RSS FeedFebruary 2013
The Ghost in the Memoir with Kim Pearson
It’s the nature of memoir to be full of ghosts from the past. But this discussion is about a ghost in the present. Ghostwriter, that is.
You, your family, or your ancestors have a great story, one that will resonate with many people. Yet you know that writing a book is tough, and you’re not sure you can do it. You probably have good reasons for this belief, such as:
- You are not a writer. Maybe you are inexperienced, or simply not confident in your writing skills
- You hate to write. You would rather clean the toilet than write.
- You haven’t got the time to write a whole book. After all, you have a job, a family, a life.
January 2013
Magic Marketing for Memoir | It’s Never Too Late or Too Early to Do Right by Your Book with Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Too many memoirists and others who write in literary genres like poetry have come to believe that marketing or promotion won’t work for them. Worse, that it can’t be done. Worse still, that it is counter to their artistic intent. How do you feel about marketing? Does it make your heart beat harder? It’s time to get in the flow of positive thinking about getting your book, and yourself, into the world.
During this teleseminar you will learn:
- How to get over your fear of publicity and marketing
- About the single most important technique for memoirists and other creative types
- Important information about query letters and book proposals
- How to develop a positive, joyful attitude about marketing
December 2012
Endorsements: The Art of Gathering a Book Blurb with Stephanie Barko
For many authors, finding endorsers and writing the dreaded query letter can be daunting, but as independent authors and writers, it’s a skill we need to have. It’s not too soon to start building your list of potential endorsers. Join us at this workshop with publicist Stephanie Barko to learn more about how, when, and who to contact to get some major buzz going about your book.
In this teleseminar we will explore:
- What endorsements can do for your book
- When to request endorsements
- Who to target as endorsers
- How to request endorsements
November 2012
Insights to Characters in Your Memoir with Matilda Butler
Join Matilda Butler as she shares her new memoir writing system with members of the National Association of Memoir Writers. During this hour-long workshop, she’ll reveal eight steps that can change the way you write. Learn how these steps allow you to write fast. And most importantly, learn how they take you deep into an understanding of your own story in a way that helps you “show” not “tell” your story.
Step 1: Write a synopsis of a scene in your memoir
Step 2: Understand the Deconstruction process
Step 3: Reveal the characters in the scene (Deconstruct)
Step 4: Uncover and track the emotions (Deconstruct)
Step 5: Tell it in dialogue (Deconstruct)
Step 6: Evoke the five senses (Deconstruct)
Step 7: Specify time and place (Deconstruct)
Step 8: Understand the Construction process and write your scene
October 2012
Memoir Writing: Capturing Your Moment in Time with Catharine Bramkamp
Memoir is often predicated on moments of being – not the daily acts of life, but the flash of memory, the vivid picture of memory. Those luminous moments of your past are your moments of being. What strikes you as you think about your life? When you look back, what flashes by as significant? These moments of being are the touch points for a good memoir.
In this teleseminar, Catharine will help you discover those moments in your own story and look at how you weave them together.
- What’s your butterfly net – how to capture your moments of being
- Arranging your finds – what comes first, what should be the final moments of your memoir–and how to decide
- Mounting your moments in the context of history and setting - how to conduct your research and find details
- Filling in your collection of memory moments to create an arc of your story
September 2012
Publishing Your Memoir with Linda Austin and Sonia Marsh
There are many choices when publishing your memoir or collection of life story vignettes. The National Association of Memoir Writers Teleseminar offers an overview of publishing methods, tips for producing a professional-looking book, and a look at the pros and cons of using Amazon’s CreateSpace self-publishing program vs. Lightning Source’s digital printing and distribution.
August 2012
Musings about the Muddy Middle of Your Memoir with Brooke Warner and Linda Joy Myers
You know you’ve reached the muddy middle when your enthusiasm for your project begins to wane. Where you were once enthusiastic and couldn’t wait to spend some alone time with your book project, you now eyeball the file on your computer with guilt or anxiety. You notice that you’ve relegated your writing to the backseat—to the bottom of your priority list.
But, as you probably know, your writing doesn’t want to be there. It screams (sometimes silently, but you hear it anyway) at you to come back to it. You may feel guilt, grief, or frustration with yourself. You might feel self-critical. You might make excuses. No matter what your particular coping mechanisms might be, it’s no way to move through life. And yet some people spend years actively ignoring a story or a book that wants to be told.
July 2012
Make Your Prose (Memoir) Writing More Poetic with Albert Flynn DeSilver
One of the highest compliments a piece of writing can receive is that it’s “poetic.” Whether we are talking about a novel, an essay, a screen play, or a memoir. We want our writing to shine, to be poetic—meaning, beautifully crafted, billowing with unexpected metaphors, infused with a gorgeous fluid rhythm, and peppered with mysterious twists of language! Poetry (poetic writing) stirs the human heart, sparks the imagination and enchants the reader’s soul.
