student hitting me recently, “I’m living differently because I’m writing about it.”
Michael: Yes.
Marion: And I totally understood what she said. I was so honored that she told me that. But it’s true too.
Michael: Yeah, for sure. That’s a beautiful thing to say. That’s all the more reason to write just so that you can find out who you are.
Marion: I think memoir is the greatest portal to self-discovery and not the indulgent autobiography. I make a very big distinction from the first minute I teach people between the difference between autobiography and memoir. And I teach them that memoir is written from one area of your expertise at a time, which is pretty much what you said before. You just go one of the things and then give us the transcendent change to how you learned it. And it’s important, but it’s also wonderful to know how you learned all of these things we learn, and you do this beautifully. You move through youth and forming us of who you are and how you acquire a skillset needed to navigate this terrifying world. You question how in the name of all that is holy, a TV show got made called “Casper, the Friendly Ghost,” when now any executive would hound that pitch to death with questions about “how exactly?” “What’s the manner and cause of the death of that child?” “Who becomes the ghost?”
And all the while you have this craving for this Casper costume for Halloween, and you slip the plastic mask over your face. And then in this splendid line, mid-piece, you simply state, “It made the world harder to see, but easier to be seen in.” And I held the book to my chest and I smiled. So let’s talk about plotting territory. Each story is connected like beads on an abacus that add up to this argument of yours about small moments, but within each story is an element of the build toward that argument. And that line right there is what this piece is about. So did you write out a list of themes you wanted to cover? Did you write a whole bunch of pieces and edit for the build toward that argument? My audience is writers. Talk about the process, please.
Michael: Yeah, I’m so happy to actually. So I started with two lists. The first list was just memories, just like small things. “Okay, Casper the Friendly Ghost costume.” That’s all there was to it. That’s all I wrote down. And on the other list, I have all the things that I don’t like about myself, all my weaknesses, all the neuroses, my weaknesses, basically. It’s a list of weaknesses. And then I would pair it up. I’d say, “Okay, maybe as I’m writing this story and discovering it organically go, ‘Oh, this is a story about a kid who’s very fearful and anxious.'” And to get to your previous point, I really had no idea how anxious I was as a person until I started writing this book and seeing these themes keep on occurring. I’m like, “Oh my God…” Growing up, you weren’t diagnosed with anxiety?
Marion: Nope.
Michael: That wasn’t something you talked about.
Marion: Nope.
Michael: So I remember Woody Allen would say, “I’m anxious.” I always thought that was a comedy term. I didn’t realize it was something that I had. And I just discovered that as I was writing the book. I’m like, “Oh my God, I really am a mess here.”
Marion: So you made this list and was that the sum total of it was Casper and then things about myself I don’t like or things I wanted to change? Were there any other lists that you made?
Michael: Well, when I write a story, I ask myself two questions. What’s it about? And then what’s it really about? And so what’s it about is the plot. “Oh, this is the story about me choosing a Halloween costume.” What’s it really about? “Oh, this is about me feeling emboldened because I’m wearing a costume. I can be somebody else for five minutes.” And most of my stories don’t start at the end, this one did. And it was because it was 2020 and my daughter was graduating high school, and they sent us these placards to put in the front yard that say, “Congratulations class of 2020.” And as I was putting it in, I was like, “This looks like a tombstone. This is horrible.” And that tombstone took me right back to Halloween. And of course, the masks that we had to wear at the beginning of the pandemic are very similar to the masks that we wore in Halloween. So I go, “Oh, there’s got to be some kind of overlap here.”
Marion: Yeah. It reaches across many years that story and does it so well. And you just mentioned your daughter, so as the book returns for home, you take on that precise moment when we realize the cost of being a good parent. After all, if you do your job well, they leave.
Michael: Yeah.
Marion: So let’s talk about choosing from myriad scenes in life that could illustrate that same thing. Specifically talk about choosing how to relate that tale. About that recognition that they go and how it’s okay but. After all, there are so many cues along the way to how much and how precisely this is going to hurt. There are so many scenes, but you chose very well this idea of sharing TV shows as she has got one foot and then another foot out the door. So talk to me about how you chose that as opposed to all the other ways you could have portrayed this great conundrum about what happens when they go.
Michael: First of all, every time I write a story, when I finish it, I go, “That’s it. There’s no more stories left. I’m tapped out.”
