Date: June 19, 2015

Time:

11 am PDT 12 pm MDT 1 pm CDT 2 pm EDT

To get the recording join today.

How do you write memoir about the damage of family abuse? When you do, what level of truth do you need to bring to the piece? Maybe you are living with something right now that is too difficult to write in real time. Perhaps it is in your past. We will discuss how to make notes on the present or write about past, as well as how to decide which time in your life you want to write from. Thinking about these issues is enough to stop even the boldest writer. But don’t let it stop you. Let’s talk about abuse and how to write about it successfully.

Points to be covered will include:

• How to access the truth from a complex family trauma
• What details from your story you need to reveal for the piece to work
• Maintaining anonymity and privacy when writing about abuse
• Understanding whose story it is and taking ownership of the tale

Author bio
Marion Roach Smith is the author of four books, as well as the co-author of several others. Her most recent book is The Memoir Project, A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life (Grand Central, 2011) She is a former staff member of The New York Times. A commentator on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered,” she has published in The New York Times Magazine, The New York Time Science Times, The Los Angeles Times, Prevention, Good Housekeeping, Discover, and Martha Stewart Living and elsewhere. Since 1998, she has taught classes in writing memoir, and now teaches worldwide online. She blogs about writing memoir on www.marionroach.com.