Join poet, writer, and publisher, Albert Flynn DeSilver, author of the new memoir Beamish Boy, to discuss ways to make your prose (memoir) writing more poetic.
June 2012
How Using Personal History Methods Can Benefit Your Memoir with Dan Curtis
We welcome Dan Curtis, a personal historian. His blog offers many tips to help people find out more history from family members, and preserve memories. He will talk to us about the ways you can learn from the skills and techniques of personal historians to help you write your memoir, and he will talk to us about the difference between a personal history and a memoir.
Personal historians are skilled in their ability to unlock the stories from an individual’s life. Your memoir will be enriched by the stories you discover when you interview those family members, friends, and acquaintances who have been involved in different aspects of your life.
May 2012
Journaling for Memoir Writers—A Short Course in Writing Deeply with Amber Lea Starfire
Journaling can support your memoir writing in so many ways. We are happy to present our guest Amber Lea Starfire for our May 18 National Association of Memoir Writers Teleseminar for a short course in giving your writing more depth and power using journaling techniques.
Writers have always kept journals for a variety of reasons—recording life events, personal growth, healing, and stream of consciousness writing. Do you have a closet full of journals or boxes in storage? Many of us have kept our journals, and may look at journaling as something we do to just get things off our chest. But there are many uses for journaling, according to journal expert, writing coach, and author of Week by Week—A Year’s Worth of Journaling Prompts & Meditations.
April 2012
The Riches and Rewards of Writing a Memoir with Naomi Rose
Naomi is a coach, author, publisher, and wise woman who will talk with us about the value and importance of writing our stories. Here is what she has to say about her presentation:
A memoir can be a way not only to make sense (and even art) of your life, but it also can so anchor your relationship to the deeper strata of your true existence that, years later, re-reading your book can align you with your most essential being. This was my experience writing MotherWealth: The Feminine Path to Money—and also reading it, again and again, over the years. I found that the directness and honesty of what I had written in a time of great vulnerability later anchored me to what was real, just by re-reading what I’d written. Interestingly, the subject of the book—the relation between money and the Feminine way of being—is even more widely appropriate now, in our spiritual and economic times.
March 2012
Memoir Writing Teleseminar: Finding Your Way Through Your Family History with Victoria Costello
I believe that every memoir has the writer’s family history at its core. Even if ancestors are never mentioned, they are present—even omnipresent in your true story. That’s because the impetus for so much life writing, whether conscious or unconscious, is to remove the scab from a family wound and heal it. It may have been a physical or emotional violation, a betrayal of trust, or unspoken words of gratitude or love, but whatever the source of your family wound, the resulting trauma lives on in you, or perhaps most flagrantly in one of your children—as was the case for me and the impetus for writing my memoir, A Lethal Inheritance, A Mother Uncovers the Science Behind Three Generations of Mental Illness (Jan 2012/Prometheus Books).
February 2012
Social Media Branding for Memoir Writers: Discover how to attract raving fans with Beth Barany
Write a good book, we’re told.
Yes, absolutely!
And now it’s time to tell others who don’t yet know about you about your book.
That’s marketing.
Yes, even unpublished authors can and need to start marketing for a successful career now. Yes, starting now.
But where do we begin?
Many authors think all you need to do is get on Facebook and Twitter and get blogging, and then people will find you.
January 2012
Genre Bending–Will the Memoir Police Arrest You? with Jane Vandenburgh
There have been so many debates about “the rules” of memoir—with a strict notion that everything must be accurate and provable, especially since the fracas with James Frey and Oprah—though all has been forgiven by now. Yet the debate continues, with some memoir writers insisting that they ARE being completely accurate—to THEIR memory of what happened and how they felt about it. And furthermore, if they need a scene or two of composite characters, no problem; or dialogue created to suit the scene—of course! The big secret is that all memoir writers have to do this, or they wouldn’t have a story. Think about it–how many 5 year olds take dictation?
December 2011
Marketing with Spiritual Intent for Memoirists with Lynn Serafinn
Memoir writers are always moaning to me–I’m shy, I can’t get on the radio, can’t talk about my book, can’t do the elevator speech, can’t …. fill in the blank. We’ve been taught that marketing is on a par with used car salesmen and door-to-door carpet cleaners. Not even up there with encyclodpedia salesmen.
But wait! Didn’t you write your book to make a difference in the world? Don’t you want your words to have power, to make changes, to reflect a spirit of altruism and joy? I know the answer is yes because I have talked with many of you about this.
Click here to read about NAMW membership benefits
