The Memoir Revolution

Category: Family

October 9, 2013

How Can an Adult Learn to Write Stories?

Aging, Courage to Write, Family

Aging, courage, Family, fear, groups, motivation, social anxiety, Storytelling, Toastmasters, Writing

For decades I assumed that since I had not grown up telling stories, I would never learn. Then in my fifties, I became interested in memoir writing. The problem was that without storytelling skills, I would never be able to write the story of my life.

Written by

Jerry Waxler
October 1, 2013

List of Memoirs that Show Various Aspects of Family

Book Review, Family

examples, families, groups, Memoirs

Describing your family in a memoir adds a layer of complexity to an already-complex task. To help you organize your ideas about how to include your family or group experience into your memoir here are a number of books that include the author’s involvement with this important group.

Written by

Jerry Waxler
September 16, 2013

The Many Roles of Family In Your Memoir

Family

Once I saw how the tension inside the group affected its members, I was able to see a new dimension of the genre. For example, in Freeways to Flipflops the interplay of individual lives with the collective swirl of the family provides all sorts of unexpected surprises. Now, in addition to her individual character arc…

Written by

Jerry Waxler
September 5, 2013

Family Psychology Lessons in Memoirs

Family, Favorites

family systems, identified patient, intervention, memoir, therapy

The memoir Freeways to Flipflops demonstrates just such a solution applied to the entire family system. Surprisingly, the sophisticated intervention is not administered by a trained family therapist but through the intuitive intelligence and courage of the mother. The family intervention Sonia Marsh administers is as bold and far reaching an example of family systems…

Written by

Jerry Waxler
July 13, 2013

Memoir About Growing Up Leads to Surprise Ending

Family

art, Bohemian, Coming of age, holocaust, memoir, moleskin notebook

Good endings are important for me, because during the 60s I read so many bad ones. As a young man, seeking my own identity during that time, I was almost driven mad by the despairing implications of so many of my favorite books. Since then, I have had an aversion to unhappy endings, and believe…

Written by

Jerry Waxler
September 18, 2012

Why Boomers Should Write Memoirs about the 60s

60’s, Boomers, Family, My own life

60’s, anti-war, Boomers, featured, Jewish identity, Madison, memoir, parents, riots, sixties

As I search for my story, I return to my curiosity about my parents. All I knew about them was summed up in a couple of clichés about immigrants and the Great Depression, but I knew nothing about their specific, day-to-day circumstances. I wonder if reading their memoir would have brought us closer to each…

Written by

Jerry Waxler
January 31, 2012

Parent’s Memoir Part 3b, Guide for Ghost Writer’s Interview

Family, How-to

ghostwrite, How-to, interview, memoir, parents, tip

Over the years, you have learned to avoid topics your parents prefer not talking about. In order to get the story, you need to break these taboos. Consider James McBride’s memoir “Color of Water.” His mother had angrily told him to mind his own business whenever he asked her about his past. As she grew…

Written by

Jerry Waxler
December 20, 2011

Ghost Wrote Her Mother’s Memoir, Part 3

Author Interview, Family, Linda Austin, Parents

autobiography, Book Review, ghost written, ghost-writing, Japan, Linda Austin, memoir, personal history, World War II

Linda Austin: I learned why my mother behaves the way she does, which is one reason why I strongly encourage telling life stories. What happens to us affects who we are and how we behave. Once I cried with my mother while parked in the lot of the Social Security building. She had told me…

Written by

Jerry Waxler
December 7, 2011

Parent’s Memoir: Finding Roots Across Generations

Author Interview, Family

autobiography, Book Review, ghost-writing, Japan, Linda Austin, memoir, personal history, World War II

Is it co-authored or ghost written? Is it a memoir or a biography? These distinctions blur into artistic interpretations rather than hard definitions. When James McBride wrote about his own search for his mother’s past in “Color of Water,” he stayed inside his own point of view, with occasional well-marked shifts into his mother’s voice.…

Written by

Jerry Waxler
May 19, 2011

Revealing Death and Other Courageous Acts of Life

Family, Grief/Loss, Writing Workshop

Addiction, Creative Nonfiction, death, Grief, memoir, Montgomery county community college, Philadelphia Writers Conference, professor, umass, Waxler, workshop

Then it was my job to turn the audience’s attention back to their own goals. I realized there wasn’t enough time to conduct a real workshop, but in the small amount of time available, I wanted to convince everyone that the problems of writing a memoir are solvable. “When you look back through your memories,…

Written by

Jerry Waxler