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# The Memoir Revolution

Tell your story — change the world.

## Sitemaps

- [XML Sitemap](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website.

## Posts

- [Blog](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/)
- [Parent's Story: Personal History or Memoir?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/parents-story-personal-history-or-memoir/) - The story of becoming you may awaken insatiable curiosity to know the journey of your parents. Claudette Sutton fulfill that desire in her parent's "memoir."
- [Memoirs offer a new approach to suffering](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/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 away from being homeless, starving myself and legally blind. Eventually as I repaired, I found a new way to embrace suffering and maintain my sanity.
- [Two Fools at a Party: Serious Side of Humor](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/two-fools-memoir-serious-humor/) - This essay traces the journey from laughing at the memoir to seeing the important role humor plays, in these books and in our cultural heritage.
- [Memoirs Helped Her Conquer Midlife](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoirs-helped-her-conquer-midlife/) - Victoria Twead did not let a little thing like age stop her from her next great adventure. She joins a growing trend to view midlife as a time of renewal.
- [Memoirs heal the moral injury of rape](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoirs-heal-the-moral-injury-of-rape/) - In order to survive the corrosive effects of her soulful wounds, Stucky felt compelled to wrap the whole painful ordeal, including a lifetime of heroic seeking for sanity, into a literary container.
- [Writing for Community - or - When Going Public Can Save Dignity and Lives](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/writing-community-abuse/) - I attended an unusual book signing - collected testimonials written by a domestic violence support group. It showed how writing pulls people together.
- [Dani Shapiro Seeks Spiritual Meaning through Memoirs](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/dani-shapiro-seeks-spiritual-meaning-through-memoirs/) - Dani Shapiro's memoir is about a search for spiritual meaning, in traditional and eastern teachings. It highlights the many ways we humans search for wisdom.
- [Interview with Memoir Author Susan Weidener About Honesty](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/interview-susan-weidener-pt1/) - In this interview, I ask Susan Weidener about her moving story from love, marriage, children, her husband's untimely death, and then her journey back to life.
- [Why Write Memoirs After Combat or Other Trauma](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/why-combat-memoir/) - Soldiers returning from battle wonder how to cope with traumatic memories. Writing a memoir helps make sense of memory and pulls the pieces back together.
- [More Reasons Veterans Should Write Memoirs](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/why-veteran-memoir-pt2/) - When veterans return to civilian life, their years in the service seem remote from the rest of us. Here are reasons why memoirs can help bridge the gap.
- [Memoir Revolution: What It Is and Where It’s Heading](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-revolution-what-and-why/) - Using the familiar system of Story, memoir writers convert memories into a narrative. Thanks to current trends, many of us are taking that healing journey.
- [More about Why Choose to Write Fiction Instead of Memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/choose-to-write-fiction-or-memoir-kalish-pt2/) - David Kalish started writing a memoir and then switched. In this post, I talk to him about the relationship between his life and his first novel.
- [What Happens When a Memoir Author Chooses Fiction?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-author-kalish-chooses-fiction/) - David Kalish, author of the novel Opposite of Everything applies his knowledge of opposites to help me understand the relationship between fact and fiction.
- [Journey from Aspiring to Published Author and Beyond: David Kalish Interview Part 3](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/journey-from-aspiring-to-published-david-kalish-pt3/) - In part 3 of my interview with David Kalish, we talk about how he got here and where he's going.
- [Understand Self by Looking Back: Memoir of an Examined Life](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-of-examined-life/) - After retiring, Kathy Pooler chose to look back, demonstrating that storytelling reveals the seeds of wisdom hidden within ordinary life.
- [Two-Memoir Series about Youth, Midlife, and Responsibility](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/berner-memoir-series-hero-journey-responsibility/) - To the Beat generation, "out there" was the most important place in the world. In the Memoir Revolution, we're learning to admire the Hero's Homecoming.
- [Sharing Stories and Loving Mothers](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/sharing-stories-and-loving-mothers/) - The Listen to Your Mother Show allowed me to share my mom's wisdom, and to participate in another demonstration that storytelling is an act of love.
- [Coming of Age in the Shadow of Vietnam](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/vietnam-boomers/) - Her father shipped to Vietnam with his family. As a 10 years old in Saigon in 1960, she came of age with a front row seat at the inception of that war,
- [Why memoirs are becoming so popular](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/why-memoirs-are-becoming-so-popular/) - Almost half of the New York Times bestsellers in non-fiction are memoirs. Here are my thoughts about why we are more curious than ever to read memoirs.
- [Nine Reasons To Read Memoirs](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/eight-benefits-of-reading-memoirs/) - I have found so many reasons to read memoirs, I list them here along with suggested books under each benefit.
