Writing Lessons: Guest-Expert Tips
WRITING BEGINS WITH READING and to help you with that assignment, I’ve asked some established memoir writers to provide you short how-to’s that will get you to work.
Maybe you want to know how to tell the truth when writing a book, or what to leave in or take out. Perhaps your Number 1 writing problem is whether or not to fictionalize your memoir writing. I’ve got you covered. Read on.
- Should you fictionalize your memoir? David Harris-Gershon is the man to ask. Author of the remarkable book, What Do You Buy the Children Of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife? he fictionalized specific parts of his memoir, and tells you why.
- How to recall the details of your life when writing memoir? A graphic memoirist, Lila Weaver is an expert on how to recall details from your life when writing. She is the author of Darkroom, a Memoir in Black & White, in which she expertly takes on race in America.
- Writing memoir requires knowing how to curate your life. The marvelous Karen Dietrich, author of The Girl Factory, wants you to know how to curate your life when writing memoir. Let her explain it for you.
- What to share when writing memoir. Emma Brockes might be the single best authority on what details to share in your memoir. Author of the astonishing, She Left Me The Gun, she had some hard decisions to make when writing her book, and she tells you all about them.
- How to tell the truth when writing memoir. Handling the Truth: On the Writing of Memoir, is about as straight- forward a title as you’ll find among books on how to write. And the author, Beth Kephart, is whom you should turn to on the topic.
- Wrestling with the truth is an inevitable part of memoir writing. Perhaps no one has ever wrestled with how and when to tell the truth as well the beloved Katrina Kenison in her latest book, Magical Journey, An Apprenticeship in Contentment. Make her your new best friend.
- How to get that critic out of your head when writing. Got a voice in your head? Let’s kick her to the curb, shall we? Mardi Jo Link, author of the inimitable Bootstrapper, from Broke to Badass on a Northern Michigan Farm, has got a hatchet on her book cover. Let her teach you how to wield it against all those who do not believe in your work.
- The consequences of writing memoir. Of course there are consequences to writing memoir. And not only the unavoidable fact that your sister says you started it, that it’s all your fault, and that nothing ever happened the way you’ve written it. But what are the other consequences of writing what you know? Anthony D’Aries, author of the great The Language of Men, explains what your family will think when you write memoir.
- How to make the hard choices or what goes in and what stays out of your book. How much goes into a book-length memoir? Priscilla Gilman, author of The Anti-Romantic Child: A Memoir of Unexpected Joy, will tell you what to leave in – and take out.
- The vomit draft. Oh, the agonies and ecstasies of that first draft. Nobody does this topic better than the great Josh Hanagarne, author of the wildly, rompingly, utterly joyous book, The World’s Strongest Librarian.
from time to time, another writer comes to call at the Writing Lessons series here on The Memoir Project. my blog. Meet them all here. To get them delivered to your mailbox, just subscribe to my free newsletter.
What you see above is merely a fraction of what I’ve got in the series. Come read the other memoir writing experts.
Ready to get to work on your own memoir? Have a look at my Memoir Manifesto. It will give you the jumpstart you need.