Tag: memoir
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Memoirs offer a new approach to suffering
When Siddhartha first encountered suffering he ran away to the jungle. When I first encountered suffering, I went into a rage, determined to fix the world. Instead of changing the world, Iury, fell apart. That’s when I ran away, but not to the jungle. I ended up living in a garage in Berkeley, one step…
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How memoirs enhance emotional intelligence (EQ)
When I was younger, anytime someone expressed an emotion I felt offended. “Why are they bothering me with what they are feeling?” During that period my lack of interest in feelings led me to reading science fiction. The focus on problem solving and adventure enabled me to stay aloof from the complexities of emotional life.…
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Crafting your memoir restores meaning after loss
No matter how hard we try to push down old pains, they sometimes climb out of their graves like zombies. Some people try to drown their memories, pretending not to notice that the alcohol makes their pain stronger. Some lose themselves in work, which is good for the paycheck but not so good for the…
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The Feminine Viewpoint in Memoirs
The feminine version of romance is perhaps one of the most profound differences between the genders. And as a male, I’ve been outside looking in – until now.
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The Genius of an Uplifting Memoir Conclusion
This Is How I Save My Life: From California to India, a True Story of Finding Everything When You Are Willing to Try Anything by Amy B. Scher At the beginning of Amy Scher’s memoir, This is How I save My Life, she is riddled with pain, weakened in every muscle of her body. Her…
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Should you include romance in your memoir?
The process of getting together with a romantic partner is so psychologically complex, and so fraught with pitfalls and doubts, it makes perfect raw material for a memoir. Then why have I seen so few bestsellers centered on this theme? Perhaps the subject has been so over-reported in fiction that some memoir authors might fear…
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Ancestor Research Memoirs Give History a Voice
When I was a teenager, in the sixties, I loved to read novels about the previous hundred years. Authors such as Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, and Ernest Hemingway led me on astonishing journeys through the worlds that existed before my time. Mysteriously, though, it never occurred to me to ask my parents about their own…
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Writing a life: memoir or autobiography?
It’s that “and more” that pushed me to deepen my understanding of the sometimes-subtle differences between autobiography and memoir, a distinction that continues to plague memoir writers struggling to decide how much to keep into their growing manuscripts.
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Checklists for Memoir Writers
To write a memoir, you have to carve out a few minutes each day to make progress. Despite the apparent simplicity of this requirement, many, if not most, aspiring writers consistently find it difficult to prod themselves to act. The problem is that at any given moment there are a thousand other things to do,…
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