- [Story extends my optimism to infinity](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/story-extends-my-optimism-to-infinity/) - How do I find the optimism to keep going, even as I grow older? I look for the answer in my story, and find the wisdom I was hoping for.
- [Interview with story writer Xujun Eberlein](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/exclusive-interview-with-author-xujun-eberlein/) - In this exclusive interview, I ask Xujun Eberlein about the project of converting memories of growing up in the Chinese Cultural Revolution into stories.
- [Seeing History Through The Eyes of One Man](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/review-memoir-mao-chaozuh/) - The English translator for Chairman Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, leaders of communist China, brings the history of that period to life in his memoir, The Man on Mao's Right.
- [Fiction built on a foundation of real life](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/fact-in-fiction/) - When developing a memoir, you need to understand the relationship between art and life. In this essay I explore the way a fiction writer relies on truth.
- [Yin and Yang of Storytelling - Dramatic Tension of Opposites](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/yin-yang-dramatic-tension/) - Looking for techniques for writing life stories, I was richly rewarded by reading a collection of fiction by Susan Muaddi Darraj.
- [Fearlessly Confessing the Dark Side of Memory in this Memoir of Sexual Abuse](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-sexual-abuse/) - If you're lucky, you can avoid dark memories, but when they consume you, try turning them into a story, using your words to shine light into private hells.
- [Who Am I? 10 ways memoir reading and writing helps clarify identity](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/self-concept-coming-of-age/) - The ancient question "who am I?" becomes increasingly important in the fluid culture of modernity. Here are 10 ways memoirs can help.
- [Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/second-chance-career/) - Losing a job doesn't mean the end of life. In this memoir, David W. Berner starts over and finds deeper meaning than he had the first time.
- [Interview: Developing the craft of memoir writing](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/interview-david-berner-pt2/) - The memoir "Accidental Lessons" tells about David W. Berner's reinvention in the second part of his life. In this interview I ask how he developed his craft.
- [On Writing a Memoir: Interview with Author David W. Berner](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/interview-memoir-berner-1/) - After reinventing himself, David W. Berner wrote a memoir about the experience. This interview explores motivation, tenacity, and the assistance of a mentor.
- [A Memoir Author Comments on His Beginning and End](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/interview-david-berner-pt3/) - To learn how to construct a memoir, it helps to read and understand how other people do it. In this interview David Berner comments on finding his structure.
- [Interview with Memoir Activist - Founder of National Association of Memoir Writers](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/interview-ljm-telesummit/) - Many memoir writers look on the internet for help from memoir activists. In this interview I ask Linda Joy Myers why she became such an activist.
- [Memoir About A Crazy Artist Helps me Understand the World!](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-trickster-coleman-pt2/) - This memoir provides pleasure as well as insight. By expanding my knowledge of mythology it exponentially increases my ability to understand life.
- [Memoir Summit at the Birthplace of the Revolution](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-summit-philadelphia-rosemont/) - Four people who love memoir writing get together in the birthplace of the revolution to share perspectives on the wave of memoir writing sweeping our culture.
- [Interview with Venerable Memoir Teacher, Denis Ledoux Pt1](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/interview-with-venerable-memoir-teacher-denis-ledoux-pt1/) - When I first heard Denis Ledoux speak, I had flashbacks to the first book I I found on writing memoirs. In this interview, he brings me up to date.
- [Interview with Venerable Memoir Teacher, Denis Ledoux Pt2](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/interview-with-venerable-memoir-teacher-denis-ledoux-pt2/) - In part 2 of the interview with memoir teacher Denis Ledoux about writing memoirs, teaching writers, and ethnicity in the American Melting Pot.
- [When Does a Memoir Writer Choose Fiction Based on Life?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-versus-fiction/) - Memoir writers must tell the truth and also tell a great story. In this post, I explore the question,, "Why not just go all the way and write a novel?"
- [These Memoirs Are Similar to Biographies](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoirs-similar-to-biographies/) - How much focus should your memoir place on other characters? In this post, I consider memoirs that move the other character in the limelight.
- [Memoir of a Nervous Breakdown: Her Mind Betrayed Her](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-nervous-breakdown/) - By turning her nervous breakdown into a memoir, Tara Meissner elevates her break from reality into a valuable contribution to mutual understanding.
- [Launching into Adulthood - Search for Beliefs](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/launching-pt3-beliefs/) - When attempting to grow from child to adult, certain basics must be in place. This post, inspired by Elna Baker's memoir New York Mormon, reviews the transition
- [Launching Memoirs Chronicle Main Tasks to Grow to Adulthood](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/launching-memoirs-chronicle-main-tasks-to-grow-to-adulthood/) - In the old days, child development was an area of professional study. Now, in the Memoir Revolution, we all have the opportunity to watch each other grow.
