An Interview with June NAMW Member of the Month, Linda Lacey Missouri

Linda Joy: Tell us what you are writing about

Linda: I grab a memory that’s alive and wrestle it into submission! I’m writing short pieces—high points, low points, and turning points—to catch the essence and meaning of my life’s journey.

Linda Joy: Who is your audience?

Linda: I’m basically writing for my own self-understanding. However, I get an immediate thrill out of seeing my name in print. I was happy when my story about my grandparents was published this spring in The Searcher, a publication of The Southern California Genealogical Society. I called it How They Met: A Timeless Tale Inspired by a Clock.

Linda Joy: Is there anyone who does not want you to write your memoir? Why not?

Linda: One in particular! He’s my own Inner Critic who likes to interrupt the flow of writing to point out flaws or give advice. He intrudes on my efforts by saying, “These words aren’t good enough. You might as well stop. Do something of real value. This is too hard for you. Go have fun.”  My writing suffers when I let his opinion be the final word. I need to respond with, “Wait a minute. I’m not wasting my time. If you’re trying to motivate me, you’re having the opposite effect. I don’t need to be perfect. It hurts me when you comment on my early drafts. I’ll call on you when I need your critique.” The trick, however, is catching my critic before he’s moved right in and taken over.

Linda Joy: What are the most significant turning points or influences in your life?

Linda: In my 20’s I lost my brother to mental illness. With my heart broken open with grief, I was propelled into my own mental health journey. I worked with a counselor at the university to uncover my hidden needs and trust another person with my inner thoughts. She recommended I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Hanna Green who wrote about her own schizophrenia. In that book I found the words to start understanding my feelings about my brother’s illness. Later, I discovered Jungian analysis where I circled into deeper layers. I kept a journal, drew my dreams, and took banjo lessons. Nature became a healing salve when I watched Darwin’s finches build nests on the Galapagos Islands. I worked as a teacher, appreciating differently-challenged children. Then, achieving my license as a counselor, I worked with children using non-verbal play therapy methods, including Jungian sand play.  Currently in private practice in Long Beach, California, I work mainly with adults.  With courage, they recover their authentic voice.

Linda Joy:  What books do you value?

Linda: I consider my stuffed shelves of books as part inspiration, part companion. I dip intuitively in and out of mostly nonfiction books, psychology, memoir, and poetry. I’m rereading The Women We Become: Myths, Folktales and Stories About Growing Older by Ann G. Thomas, Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, An African Childhood by Alexandra Fuller, Lessons in Becoming Myself , a memoir by actress Ellen Burstyn, The Healing Imagination, the Meeting of Psyche and Soul by Ann and Barry Ulanov, The Great Failure, My Unexpected Path to Truth, a memoir by Natalie Goldberg, and Another Country, Navigating the Emotional Terrain of our Elders by Mary Pipher. At poetry readings my senses delight in rhythms expressed through word and image. I loved hearing my favorite poets in person:  Maxine Kumin, David Whyte, Quaker Jeanne Lohmann, Mary Oliver, and Robert Frost.

Linda Joy:  What ways do you nurture your writing life?

Linda: When I go to live theater, I notice what makes a captivating scene. I watch the reaction of actors who are not talking. I look at childhood photos and Mom’s old collection of daily diaries to stimulate my memory. Before I begin to write, I often play my cedar flute. I do a movement from Tai Chi to elicit a more balanced spaciousness. The presence of my cat Katherine Gandy comforts me while I write. I value my friends for their objective critiques of my writing. A retreat at Camp Writing Bear in Santa Rosa, CA filled me with inspiration. A weekend retreat led by Linda Joy Myers in Calistoga, CA gave me time and a safe place to write an early draft of a difficult conversation with my mother. For five years I’ve attended a memoir writing class at a community college in Orange, CA. Teacher of the year Dawn Thurston gives right-on suggestions to each of us after we read our story out loud. I like Dawn’s website and blog at www.memoirmentor.org.

Linda Joy:  How did you discover NAMW & what made you decide to join?

Linda: Thankfully, I read Linda Joy Myers’ book, Becoming Whole: Writing Your Healing Story. Then I looked her up online. Maureen Murdock was being interviewed that day for NAMW members. Because I liked Maureen’s book, The Heroine’s Journey, I joined immediately! The NAMW teleseminars bring me fresh ideas and companionship in the often isolating work of writing.

About Linda Lacey Missouri:

Linda Lacey Missouri’s fascination for creating words on paper began in earnest when she turned nine.  She used hunt-and-peck on the family’s manual typewriter.  She told simple stories and jokes.  She asked Chicago neighbors and Missouri relatives to pay 2 cents for a carbon copy of My Noodle Scribble.   She loved the challenges of being editor in chief of her high school newspaper and assistant press officer for an Anglican society in England.  She taught a university extension course in Decisions through Journal Writing and considers herself a reporter, never a writer. One story at a time she is beginning to redefine herself as a writer.

To contact Linda Lacey Missouri, see the article she wrote at www.junginoc.org

And, as we look back and celebrate the end of the month of our 2nd Anniversary as the National Association of Memoir Writers, we are excited to announce a new membership level:  the NAMW Lifetime Membership!  Many of our current members have asked to demonstrate their true commitment to the craft of memoir writing by becoming Lifetime Members of NAMW! Lifetime Members will receive access to exclusive content, such as on-going access to all of the audio files from past Memoir Writing Telesummits, new ebooks that are currently in production, an exclusive Lifetime Member logo for use on your website, blog or print materials as well as transcripts for some of our most popular audio teleseminars!  If you are a current member interested in upgrading your Annual Membership to a Lifetime Membership, you can simply login to the NAMW website and follow the link to Upgrade to a Lifetime Membership from the NAMW Member Control Panel.   These Lifetime Memberships will be full priced at $595 but for the next few days, we’ll offer a Lifetime Membership to our current members for $525! And if you are not a current member of NAMW, you can click here to become a Lifetime Member today! The full price of a Lifetime Membership for a first time member is $725, but will be priced at $625 for the next few days as well!

Not quite ready to invest in a Lifetime Membership?  In honor of Memorial Day, we are offering a 12 month membership in NAMW at a discounted rate through Monday night at 9:00 PM EDT!  Join today for only $129!  That’s a $20 savings off the regular cost of a 12 month membership!  Become a Member Today!

If you have any questions about membership benefits at NAMW, please contact Staci at info@NAMW.org or via telephone at (952) 210-7657.  And NAMW members, be sure to get over and visit the new Memoir Writing Community Forum!  We can’t wait to meet you there!

The following is a quote from Anam Cara by John
O’Donohue on the subject of memory:
“Memory is one of the most beautiful realities of the soul… Human memory is refined, sacred, and personal. Memory has its own inner selectivity and depth. Human memory is an inner temple of feeling and sensibility. The beauty and invitation of old age offer a time of silence and solitude for a visit to the house of your inner memory. You can revisit all of your past. Your soul is the place where your memory lives.”
I hope this quote inspired you to write another story filled with inspiration about memoir writing.

I’m inspired today! At NAMW, we’re preparing to welcome attendees to our free NAMW Telesummit Conference–which begins Friday morning. I lead off at 10 AM PDT talking about the power of writing memoir with my friend and colleague Kay Adams. And the day is full of inspiration and education. See you there!
–Linda Joy

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/

 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.

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.

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.

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.