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The PTT of Memoir—Positioning, Theme, and Takeaway | Brooke Warner

March 29, 2012 By 4 Comments
Brook Warner and Linda Joy Myers

  This is a great guest post on memoir writing by Brooke Warner, of Warner Coaching. Brooke and I will be presenting one of the workshops at the NAMW Telesummit. As the Executive Editor at Seal Press, Brooke knows memoirs and how to help authors create books that are great to read and offer learning and new experiences for us as the reader. Read this terrific article by Brooke. Linda Joy and I have spent a lot of time talking about the power memoir has over the people who want to write it. … [Read more...]

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Catching a Glimpse of Your Soul: The Gift of Vulnerability in a Memoir by Naomi Rose

May 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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    There are so many possible reasons for writing a memoir. You may have had a very interesting life and want to record it. You may want to grapple with some issues that have been hard to pin down. You may even want to use the trials of your life as a message to others, or even a way of sparing them the pain that you went through. But the one that most calls to me, these days, is the opportunity to catch a glimpse of the soul. As someone who has written about my life since … [Read more...]

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Memoir Writing Tips | Story Midwives

May 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Midwife

Writing memoir is hard work and often messy. Some stories get stuck halfway out. Or they may not get out at all. We feel them stirring within, writhing and turning, kicking to get out, but the harder we try, the harder we push, the more tightly they stick in their spot. Sometimes we need help. I’d be terminally discouraged if I kept track of all the stories I’ve begun and eventually deleted because they just didn’t work. More often I am able to finish them, but only with considerable … [Read more...]

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The Landscape of Memoir | The Window of your Story

April 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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When we write a memoir, we are looking through a particular lens for each vignette or chapter. We find a way to focus that lens on the important moments, images, details, feelings, and action--which is a kind of meditation on time, a meditation on vision, seeing, knowledge. When you take a photograph, your image is framed, and this framing brings it to the fore, it makes you see the world in a different way than you would if you were not using that lens as a way to frame your comment on the … [Read more...]

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A Great Writing Class for Free

April 24, 2012 By 2 Comments
LibBks

Looking at the pile of books awaiting return to the library, I realize that trips to the library constitute a top notch, life long learning, self-directed writing class, and I've been enrolled for decades. I especially love reading memoirs. I’m a sucker for the details of other people’s lives. I read for fun and to learn, but I’ve also learned to read with a writer’s eye. I pay attention to the way the content is structured, and I’m always on the lookout for elegant wording. I also … [Read more...]

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NAMW April 2012 Newsletter

April 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Purple flowers

It’s April—a time of light, flowers, and burgeoning creativity. We at NAMW want to thank you for joining us at our various events these last months, and let you know about upcoming resources to assist you on your memoir writing journey. Memoir Writing Workshop  at the National Association of Memoir Writers Memoir writers need to be consummate storytellers, grabbing for our craft toolbox the techniques that make all stories great: well-rounded characters, an interesting plot, scintillating … [Read more...]

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Who Are You? | Marion Roach Smith

April 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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    We are excited to have Marion Roach Smith, author of The Memoir Project, A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life, as our teleseminar guest April 27. Marion teaches memoir writing everywhere and offers important points to help us on our memoir journey. Here is Marion's blog post on writing memoir.  WHO ARE YOU? If you are writing memoir, it’s important to know the answer to that question. I can tell you from experience that not knowing the answer to it has … [Read more...]

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Memoir Writing: It Takes a Village

April 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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“My cousin is convinced our grandmother was an evil witch, but Granny was always loving and generous with me.” “My boss has won awards for leadership excellence, but you couldn’t prove it by me. As far as I’m concerned, he’s a Nazi.” During the February NAMW Roundtable an anonymous guest (I’ll call her Becky) mentioned how differently she and her sister thought of their mother. This only became apparent when Becky gave Sis a draft copy of her memoir. “How can you talk about … [Read more...]

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News from the National Association of Memoir Writers–the Successful Telesummit; Free Roundtable Discussion |Publishing Choices

April 5, 2012 By 2 Comments
Pile-of-Books

  When we write memoir, we are passionate to get our book out into the world, and we need to find a way that works best for the kind of book that we have, and a way that works with our budget, our goals, and our audience. As everyone knows, the publishing industry is exploding with many choices these days, and by next week no doubt there will be more. At the Telesummit last week, we heard such terrific tips and information from Mark Coker of Smashwords, Dan Blank, WeGrowMedia.com, Tessa Smith … [Read more...]

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The PTT of Memoir—Positioning, Theme, and Takeaway | Brooke Warner

March 29, 2012 By 4 Comments
Brook Warner and Linda Joy Myers

  This is a great guest post on memoir writing by Brooke Warner, of Warner Coaching. Brooke and I will be presenting one of the workshops at the NAMW Telesummit. As the Executive Editor at Seal Press, Brooke knows memoirs and how to help authors create books that are great to read and offer learning and new experiences for us as the reader. Read this terrific article by Brooke. Linda Joy and I have spent a lot of time talking about the power memoir has over the people who want to write it. … [Read more...]

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