Category: Introspection
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Memoirs, privacy, fame, and family
Unlike Ed Sullivan who became famous for pretending to be no-man, Frank McCourt became famous for being everyman. His memoir, Angela’s Ashes was one of the early books in the modern memoir movement that demonstrated that sharing private life can raise social awareness.
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Thoughts are the Soundtrack of a Memoir
Occasionally one of Berner’s two sons says or does something that triggers a round of musing. Within each of these reveries, time moves more fluidly, leaping from one generation to another, like the point-counterpoint of jazz riffs, in which motifs intertwine, never going too far into one before the other intervenes, giving endless opportunities for…
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Memoirs Connect Us by Sharing Our Hidden Worlds
I looked around the room. Everyone was relaxed. I realized that reading my story had not upset them or turned me into a pariah. Paradoxically instead of increasing my shame, sharing the story dispelled it.
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What is the difference between journaling and memoir writing?
After years of practice transferring the contents of my mind on to paper, I became a faster, more agile writer. But despite these benefits, the journals themselves were neither informative nor entertaining, and I finally grew tired of writing only for myself.
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Memoir Writing as a Form of Therapy
After all this work, I finally found a way that begins to make sense. Rather than speculate who I might be, I simply can review who I really am. Memoirs are a fascinating window into the workings of life, and they are filled with lessons that don’t require any jargon or psychological theory.
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Link isolated anecdotes into a story with the power of your beliefs
A memoir starts with a single anecdote. Then another, and another. In our imagination, we know these events formed our life. But other people can’t read our imagination. They can only read what’s on the page. We must transform the anecdotes into a compelling story. The memoir writer’s job is to discover the binding that…
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His Relationship to Girls Changed in this Scene
Henry Louis Gates grew up in a small town in West Virginia in the 1950s where he was taught he shouldn’t associate with girls until he married one. Then a fractured hip landed him in a hospital in a university town 60 miles away. During his protracted stay, with his leg suspended in traction, he…
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Doreen Orion’s brilliant memoir about last year’s midlife crisis
by Jerry Waxler When Doreen Orion’s husband noticed they were getting older, he suggested they buy a recreational vehicle, take a year off from work and drive across the country. She fought the idea at first. (What’s a story without some sort of conflict?) It sounded cramped, and she would only be able to take…
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Memoirs as a journey from blindness to sight
I felt a little cheated that it took the author so long to start looking within himself. Then I look at my pile of memoirs and realize that most of the authors continue through the darkness for a really long time. Dani Shapiro in “Slow Motion” took forever to realize she was destroying herself. Jeanette…
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