Marion: Oh yeah.
Michael: And so I’m always looking for one more. And this one I was reading in one of David Sedaris books, he told a story about how he used to watch TV shows with his mother. And I go, “Oh, I watch TV shows with my daughter. I bet you there’s a story there.” So that’s it. I drew from that as inspiration. But yeah, this story actually fell into my lap after that because I would watch Alone. That’s the perfect show to be writing about when your daughter leaves you. That just happens that way. And then Marie Kondo was the follow-up show, which was about her purging the house of clutter. This story fell into my lap, so I’m happy. Most stories I have to squeeze out of rocks.
Marion: I’m amazed no one’s made a reality show of people standing in the front door of their homes as their children drive off and what they do next. Because it’s very surprising. I’ve asked a lot of people that question, and there are marriages that have fallen immediately apart. There’s things. There are sort of standard issue responses, but then there’s some really interesting for those people who were prepared for it, they thought, but really weren’t. And yeah, it’s not really a reality TV show, but it’s a poignant, remarkable experience. I’ve been through it.
Michael: Yeah, it’s heartbreaking, to be honest.
Marion: It’s kneecap breaking. It’s everything-breaking, right?
Michael: I think that’s something I got wrong as a writer on TV before I had kids. You see this a lot, the sitcom mom, the kids out of the house and, “Remember to bring a scarf.” Treating their adult children like they’re a child. And I don’t think that’s why parents do that. I don’t think it’s because they think their kids are still children. I think they do it because they realize that their kids are now adults, and that’s why they do it. It’s like, it’s over and you don’t want it to be over. You know your child’s going to wear a sweater if it’s cold. They’re going to figure out to wear a sweater, so you don’t have to tell them. It’s just that sadness of that, it’s over now.
Marion: I think it’s a reanimation. You’re trying to reanimate something that you know is done, and it’s in these small gestures. Absolutely. Sending them the cookies, asking if they’re cold. You’re just getting another tiny hit of it. It’s deeply, deeply poignant. Yeah. And it’s very well done in that piece. In your epilogue, you generously create a go-to text for anyone wanting to do this. And I will not extract all of that from here because I want everyone who’s listening to buy this book and read the essays and learn to do this well. And I agree with you, as we’ve said, that every piece of memoir has three acts, just like a piece of screenwriting. And as you write that, the two questions you ask is, as you said, “What is this about? And what is this really about?” So let’s apply that to your lovely piece, “Le Flâneur.” Flâneur is a word that means to walk about, to have a look. And according to you, to be a little judgy about what you see, which I really loved.
I love that. It’s just really funny that you only went that far, but you went that far. And I think Baudelaire might or might not be pleased by that addendum to the interpretation of his word, but I loved it. I don’t know if you know this word in Yiddish, ungapatchka. But you didn’t ungapatchka the word. It means you didn’t mess it up. You didn’t put too many flourishes on it. So you don’t want to ever ungapatchka a cake, is the phrase that I learned. Don’t ungapatchka the cake, don’t put too much stuff on it. So you didn’t put too much stuff on the word Flâneur, but just enough to be a little judgy. And so you had an experience and later on it dropped into your head what that experience was really about. And that’s what this story takes on. So teach this for me to the people listening about you have it and it makes sense later.
Michael: Yeah. Well, so this is another story, which I didn’t think there was a story here. My wife and I take weekend walks and I judge, like you’re saying. I’m really bad over Christmas. Because I’m Jewish. I’ve never hung a Christmas light in my life, but oh, if you don’t hang the lights the right way outside your house, I’ll let you have it. But if it’s great, oh, you did a wonderful job. And what do I know about hanging lights? So we drive to this neighborhoods, expensive neighborhoods. We walk around and I get so enraged. It’s more like, “How do these people have this kind of money?” And then two minutes later, it’s like, “They shouldn’t have this much money.” And then two minutes later it’s like, “Well, why don’t I have this much money?”
We do this a lot and then one day we went into an estate sale in this mansion, and it’s all in that story. And I was very upset by what I saw and all the people and judging. And as I left, it all happened and I was waiting on the curb for my wife, and she’s like, “Boy, this really upset you.” I’m like, “Yeah, it upset me.” And she said, “Well, you should write a story about this.” And then I got even madder. I was like, “You can’t just write a story about everything. Not everything is a story. We went into an estate sale and I got upset. There’s no story there.” But it wasn’t for a couple of weeks later or months, I don’t know how long it, was where I saw this article about the Flâneur, this term that I’d never heard of. And I go, “Oh, that’s what this story is about. I judge people.” It didn’t really occur to me that I was judging people. I was just in a bad mood. So that’s how I found that.
