The Story You Need to Tell – We all have one!
Sandra Marinella
September 7, 2017
4 PM PDT 5 PM MDT 6 PM CDT 7 PM EDT
True stories are the heart of The Story You Need to Tell—How Writing to Heal from Trauma, Illness, or Loss Can Transform Your Life. When I faced breast cancer in 2012, I decided to write to heal. And I did. Inspired, I dug out and read twenty-seven of my old journals. Here I learned the power of personal writing to help me navigate a death, a post-partum depression, and my cancer, followed by my son’s cancer. Although my memoir frames and is threaded throughout this book, I focus on stories I collected from over 100 writers during my five years of writing. These unsung heroes share their heart-wrenching as well as heartwarming stories and shed light on how writing can change and transform our lives. This work is not only a memoir, but also a guide to transformative storytelling and writing based on over 200 research studies. I hope it will guide many memoir writers toward the story they need to tell. We all have one.
What we will explore:
- What is the “story you need to tell?” and why is it important to write it?
- What are the benefits of writing our memoirs?
- What role can our intuition play in writing our memoirs?
- How can interviews enhance your writing?
- What are the stages of writing to heal and transform?
- What are the potential roadblocks in writing and researching a nonfiction memoir?
- What role can your friends and community play in your writing and publishing process?
Biography
Sandra Marinella is an award-winning writing teacher and author from Chandler, Arizona. She has taught thousands of students and presented hundreds of writing workshops. Her articles have appeared in The English Journal, The Arizona English Bulletin, and Seventeen. When she discovered she had breast cancer, she rewrote her personal story and began working on “writing to heal” with cancer patients and veterans. Her new book, The Story You Need to Tell–Writing to Heal from Trauma, Illness, or Loss (New World Library, 2017) shares her life-changing journey and these inspiring experiences. You can learn more at www.storyyoutell.com and follow her at www.facebook.com/storyyouneedtotell