- [Trauma Passed Through Generations Shared by Writing a Memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/trauma-passed-through-generations/) - When facing the mysteries built up in one's psyche, memoir writing offers a method to go deep into the journey.
- [Thoughts are the Soundtrack of a Memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/thoughts-soundtrack-memoir/) - To turn your life events into a memoir, consider these authors who used a simple travel story as an outer wrapper for an inner journey.
- [Two Midlife Memoirs: A Sequel Shows Command of Structure](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/midlife-memoir-sequel-structure/) - David Berner's memoir sequel brought me deeper into the mid-life of a man, and taught some fascinating lessons about the structure of a memoir.
- [Magazine Writer To Personal Historian, Pt1](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/magazine-writer-turns-personal-historian/) - In this interview, Carla Odell shares tips and insights about her journey from magazine writer to personal history and how it differs from memoir writing.
- [Launching into Adulthood - Find a Job](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/launch-get-a-job/) - Figuring out your career is part of launching into adulthood. This article looks at the way writing a memoir reviews the transition and in some cases aids it.
- [A Memoir About Not Falling Apart](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-not-falling-apart-freed/) - When Julie Freed's life fell apart, her challenge was to "keep it together" for the sake of her infant daughter. Your memoir might benefit from reading hers.
- [Interview with Memoir Author Julie Freed](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/interview-memoir-author-julie-freed/) - How does it feel to invite readers into your most intimate memories? In this interview Julie Freed talks about writing and publishing her memoir.
- [Launching - from Sex to Love in Memoirs](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/launch-sex-memoirs/) - Launching from child to adult marches us through the uncharted territory of sexuality. Good memoirs embed these awkward moments in compelling stories.
- [Magazine Writer To Personal Historian, Pt2](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/magazine-writer-turns-personal-historian-pt2/) - From a paying job as a magazine writer, this author turns her life writing skill to personal history. In part 2 of her interview, she shares her experience.
- [Writing a Novel Heals Her Shame](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/writing-novel-heals-her-shame/) - When Sharon Gerdes started writing her novel, she hid her relationship to the protagonist. Today she openly helps others with postpartum psychosis.
- [Life as Fiction - Author Interview](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/life-as-fiction-author-interview/) - Author Sharon Gerdes talks about how she used fiction writing to develop the courage to share her story of postpartum psychosis.
- [A Cat Memoir Reveals Life’s High Stakes](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/cat-memoir-reveals-lifes-high-stakes/) - This simple memoir with its laser focus on a relationship with a cat offers profound lessons about life and memoir writing,
- [Why Memoirs Should be Taught as Literature Part 1](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/why-memoirs-taught-as-literature-part-1/) - In this essay, I recall how literature helped unravel me as a young man and suggest how memoirs can help new generations grow up with more wisdom.
- [Why Memoirs are Better Than Literature Part 2](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/why-memoirs-better-than-literature-part-2/) - By teaching memoirs in literature classes, we can combine literary values with social ones and raise kids with a better understanding of life.
- [Brain Science, Memoirs, and Education](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/brain-science-memoirs-education/) - Brain science teams up with culture to shine light on the importance of life stories in modern life.
- [Why memoirs teach more than literature Pt 3](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/why-memoirs-teach-more-than-literature/) - Literature is okay as far as it goes. Memoirs take reading farther by combining the narrative arc of a story with the emotional journey of real experience.
- [Life to Stories: 3 Habits, 3 Rules, 3 Stages](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/life-to-stories-3-habits-3-rules-3-stages/) - In this story, I detail the saga from my desire to write a memoir all the way to the final release. Follow these steps, to share your heroic journey.
- [Is your memoir Boomer Lit?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/is-your-memoir-boomer-lit/) - When I started reading memoirs, few of them were about the 60s. Now, as the Memoir Revolution matures, the stories of those times are beginning to emerge.
- [Interview: How to turn memories into a memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/interview-how-to-turn-memories-into-a-memoir/) - Dorit Sasson turned a chaotic, confusing time in her life into a well-structured memoir with a compelling story arc. In this interview, I ask how she did it.
- [Best Ever "Launching" Memoir Review](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/best-ever-launching-memoir-review/) - As a young woman, Dorit Sasson's fears surrounded her like fog. To grow into an adult she entered the army where she faced and won the war in her own mind.
- [Stories Help this Author Grow](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/stories-help-this-author-grow/) - In my experience, most memoir writers are responding to a similar desire, to find themselves by creatively shaping their lives into stories. What advice could you offer us, based on your mid-life quest to reclaim your soul through creativity?
- [How to become a storyteller](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/how-to-become-a-storyteller/) - When you first look back at your memories you see a random collection, To convert them into a story, consider entering the :sacred space: of the storyteller.
