Jerry Waxler
My Twelve Year Odyssey to Turn life into Memoir
Thursday April 7, 2016
4 PM PDT 5 PM MDT 6 PM CDT 7 PM EDT
Our guest this month is Jerry Waxler, my colleague and friend since I began the National Association of Memoir Writers. Jerry is also on our advisory board, and we have had many conversations about his memoir journey, mine, and the issues that all memoir writers have to solve as they finish their book and move toward publication.
Jerry has taught several classes here at NAMW, and is a passionate advocate for memoir writers. Now that his book is done—yay—we thought it would benefit memoir writers who struggle with the same challenges as Jerry did to hear about how he managed to confront his memory, moments of shame and embarrassment, the need for privacy, and the long writing and editing process.
Jerry’s odyssey to write his memoir began in 2004, when he decided he would try to make sense of the years between 1965 and 1975. At first, writing the story seemed impossible. He was not a story writer and he could barely remember those times when hippie dreams almost unraveled his sanity. Twelve years later, in 2016, he published, Thinking My Way to the End of the World. In this roundtable we’ll accompany Jerry through his journey, as he proceeded from the initial motivation, to gathering anecdotes, creating scenes, organizing, revising, polishing, self-doubts, and finally publishing the memoir.
You will learn:
- How to discover and uncover your most important memories
- How to sort through the many moments of your life to find a structure for your memoir
- The ways that your writing community can help you find your way
- How viewing writing your memoir as a journey can give you courage to keep going
- What you need to know about revision and editing
- How to easily publish the book YOU want to write
Jerry Waxler, M.S. writes, speaks, and teaches about how to awaken human potential through writing. Jerry’s blog includes four hundred essays that form the basis for his book Memoir Revolution which champions the social trend to turn life into Story. His degree and experience in Counseling Psychology provide the background for his self-help guide, How to Become a Heroic Writer, about overcoming the mental challenges of being a writer. His own coming-of-age memoir Thinking My Way to the End of the World is about his attempt to grow up into adulthood during the 60s. For more information see www.jerrywaxler.com.
Listen to the recording below:
