Category: Storytelling
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Lessons memoir writers can learn from Zombies
My goal is remarkably similar to Jonathan Maberry’s. We both want to tell a good story. So I keep listening to this thriller writer and keep learning lessons about the relationship between life and story. For example, in a previous discussion he told me that flaws in real people prepare him to write deeper characterization…
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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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Escaping the prison of what might have been
I have met many men and women, who start out pointing in one direction, say towards a profession, or marriage and babies, or the family business. Then they end up somewhere else. Often the change in direction leaves them or their parents feeling confused, as if they have disrupted destiny or lost an important part…
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Reach deep into memory to build a scene
The best way to share my nerdiness is to show scenes, bringing readers into the halls of my high school to see for themselves. And yet when I try to describe my life in high school, I feel like I’m trying to peer into the hidden memories of a stranger. Who was that guy? Fortunately,…
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6 Life Story Writing Prompts Inspired by a Book of Short Stories
What Xujun did in fiction, you could do in reality, developing a series of stories that gradually add up to portraying your life. Review your list of powerful transitions, such as a love gained or lost, an accident, illness, peak accomplishment, or realization that changed. (If you don’t have such a list, start it today.)
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Storytellers shed light on the horrors of war
In my journey to understand as much as possible about life writing, I consider the question many aspiring life writers raise. “Should I approach painful memories, and if so should the memories become part of my story?” Of course there is no one right answer, so to try to understand it more, I consider the…
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Story untangles distorted memories and reveals truths
by Jerry Waxler, author of Memoir Revolution: Write Your Story, Change the World During one fateful day in ninth grade, I discreetly positioned a science fiction book on my desk and was reading it while the English teacher droned on. I was so absorbed in the exploration of the galaxy that Mr. Disharoon walked up…
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Help my aging dad tell his story
I received this question in a comment yesterday, and it is so rich in the story of the human condition I am bringing it forward and answering it in this post. It was posted by Judy as a comment on my blog Be Here Now by Writing. Dear Jerry, My Dad is 89 years old.…
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Listening Is An Act of Love
by Jerry Waxler Last week, when I was visiting WHYY studio in Philadelphia I saw the mobile StoryCorps van and interviewed facilitator Mike Rauch about what StoryCorps does. It intrigued me so much, I went back to Philly last night to hear Dave Isay the founder of StoryCorps speak at the National Constitution Center. He…
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Tell stories for more thankful holiday gatherings
by Jerry Waxler The holidays bring together a mélange of generations, family units, and significant others, bonded by blood, marriage, love, and shared life experience. Then why did I feel more dread than joy? I didn’t understand my own reactions to the holidays until I started writing family stories, and then the answer leapt off…
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