"You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better." - Anne Lamott It’s funny how guilt emerges when you …
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You Are Uniquely Qualified
It seems it should go without saying that you are uniquely qualified to write your memoir. And yet, the voices lurk at the edges of your consciousness: Who do I think I am? Am I a fraud? A wannabe? We …
Discovering Your Process
Finding Your Way As you write each day, you discover your own process. You begin to see there is no “right way” to create and that your objective is simply to let the story live. The first draft is a …
Permission to Write the Truth
What is the Truth of your story? OK, you’ve outlined your story and you’re getting ready to write your first draft. But something doesn’t feel right. You tell yourself that you’re not ready, that you …
Banishing Redundancies
Redundancy is not only a sign of lazy writing; it can also pull us out of the story by interrupting the narrative flow. There are many types of redundancies in writing, from rehashing story …
But That’s What Really Happened
“I've given my memoirs far more thought than any of my marriages. You can't divorce a book."—Gloria SwansonSticking to "What Really Happened" might cause a disconnect In writing fiction, we …
Asking “Why?”
Always keep your ideal reader close by in your mind asking "Why?" Our subconscious is perfectly designed for this process. It already knows the story. Our only job is to remain curious and inquire …
Trusting the Process
Be open to possibilities When I wrote my first novel Diamond Dogs, I had the idea that my hero, a high school senior, gets rid of the body. He accidentally kills a kid while driving late one night on …
Why Writers Get Stuck
Einstein says, “You cannot solve a problem at the same level of consciousness that created the problem.” Writers often get stuck because they believe it’s their job to figure out a solution to …
One Thing Readers Hate
One thing readers hate are coincidences. Sure, coincidences occur in our lives every day, but in a story, they are generally a problem. Readers lose interest when coincidence leans in the …