Marion: And that’s the thing. What’s it about? And then what’s it really about? And the people I work with it hate when I ask them that. “Well, what’s this about?” He said, “Well, you just read it. You know what it’s about.” I said, “No, no. I know what the plot is. What’s it about? What are we going to now edit it to be about?” It’s like Michelangelo apparently, or allegedly says about the stone, “The David was always under there.” Now we’re going to sculpt down to what you’re arguing. We’ve got the who, what, when, where, and why here. So tell me what’s it really about is the question that allows you to do that sculpting and it’s essential. What were you going to say?
Michael: Well, you’re so right to point that out. I suspect that people have a hard time even understanding what you’re talking about. You know what I’m saying? It’s like a light bulb moment that has to come on. And they don’t understand how crucial it is to have, what are you really telling me? What’s it really about?
Marion: Well, it has to be about something universal as illustrated by your deeply personal experience. And that’s when you start to realize you’re getting sharp elbowed off center stage. It’s really about mercy as illustrated by you forgiving somebody, or it’s really about justice, or it’s really about something. That’s the really about as illustrated by just something I’ve called The Memoir Project Algorithm, and that’s what I teach everybody. It’s about X as illustrated by Y to be told in a Z. The Z is always the form, but the X, you got to get yourself off center stage, that X factor, what is the universal? And you get that. And the question is, what’s it really, really about? It’s a beautiful lesson. So being a screenwriter is to write in a group. Being an essayist is to go it alone in a room. In the epilogue of the book, when you pitch the idea of this book of collected essays to your wife and whether you should do it, she says, “You must.” “Why?” You ask. “Because” she says, “You’ll find yourself.” Did you?
Michael: Yeah. Yeah. There are parts like I said, I didn’t like either, but that’s what fighting yourself means.
Marion: Yeah. Yeah. It’s coming up against it and saying, “Wow, I still have that bias. Wow, I still have that streak. Wow. I’m still judgy when I walk around other neighborhoods.” Yeah. Did you find yourself because of it or in spite of the unusual solitude?
Michael: I really wanted to do this by myself. Like you said, TV writing is very collaborative. After being a screenwriter for all these years, I wanted to see what I could do on my own without getting notes from producers and studio executives. What can I do on my own? I just wanted to prove something to myself. And it was so freeing. It was scary at first.I don’t know. I just felt like I had to do it. I had to prove to myself that I could do something and screw what everyone else wants me to do. I don’t complain about TV writing. I’m getting paid. They pay me, but I’m always getting paid to write what they want me to write. And that’s fine, but it’s not what I want to write. It’s what they want me to write.
Marion: Yes, good. And you’re giving a lot of people permission to write what they want, you just don’t know until you go there. So you’ve got a lot of merch on your site that includes a screenwriting course, a personal essay course, terrific merch that includes T-shirts and water bottles, all with messaging that exhorts us to write. My favorite saying on these various items is, “Start the story sooner.” Explain.
Michael: You’ll get that note every time you turn a script to a studio executive. And the story starts the moment the audience or the reader can identify who the hero is, what the obstacle is, and what their goal is. Those three things. And until they can identify that, you’re either boring them or you’re testing their patience. And if you start the story on page three, you’ll get a note from the studio to start on page one. The sooner the better. I take that very seriously, especially when someone lays out money to buy my book, I want to make sure I’m entertaining them.
Marion: Yes. No, you don’t do that. I was born… No, we just jump in. And I love that. I think of it as jumping in the middle of the action. We just jump in and go right with you. And it works. The sled is moving, jump on, and that’s it. But I love, “Start the story sooner.” That’s a great phrase. So as we wrap this up, I want to talk about your publisher. It’s called Three Girls Jumping Press or Three Girls Jumping INC. So tell me about Three Girls Jumping, please.