- [My niece reminded me I'm getting old](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/my-niece-reminded-me-im-getting-old-ill-show-her/) - If you live long enough, your younger years become history, which seems ancient to you, but a mystery to those who have never witnessed it.
- [It's a wonderful life for every memoir writer](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/its-a-wonderful-life-for-every-memoir-writer/) - Fortunately, the movie is not about changing the past. The actions that restored Stewart's faith took place years ago. The angel simply gave Stewart the gift of sight so he could see how these actions helped. I think this is what keeps us coming back to the movie year after year – the hope to see that we made a difference.
- [Iranian in America makes love and laughter](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/iranian-in-america-makes-love-and-laughter/) - While Iranian relations with America often takes a somber tone in the news, immigrant stories from Iranian American Firoozeh Dumas evoke warm laughter.
- [Memoir by Celebrity Joan Rivers Offers Lessons for Aspiring Writers](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/joan-rivers-celebrity-memoir/) - Joan Rivers worked hard to please audiences. Her tenacity and honesty offer insights for memoir writers looking for their own authentic voice.
- [Color of Water, a memoir of race, family and fabulous writing](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/color-water-mcbride/) - This bestselling memoir spans James McBride's mothers lifetime, making it a memoir and biography, a worthwhile read about a boy's search for identity.
- [Another way to write about childhood, memoir review Part 1](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/ruby-slippers-review-pt1/) - After Tracy Seeley grew up, she became curious about her roots, so she went back to Kansas to find herself. Not a Coming of Age story, it asks "Who am I?"
- [I Left my Heart In... Kansas? Memoir Review Part 2](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/kansas-memoir-seeley-2/) - Tracy Seeley's original question, "Who am I?" expanded to ask "What is Kansas?" Finally, her memoir Ruby Slippers explores the intersection of self and place.
- [If Not Conflict, What Fierce Determination Drives a Memoir?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/fierce-determination-memoir/) - To understand why this memoir about a trip to Turkey satisfied my need for a good story, I went on a search for the true meaning of life.
- [How Should I Begin My Memoir?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/how-should-i-begin-my-memoir/) - Surprisingly, figuring out the beginning of your memoir might be the hardest and last task. In this post, I introduce the challenge.
- [Family Psychology Lessons in Memoirs](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/family-psychology-memoirs/) - Families are so important, but where is the instruction manual? Just as memoirs are teaching us about individuals, they are also teaching about families.
- [The Many Roles of Family In Your Memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/many-roles-of-family-in-memoir/) - Continuing to learn lessons about how memoirs work, I focus on the relationship between family and individual, including surprises about extended families.
- [List of Memoirs that Show Various Aspects of Family](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/list-memoirs-family/) - Your life story involves many characters. Some of the most important ones are related to you. This list shows how families figure into memoirs.
- [Sexual Coming of Age in Memoirs](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/sexual-coming-of-age-in-memoirs/) - When attempting to write about the messy, conflicted subject of sexuality, take advantage of the way other memoir authors have tackled the subject.
- [Writing a Memoir Penetrates the Fog of Memory](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/writing-a-memoir-penetrates-the-fog-of-memory/) - When I started writing, I had already forgotten the ancient history of my coming of age. By placing my memories into context I penetrate the haze.
- [This Memoir Teaches How To Grow up with Books](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/karen-prior-memoir-pt1/) - Books have always been important to me. In this essay, I review a memoir by a literature professor who shows how books guided her from child to adult.
- [Immersed in a Memoir about Life, Love and Loss](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-eleanor-vincent-review/) - The powerful memoir Swimming With Maya, about loss of a college-age daughter, raises fascinating challenges of love, life, death and memoir writing.
- [Interview with Editors of 60s Memoir Anthology](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/interview-editors-60s-anthology/) - An interview with the editors of an anthology of stories about the 60s helps explain why the collection was such a compelling page-turner.
- [The Sixties Had Many Struggles. Here’s One I Missed.](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/sixties-anthology-feminism/) - Despite my immersion in the colorful sixties, I knew nothing about the gender revolution. Finally, in this collection of stories I learn how it worked.
- [Memoirs Connect Us by Sharing Our Hidden Worlds](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/share-hidden-worlds/) - Reading a memoir anthology loaded with powerful moments, I focus on the intimate, healing power of revealing hidden worlds.
- [Your Memoir Teaches Recent Cultural History to Kids](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-teaches-recent-cultural-history/) - Books transport us back to the author's times. In memoirs, this allows us to participate in the world just a generation or two ago.
- [Interview with Memoir Author Sonia Marsh, Pt1](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/interview-sonia-marsh-pt1/) - Memoir author Sonia Marsh (Freeways to Flipflops, Gutsy Living Anthology) offers insights into converting a year living in Belize into a memoir.
- [A Practical Philosophy of Love Revealed in this Memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/practical-philosophy-memoir-pt2/) - This memoir about caring for a mom with Alzheimer's reveals that through stories we can delve into the nature of what it means to be human.
- [Interview with Memoir Activist Sonia Marsh, Pt2](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/interview-sonia-marsh-pt2/) - In the second of 2 parts, I ask Sonia Marsh more about writing a memoir about moving her family to Belize.
- [A Book of Short Stories Expands My Memoir Collection](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/short-stories-memoir-collection/) - Memoirs ought to be long. At least that's the way I've always thought of them. This book of short stories expands my horizons.
- [Lost Memories: A Daughter’s Memoir about her Demented Mom](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/dementia-memoir/) - When her mother's cognitive ability failed, this author turned to writing, to cope with her own pain and help others cope with theirs.
- [Courageous Memoir Author Explains Stylistic Choices](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/courageous-memoir-author-pt1/) - Sue William Silverman explains the difference between inner and outer reality in her memoir about coming to terms with her cultural differences.
- [Getting to Know Memoir Author Sue William Silverman](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/know-memoir-author-sue-william-silverman/) - Sue William Silverman's third memoir "Pat Boone Fan Club" continues her saga of self-understanding. By reading her memoirs, I've been getting to know her.
- [Practical Philosophy in Memoirs, Pt 3](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/practical-philosophy-memoir-pt3/) - The protagonists of memoirs teach us valuable lessons about life. In this post, I show how the very existence of the memoir offers wisdom, too.
- [A Memoir of a Girl’s Urgent Need to Find Identity](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-girls-need-identity/) - Karen Levy's Coming of Age alternated between the U.S. and Israel, making her a perpetual outsider. Her search for identity creates a page turning memoir.
- [Learn Practical Philosophy by Reading Memoirs](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/practical-philosophy-in-memoirs/) - By reading memoirs, I try on the author's thought system. From their experience I learn how to think about life most effectively.
- [Caregiver on a Hero’s Journey – a model for your memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/heros-journey-model-for-memoir/) - Every hero needs a storyteller. In this essay I show how memoir writers serve both roles, creating shared wisdom out of ordinary experience.-+
- [Memoirs Chronicle Search for Identity in the Melting Pot, Pt 1](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoirs-ethnic-identity-pt1/) - Karen Levy's extreme case of moving back and forth between 2 countries highlights the challenge of reconciling ethnic identity in the melting pot of modernity.
- [Memoirs about Search for Cultural Identity in Modernity](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/example-memoirs-cultural-identity/) - How do you find your cultural identity in the Melting Pot? Read these memoirs to explore the search for cultural identity in an increasingly blended world.
- [Conflicted about American Melting-Pot: Cultural Identity in Memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/american-ethnic-identity-in-memoir/) - In the third part of my interview with Sue William Silverman, I ask her about the introspective conflict caused by assimilating into the Melting Pot.
- [Stylistic Choices in Creative Nonfiction,  Interview Pt 2](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/creative-nonfiction-pat-boone-pt2/) - In this interview, Sue William Silverman explains the stylistic choices with which she portrays her obsessive interest in pop culture icon Pat Boone.
- [Memoirs Popularize Important Psychology Lessons](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoirs-popularize-psychology/) - The Memoir Revolution transforms the mind from psychological theories and statistics to the rich, compassionate insights of stories.
- [Wisdom Born in One Memoir Inspires a Second](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/two-memoirs-lorraine-ash/) - After reading Lorraine Ash's recent wisdom book, Self and Soul, I went back to the author's memoir published ten years later and discovered they are a series.
- [The Story-of-self Matures in the Memoir Revolution](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/story-of-self-matures-in-memoir-revolution/) - When an adopted child discovers her biological family, she must make important adjustments to her story of self. Take the journey with her in this memoir.
- [A Ticking Clock Lesson for Memoir Writers](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/ticking-clock-for-memoir-writers/) - Writing a good memoir requires more than telling what happened. Learn storytelling techniques that compel readers to stay inside your world to the end.
- [Six Psychology Lessons In This Memoir (continued)](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/six-psychology-lessons-pruchno/) - This mother's memoir shares the advanced lessons she learned from raising a daughter plagued by anti-social impulses.
- [Writing Your Messy Teen Memories Could Save the World](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/writing-your-messy-teen-memories-could-save-the-world/) - Naturally we hide embarrassing memories. But by voicing the scenes and attitudes of rebellious youth, we increase wisdom and compassion about this period.
- [Memoir Structure: Beginning Doesn’t Always Point to the End](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-structure-surprise-ending/) - Ordinarily, the beginning of a memoir sets you up to reach an end. Sometimes, though, the direction shifts. The conclusion makes sense in this new context.
