GO ON, TRY my interactive calendar of emotional high holy days, regular-version high holy days and more. It’s probably my number one memoir writing tip, since writing on deadline, or to a deadline, is one of the single best ways to learn how to write memoir.
How to Use the Memoir Project Calendar
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. Pluck something from the calendar and start now to submit the very best work you can produce.
Here is how to stop using writing prompts and writing exercises, those time-wasting devices leave you merely practicing writing. You want to write with intent, and you want to succeed. So start today and do so.
Write with intent: Pick it, write it, submit it. Read and react. You’re a writer. That’s what writers do. So write on.
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| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14December, 14 2023Halcyon days beginAccording to The Old Farmer’s Almanac, these are days of calm during winter. A legendary bird named alcyon, believed to have the power to calm the seas, originated in myth and appears twice in Shakespeare. Today the bird is identified with the kingfisher, able to nest on the sea and believed to calm it for the seven days before and seven days after the winter solstice. Need examples of writing on deadline? See my blog category NPR essays, for pieces I’ve aired on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered.
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| 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
| 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
