Linda Joy Myers, President of the National Association of Memoir Writers Makes First Blog Tour Stop This Friday, March 5, 2010 to Promote the Power of Memoir

Women’s Memoirs Blog to Conduct Interview

Join Linda Joy Myers on her first blog tour stop as she discusses the Power of Memoir: How to Write Your Healing Story.

Linda has written a beautiful blog entry, Writing from the Inside Out—Open Your Mind and Change Your Life on the Women’s Memoirs website.

Linda will be interviewed this Friday, by Women’s Memoirs and will answer the questions you post in advance of Friday. Post your questions now at http://womensmemoirs.com/memoir-writing-prompts/memoir-guest-blog-and-writing-prompt-linda-joy-myers-discusses-the-power-of-memoir/ Read more

National Association of Memoir Writers Book Review: Fearless Confessions, by Sue William Silverman

February Featured Book Review

 by Linda Joy Myers  President, National Association of Memoir Writers

Sue Silverman is the NAMW Member-only Teleseminar presenter for February!  Be sure to join us on this call, Friday February 19, 2010.

Sue Silverman sent me her book Fearless Confessions, after we “met” on a phone call. Chatting quickly back and forth, we discovered that we are both passionate about the subject of memoir writing, especially writing the deep truths that are part of a healing journey. As I spoke with Sue, I had the feeling that we were fellow travelers on a path I’ve been on for so long, someone whose bravery and steel of purpose leaps out from all her books. I had to confess to Sue that I hadn’t yet read her memoirs Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You, or Love Sick, telling her that my therapy work often delved into those dark corridors, and sometimes I was not able to read about the tough subjects that I’d dealt with in the therapy office. She was very kind in her response, saying that others had told her that too. After we spoke, I bought her books and read them, devoured is a better term, swept along by the beauty of her language, the strength of her voice and prose in each book, and her willingness to go through the darkness on the page eager to read her secrets and her path to finding her healed self. Her prose held me in its balance and beauty while making it possible for me to stay with her revealing and painful stories. Anyone who can do that is a consummately skilled writer.

When I began Fearless Confessions, I felt that I was well acquainted with Sue, I knew her history and secrets, I knew about her fear and dissociation, and could feel how hard she’d worked to heal herself of her childhood traumas. But more than that, I’d encountered a sturdy, fearless narrator, at least it seemed that she was fearless! Brilliantly, she begins this book, which is meant to be a book about writing, in scene—giving us an example from the very first paragraph of how to draw a reader in. Immediately we know that she, like the rest of us, was terrified, shy, and afraid to “tell the truth.”

There is so much wonderful material in this book, it’s hard to know where to begin. Some of the most important chapters have to do with the kind of narrator that we find in a memoir—a memoir about truth, a memoir that digs deeply into experience of now and the past, which Sue calls “The Voice of Innocence,”  and “the Voice of Experience.” She points out that the younger self will have a voice much different from the older, reflective, wiser self. The younger person we once were naturally sees the world through different eyes than someone with experience.

Another important technique for memoir writers is the idea of the horizontal and vertical plot. The horizontal plot conveys action and the external world; the vertical plot represents the emotional journey of life. These two threads weave back and forth, creating a grounded story that shows great depth, drawing upon the significant details of our experience. This kind of thinking about plot is important for memoir writers who tend to be overwhelmed by the many details in their lives, and about the emotional depths they encounter in their writing.

Sue explains the importance of metaphor as a means of crafting “truth” into art, using the example of a red scarf in her Love Sick memoir as a signifier of her longing of her love—and reminding her of the danger such a connection poses. The scarf appears in various scenes, carrying transparencies of meaning when it appears, layering feelings throughout the piece.

Fearless Confessions touches upon craft issues important for memoirists; style—which includes sentence structure and word choices, dialogue, tone, and voice. She teaches the reader about the world of publishing—essays, books, literary journals, and presents example of how to build a story out of an idea. This rich book belongs at your side to inspire, delight, and instruct you on all the levels of memoir writing.

The book ends in a tour de force discussion about the power of telling the truth, and the important of writing confessional stories.

Some important quotes from the chapter on confessional stories:

“Memoir is not journalism…my interpretation of events forms a reality that is uniquely mine.”

“Memoir relies on twining objective facts with subjective truth.”

“I am proud to call myself a writer of confessional literature—fearless literature…When we learn more about the human heart in all its complexity, we better understand the world.”

Fearless Confessions will help you take the fear out of writing your memoir and suffuse your writing life with intentionality, passion, and most of all support for your writing journey. I highly recommend this book to anyone embarking on the brave and courageous path of memoir writing.

FREE Preview for Mini-Workshop Teleseminar: Top Three Reasons to Write Your Memoir as a Story

NAMW Honors National Life Writing Month and Family Story Month

Date: Tuesday November 3, 2009
Time: 3 PM PST | 4 PM MST | 5 PM CST | 6 PM EST
Call Focus: Top Three Reasons to Write Your Memoir as a Story
Cost: FREE

November is an exciting month at NAMW as we honor National Life Writing Month and Family Story Month. NAMW has developed a special Memoir Mini-Workshop Teleseminar for the month of November. This two session workshop teleseminar will be held on November 10th & November 17th.

NAMW is also offering a FREE Memoir Mini-Workshop Preview Teleseminar on Tuesday November 3, 2009.  This Workshop Preview Teleseminar will focus on the Top Three Reasons to Write Your Memoir as a Story. Again, this free teleseminar is open to everyone, so feel free to pass the details along to friends that might be interested in participating. Read more

Inaugural National Day on Writing

Listen in to this downloadable audio as Linda Joy Myers Ph.D., MFT, President and Founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers (NAMW) shares her thoughts on this inaugural National Day on Writing.