- [His Relationship to Girls Changed in this Scene](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/ideas-change-memoirs/) - Ideas influence our choices, our attitudes, even our moods. And yet writing courses seldom teach us how to incorporate ideas into story.
- [Link isolated anecdotes into a story with the power of your beliefs](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/anecdotes-story-beliefs/) - Memory appears in bits. It's the writer's job to join the bits into a story. Here's how to use beliefs and ideas to bind the anecdotes into a compelling tale.
- [Read banned memoirs: Criminal or Social Activist?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/fugitive-days-memoir-vietnam/) - Bill Ayers, target of a 2008 smear campaign against Barack Obama, wrote a memoir of his war protest days. This essay reviews the book.
- [How Can an Adult Learn to Write Stories?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/senior-adult-storyteller/) - When I was younger, I assumed to maintain privacy I must be silent. Learning to write stories gave me the freedom to share my voice.
- [A dog made famous by an expert storyteller](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/marley-grogan-dog-memoir/) - Marley and Me is so simple it seems like ordinary life and yet so well told it made an ordinary dog famous. Here are lessons other memoir writer's can employ.
- [More Q&A with Sue William Silverman on confessions, memoirs, and the art of writing](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/silverman-interview-pt2/) - Sue William Silverman talks about memory, memoir, and trauma in this original author interview. This is part 2.
- [Is memoir a genre? Consider these matched pairs.](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-genre/) - Memoirs continue to pick up up steam. I look at similar memoirs and see a trend towards an increasingly popular and nuanced genre.
- [Lord of the Flies in Los Angeles: The terrible logic of uncivilized boys](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/writing-enemies-to-friends/) - In a creative writing program in Los Angeles, Mark Salzman showed me more sides of the human heart than I was expecting, revealed through writing life stories.
- [A memoir of mourning helps make sense of loss](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-mourning-son/) - This English professor and his wife were forced on a journey of grief they wished they never had taken, but after they returned they needed to share it.
- [How Boys Become Men - or - Can Memoirs Stop the Violence?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/boys-to-men/) - What does a Muslim fundamentalist have in common with a Jewish war protestor? We grew from boys to men. Now how do we pass our lessons to the next generation?
- [Frequently asked questions about why and how to publish a memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/faq-why-how-publish-memoir/) - To reach readers, you must shift your attention from writing to publishing. Here are points to consider when choosing among your many options.
- [Memoir Lessons: Buddies, Endings, and Beyond](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-lessons-buddies-endings/) - When one character predominates, do they take over the story? Not to worry. The two-person memoir is a powerful vehicle for portraying the protagonist's drama.
- [Myths Suggest a Universal Template for Memoirs](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/myths-template-memoirs/) - Myths contain a wealth of insight into human culture, and also offer tips for great storytelling. Consider myth in Andre Agassi's memoir, and in your own.
- [Turning Journals and Notebooks Into a Memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/journals-into-memoirs/) - When Rick Skwiot lived in Mexico, he kept extensive notes. Twenty years later, he turned notes and memories into a memoir. In this interview, I ask him how.
- [Self-concept and memoirs: The power of purpose](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/self-concept-purpose/) - When you identify the purpose of your life, you are giving your readers a gift. By offering your reason to live, you give them a reason to read.
- [Is this the year to write your parent's memoir?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/parent-ghost-write/) - To understand your parents, break past the surface and learn what life was like for them. As characters in their own or your story they take on deeper humanity.
- [Parent's Memoir Part 3a, Guiding a Ghost Writer's Interview](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/parent-ghost-write-pt3a/) - When you write your parent's memoir, you need to develop your skill as an interviewer. This part of the essay offers tips and how-tos.
- [Answering Parents' Objections to Writing Their Memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/parent-ghost-write-pt2/) - When you decide to write your parents' memoir, the next step is to convince them. Use these tips to help overcome some of their objections.
- [Parent's Memoir Part 3b, Guide for Ghost Writer's Interview](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/parent-ghost-write-pt3/) - When you interview your parents about their earlier lives, you take the role of interviewer. Here are tips and insights to help you go beyond the surface.
- [Turning a Tragedy into a Memoir of Becoming](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/turning-tragedy-into-memoir/) - Replacement Child by Judy Mandel tells of her family traumatic accident, the long journey to move beyond the tragedy and then to look back and understand it.
- [Interview with Susan Weidener About Writing Her Memoir Pt 3](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/interview-susan-weidener-pt3/) - Susan Weidener's memoir is an intimate portrait of marriage and grief. In this part of the interview, she talks about the rewards and decisions of publishing.