Michael: Yeah, so a TV writer, producer will have a title card, and that’s mine. So it’s the name of my production company. It’s Three Girls Jumping because I have three girls in my family, my wife and my two daughters. And so originally when I set out to write this book. So I have a big TV agent, big agency, and I said, “Hey, do we have a lit department?” And they’re like, “Yeah, of course we have a lit department. How could you not know this?” I told my agent what I wanted to do. “Could you set up an introduction to the ;it guy in New York?” “Yeah, sure.” So he had to take my phone call because I’m at the agency, but he didn’t have to represent me. And I told him what I wanted to do. He like, “All right, great. Send me some stories.” And at that point, I think I sent him three sample stories, just, “What do you think?” And I didn’t hear back from him for easily six months.
And I’m like, “All right, well, I’m writing this one way or the other. I don’t really care whether you…. No one’s stopping me. I’m going to do it anyway.”Six months later, he gets back to me, he says, “I’m so sorry it took me so long. These are great. Do you have any more?” I go, “I’m almost done. I’ll send you the rest in a couple of weeks.” And so I sent it to him and he loved it, but he said, “In this space, in personal essays, platform drives acquisition.” I said, “What does that mean?” He says, “You need to have a social media following. You need to be able to market the book. Because who’s going to go into a bookstore and pull a book by Michael. Who’s Michael. If these are stories about him, who’s he?”And so I was like, “All right. So that’s what I’ll do.”
It’s a very hard sell, personal essays for a publisher. It’s an extremely hard sell. And I spoke with many publishers and they all wanted me to change everything about it, including the name, the title. They’re like, “It’s a nice title, but what does it mean? How do I know what I’m reading?” And they wanted me to give it a wacky title because I’m a comedy writer. And I’m like, “But it’s not a wacky book.”Their obligation is to sell copies. That’s what they want to do. And I get that. And so they didn’t like the title. They like the stories, but they didn’t think there was a unifying theme. Like I said, growing up the child of Alcoholics or something, there was none of that. And so I got a lot of pushback from everyone.
They made perfect sense, “Do this and do that, and we’ll be able to sell more books.” And I’m thinking, “This is not why I’m doing this. I’m not doing this to get rich. I’m doing this because I want to explore the writing part of me. I’d stay in TV if I wanted to take the notes.” And so ultimately, I thought, “I don’t want to do it with a traditional publisher.” For a multitude of reasons, but I wanted to write what I wanted to write, and that means indie publishing it. And so that’s how I did that.
Marion: Well, it’s worth every minute reading it. I loved every second of it, and I learned so much. And I meant it when I said, “I’m going to give this to everybody that asks me how to do it in individual essays. How to write memoir and individual essays.” Thank you, Michael. I can’t thank you enough. It’s been a joy talking with you.
Michael: Oh, it’s really my pleasure. You’re so knowledgeable on this subject. You’re a specialist. Now I’m talking shop with you, so it really was my pleasure. I suspect you’re an excellent teacher because everything you’re saying I completely agree with. So thank you for having me.
Marion: Well, thank you for that. You’re welcome. Good luck with the book. Sell a million copies of it, please.
Michael: Thank you.
Marion: We’ll talk again.
Michael: Okay.
Marion: The author is Michael Jamin. See more on him at Michael Jamin dot com. Follow him on Instagram. The book is A Paper Orchestra, just out from Three Girls Jumping Press. He’s about to hit the road on a tour performing these stories, see more on that at michaeljamin dot come slash tickets. I’m Marion Roach Smith, and you’ve been listening to QWERTY. QWERTY is produced by Overit Studios in Albany, New York. Reach them at Overitstudios dot com. Our producer is Jacqueline Mignot. Our assistant is Lorna Bailey. Want more on the art and work of writing? Visit Marionroach dot com, the home of The Memoir Project where writers get their needs met through online classes and how to write memoir. And thanks for listening. Don’t forget to follow QWERTY wherever you get your podcasts and listen to it wherever you go. And if you like what you hear, please leave us a review. It helps others to find their way to their writing lives.
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Memoirama 2. Live, two hours. Limited to seven writers. What you need to know to structure a book.
How to Write Opinion Pieces: Op-eds, Radio Essays and Digital Commentary: Live, 90 minutes. Get your voice out into the world.
And keep in mind that I am now taking names for the next Master Class, the prerequisites for which are Memoirama and Memoirama 2. Live, once a month. Limited to seven writers. Get a first draft of your memoir finished in six months.