We Are All Making History

Join the forum discussion on this post - (2) Posts

During the preview seminar on Thursday, I and the rest of the audience were stimulated by Kim Pearson’s presentation about how history interweaves with our personal narrative. Kim shared a lot of information with us—particularly her amazing eight categories of lenses through which we can view and organize history. Viewing history through these categories helps it become less overwhelming and invites us to include memories from these times in our memoirs. Read more

[August 7, 2009] Jordan Rosenfeld

Make a Scene: Learn to master the miracle tool of good fiction writing for your memoir

Guest Speaker: Jordan Rosenfeld
Topic: Make a Scene: Learn to master the miracle tool of good fiction writing for your memoir
Date: August 7, 2009
Times: 11 am Pacific | 12 noon Mountain | 1 pm Central | 2 pm Eastern
Cost: Free for NAMW Members
Become A Member of NAMW to take part in this teleseminar!

MEMBERS:  AUDIO DOWNLOAD AVAILABLE SOON!  WATCH YOUR EMAIL FOR A LINK!

You’ve felt the pulse-pounding drama of a good story, turning pages at a furious clip, caught up in a book so real, you feel as though it is happening to you. What makes that story, book or essay come to life? Strong, powerful scenes. Learning to write scenes is crucial to writing powerful narratives that compel, and it simplifies the writing process.

Read more

[July 15, 2009] Maureen Murdock

Maureen Murdock: Writing the Truth

Guest Speaker: Maureen Murdock
Topic: Writing the Truth
Date: July 15, 2009
Times: 11 am Pacific | 12 noon Mountain | 1 pm Central | 2 pm Eastern

Memoir is not a linear autobiography recounting a fully lived life, but rather a selected aspect of the writer’s life, written from his or her point of view. The memoirist recounts the incidents in her life to the best of her recollection. Does that mean she will have perfect recall? No, memoir is not about perfect accuracy of the remembered event; it’s more about finding perspective and making meaning of that particular slice of one’s life. The struggle for emotional truth is central to memoir. When you are talking about yourself, you are talking about all of us to a certain degree. The reader must trust that the memoirist has done a fair amount of introspection and is trying to give us her best understanding of the event. If she stays at the same flat level of self-disclosure and understanding throughout, the piece may be smooth but will not awaken a sense of self-recognition. Read more

NAMW Virtual Conference Features Experts in Therapeutic Writing

BERKELEY, CA – The National Association of Memoir Writers is breaking ground again by bringing together experts from the memoir, journaling, and therapeutic world for an exciting online conference. Top writers, researchers, and mentors in the fascinating field of therapeutic writing will be in attendance at the NAMW Virtual Conference scheduled for April 23, 2009. The conference is free for all attendees.

“We are thrilled to have Dr. James Pennebaker, one of the premier researchers in therapeutic writing, as one of our guests”, says Linda Joy Myers, President of The National Association of Memoir Writers (NAMW) as well as host and director of the 2009 Virtual Conference. This prolific researcher has completed dozens of studies with hundreds of people demonstrating the various ways writing helps to heal the body, mind and spirit.

In addition to Dr. Pennebaker, presenters for this year’s event include Kay Adams, Dr. Lucia Capacchione, Christina Baldwin and Marina Nemat. For the past thirty years, Adams and Baldwin have been working in the area of writing from the soul, listening to the inner spirit, and using writing as a way to more deeply know the self.

Individual session titles include: Writing through Troubled Times-Journal Your Way from Chaos to Calm; Putting Emotional Experiences into Words; Re-Membering Your Self – Creative Journaling for Memoirists; and The Spiral of Experience – How Story Changes Over Time.

“Writing is a way to listen to ourselves, to give voice to what we deeply know about ourselves, our society, our planet,” says Myers. The goal of the conference is to give attendees the guidance, inspiration, and motivation to use writing as a regular technique to create wholeness and happiness. For more information about how to register for this free conference, visit the NAMW Web site.

About the National Association of Memoir Writers

The National Association of Memoir Writers (NAMW) invites memoir writers from all over the world to connect, learn, and get inspired. The goal of our organization is to help memoir writers feel empowered with purpose and energy to begin and develop their life stories. For more information visit the Web site at www.namw.org or call toll-free 1-877-ememoir.

Summary

The second NAMW Virtual Conference is scheduled for April 23, 2009. Experts from the field of therapeutic writing join experts in journaling and memoir writing in this exciting, free conference geared toward helping attendees learn how to use writing to create wholeness and happiness.

Contact Info

Linda Joy Myers, Ph.D.
National Association of Memoir Writers
http://www.namw.org
1700 Solano Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94707, USA

How to Win a Memoir Writing Contest

Having judged several writing contests in the last couple of years, I find myself wanting to share how to avoid the common things that make a judge put your piece in the “no” pile, or even the maybe pile, and select others as winners.

There are two factors in how contests are judged—and the first one is subjectivity. Different voices, topics, and language appeal to one reader more than another.

But apart from subjectivity, the top reason for passing over a manuscript comes down to craft for most judges—the craft of writing and the care the person gives the presentation of his work. Read more

Rain by Morgana Hunter

The third adult in our family of five kids and two parents was our German shepherd, Rain. I was a newborn when my father brought him home as a puppy tucked in his work coat pocket.

Mother named him Rain for Mt. Rainier, which was visible from the hill above our house in Washington. In the beginning, Rain and I were roommates in my baby crib. He could escape through the bars to visit with the rest of the family at will, whereas I often found myself locked up in my jail waiting for a lovely pair of hands to pick me up and kiss me. I received more face washings and kisses from Rain throughout my baby years than from anyone else. Early on I learned to detect German shepherd breath, from kitty breath, from human family breath. Read more