- [Interview with Susan Weidener About Writing Her Memoir Pt 2](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/interview-susan-weidener-pt2/) - In her memoir, Again in a Heartbeat, Susan Weidener tells of love and loss. In this part of the interview she tells about the process of writing the book.
- [Interview with Susan Weidener About Memoir Workshops Pt 4](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/interview-with-susan-weidener-about-memoir-workshops-pt-4/) - Susan Weidener used her memoir to help her heal, and now she brings that same opportunity for healing to other aspiring memoir writers.
- [In Memoirs, Changing Thoughts Reveal the Wisdom of a Lifetime](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/ragdoll-novotny-3/) - Some of the best moments in Dawn Novotny's Ragdoll Redeemed come from her changing ideas about the world. How did ideas affect your life?
- [How eBooks Revolutionize Your Memoir Options](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/chalupa-orwell-ebook-1/) - Will your memoir sell to a large enough audience? Here's why that conversation has shifted radically in the last few years, revolutionizing your options.
- [Memoirs Extend History a Little and Wisdom a Lot](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoirs-grandparent-wisdom/) - I read a small ebook about a bit of literary history and found it linked my memory 40 years ago with events 20 years earlier, a sip from the river of time.
- [George Orwell and Memoirs: How Literature Changes Lives](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/orwell-chalupa-interview/) - I interview Andrea Chalupa to learn the background of her ebook which weaves history, memoir, and literature. She tells a fascinating story about the story
- [Why Boomers Should Write Memoirs about the 60s](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/boomers-memoirs-60s/) - Making sense of the 60s can be a fascinating challenge for boomers. Writing a memoir turns scenes into a coherent story for deeper understanding and legacy.
- [In Memoirs, Misery is Simply a Step toward Hope](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-misery-hope-bullock/) - In Here I Stand by Jillian Bullock, the author travels a dark road to grow up. Her hardship provides a platform from which she offers hope.
- [Jillian Bullock About Writing Her Long Journey to Adulthood](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/jillian-bullock-interview/) - In this interview with Jillian Bullock I ask her about the pain of writing about a painful past, and the generosity of sharing it with others.
- [A Memoir About her Father’s Secret Pain](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/wwii-father-memoir/) - In this memoir, Karen Fisher Alaniz attempts to penetrate memories that her father has been guarding for 60 years. It's a story of secrets and love.
- [Memoir Interview: Breaking into Her Father’s Secrets Pt 1](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/interview-alaniz-ww2-memoir-pt1/) - Karen Fisher Alaniz attempted to learn her father's secrets and after she published the book, found that many veterans needed to reveal their own.
- [Birth of a Memoir: Turning Her Father’s Secrets Into a Story](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-interview-fathers-secrets-pt-2/) - Karen Alaniz wanted to turn her dad's WWII trauma into a story. In this part of our interview, she talks about the transformation from talking to writing.
- [Turning Dad's WWII Secrets Into a Memoir, Pt 3](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-interview-fathers-secrets-pt-3/) - To go from memories to memoirs, I read lots of them and search for lessons. In this interview, I go one step further and ask the author for help. Part 3 of 4
- [Interview: On Publishing the Memoir Breaking the Code](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-interview-fathers-secrets-pt-4/) - In the 4th part of our interview, Karen Fisher Alaniz offers insights into publishing choices that could help other memoir authors steer through the maze.
- [Please Readers: What Do They Expect From Your Memoir?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-title-cover/) - Aspiring memoir authors must answer this question: "What will readers expect when they open your book?" In this essay, I explore ways to find out.
- [More Tips about Constructing the Timeline of a Memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/more-tips-about-memoir-flashbacks/) - Finding a timeline is one of the hardest decisions a memoir writer must make. In this essay, I provide examples and background to help you figure it out.
- [Beware of Casual Flashforwards in Your Memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/casual-flashforwards/) - To turn life into story, memoir writers must gain an exquisite understanding of the weaving of events through time.
- [How a Wrapper Story Helps You Structure Your Memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/wrapper-story-structure/) - When searching for a structure for your memoir, consider this technique which enables you to straddle time from narrator to character.
- [Telling a Memoir’s Backstory by Seesawing in Time](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/parallel-seesaw-memoir-backstory/) - This final essay in the series about the structure of a memoir explores the option to interweave two dramatic tales, each within its own time frame.
- [Interview with a Memoir Writer - Childhood with Traumatized Parents](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/interview-judy-mandel-traumatized-parents/) - After writing her memoir about growing up in a post-traumatic household, Judy Mandel offers insights to other aspiring memoir writers.
- [From Complex Memories to the Compelling Title of Your Memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/title-of-a-memoir-pt1/) - Boiling a lifetime into a few words for the title of your memoir might seem daunting. In this essay, I break it down, using Freeways to Flipflops as an example.
