Tag: interview
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Interview with Susan Weidener About Writing Her Memoir Pt 2
I wrote at least eight drafts before I was satisfied with the final version. I gave a copy of the completed manuscript to a former colleague from The Philadelphia Inquirer and to a family therapist. Both provided additional editing and copy editing. Of course, I edit manuscripts myself, but there is no way you can…
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Parent’s Memoir Part 3b, Guide for Ghost Writer’s Interview
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…
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Parent’s Memoir Part 3a, Guiding a Ghost Writer’s Interview
If your interviewee tends to speak in terms of ideas, summaries, and overviews, their memories won’t allow a reader inside their experience. To write compelling scenes, ask for more sensory information, dialog, and thought processes. “What did you see, hear, taste, touch and smell?” In addition to the senses, ask them about their introspective world.
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Answering Parents’ Objections to Writing Their Memoir
Beneath the smiles in those photos were more complex, ambiguous feelings. Writing awakens that complexity. Perhaps fear of writing about the past is a way to try to resist the pain that might be lurking under the surface. If your parents are attempting to make hard times disappear by pretending they never happened, their strategy…
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Interview: Young Adult Fiction versus Coming of Age Memoirs
Marie Lamba’s novel “Over My Head” was described by New York Times best-selling author Jonathan Maberry as “a funny, touching, and at times heart-breaking young adult novel about the search for love.” She is also author of the young adult novel “What I Meant…” (Random House), which was dubbed “an impressive debut” by Publisher’s Weekly.
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