Most writers do, and sometimes that dratted critic can stop them from writing, or suck the energy away they initially feel when they decide that have a book inside them. It took me many years to write my memoir Don’t Call Me Mother—my inner critic was nasty and scary, but I’d learned about harsh criticism as I grew up, and it lived inside me. I was fighting the voices of my town—”You wrote about us like that?” and the imagined voices of my mother and grandmother from the grave: “You should be ashamed to air the dirty laundry of our family!” I fought the voices that told me I couldn’t write, that my story was too dark, and that I should just “get over the past already.” Not only do we deal with the voices inside our heads, we have to bear the very real possibility that people in our family will get angry about what we wrote, or hurl the same old accusations that we have heard before—”Quit whining, just stay in the present, you are still thinking about all that? Get on with it.”
With all that going on, it’s hard to write and to believe in what we have to say. That is why I created this special teleconference for November 14—Breaking Silence—Writing Your Truth in Memoir! I’ve gathered some amazing and talented women to discuss their paths to freedom, how they found and develop their voices, and what happened after they published their books.
Perhaps this is the moment that you want to find your voice and break your silence, to write the memoir you have been wanting to write! During this day long teleconference, we will be talking about what has silenced us, and how we broke through that silence to write our books. Please join these amazing women who are willing to share their stories of shame, doubt, and how they have broken through and helped others find their voice.
Join us to learn about the subtle ways the inner critic can silence you, and how to break free and find your voice.