- [What is the Theme of Your Memoir?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/what-is-the-theme-of-your-memoir/) - When searching for the title for your memoir, must you really limit it just one theme? And what is a theme, anyway? In this post I define and explore.
- [Should this Memoir be Called: Courage of Motherhood?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-titl-courage-of-motherhood/) - When trying to understand how titles work, play around with alternatives for the memoirs you love. Here I brainstorm about the themes in Freeways to Flipflops.
- [Memoir About Growing Up Leads to Surprise Ending](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-about-growing-up-with-art/) - The memoir Bohemian Love Diaries offers lessons about growing up and finding love. Like yoga for my storytelling mind, the book stretches my limits.
- [Compelling Chapters Knit Small Stories into Powerful Memoirs](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/coleman-chapters-stories-pt3/) - Before writing a memoir, memories are bits and pieces. This essay shows how to knit them together into a series of compelling stories.
- [The Memoir Writer as an Entrepreneur](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-writer-entrepreneur/) - It's harder to sell your memoir when you feel like a "used car salesman." Sonia Marsh's memoir offers a more noble image of the writer-entrepreneur.
- [Show Don’t Tell: Difference Between Fiction and Memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/differences-between-fiction-memoir/) - To write a memoir, ask fiction writers for storytelling advice. However, to find your strongest memoir voice consider these differences between the two forms.
- [Deformity and love in Martha Beck's memoir Expecting Adam](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/deformity-and-love-in-memoir/) - To lovingly live in a diverse world, we accept people who are different, but how different? Martha Beck's memoir stretches her love horizons.
- [Is it narcissistic to write your memoir?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/is-it-narcissism-to-share-your-story/) - One classic objection to writing a memoir is that it's narcissistic. I peer into this concern and find the opposite to be true. Writing a memoir is generous.
- [12 Reasons Why So Many Memoirs of Dysfunctional Childhood](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/why-so-many-memoirs-of-dysfunctional-childhood/) - So many memoirs are about dysfunctional childhood, one might wonder why. I attempt to explain how childhood memoirs fit into the world of books.
- [Brooke Shields teaches mommies and memoir writers](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/brooke-shields-teaches-mommies-and-memoir-writers/) - Not just a celebrity memoir, Brooke helps mothers cope with postpartum depression. It also provides insight into the private life of a public person.
- [Memoir Writing as a Form of Therapy](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/is-writing-a-memoir-therapeutic/) - I discover through decades of research why memoir writing is a form of therapy, both individual and social.
- [5 Memoir Starters for Beginners](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/5-memoir-starters-for-beginners/) - If you wonder how to start writing your memoir, consider these ways you may have already started.
- [Your character evolves through time - a memoir prompt](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/your-character-evolves-through-time-memoir-prompt/) - To discover the character development over time, ask yourself about specific activities through the decades. In this one, I use the example of "creativity"
- [Self help for memoir writers](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/self-help-for-memoir-writers/) - Writing a memoir turned out to be a journey. I had to steer through fears, self-doubts and other mental obstacles. I soon realized I had to become a hero.
- [Journals of Spiritual Awakening Turn into a Novel](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-fiction-wendy-baez/) - An author travels with her son to Israel to find herself, and then crafts her odyssey into a powerful fictional story. Wendy Baez, Catch a Dream
- [Ex-pat Brats Come of Age in Saigon](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/ex-pat-brats-come-of-age-in-saigon/) - Two memoirs of American kids growing up in Saigon, guide us through the "military brat" experience at the explosive threshold between innocence and horror.
- [Lifelong learning: tips for memoir writers](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/lifelong-learning-tips-for-memoir-writers/) - If you recall earlier experiences and wonder if you could share what that was like, this interview by Les Arbuckle offers tips for how to tell the story.
- [Memoirs, privacy, fame, and family](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/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.
- [Author Interview: Memoir into Fiction](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/author-interview-memoir-into-fiction/) - The novel Catch a Dream describes such an intense, extraordinary life experience. It surprises me that most of it really happened and that you started writing it as a memoir. Tell me more about the events that you actually lived through.
- [How traveling helped them find themselves](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/how-traveling-helped-them-find-themselves/) - Travel memoirs are about more than seeing the sites. In these memoirs, the author shares the inner journey as well
- [Memoirs teach cultural anthropology in modernity](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoirs-teach-cultural-anthropology-in-modernity/) - When Al Badre had to shift from Lebanon to American he embarked on the quintessentially American journey to blend into a blended culture.
- [Memoirs that ask who is my father?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoirs-that-ask-who-is-my-father/) - When Sebastian Slovin tried to make sense of his father's shocking act of self-destruction, he was sent on a journey that led him to his own truth.
- [How to Start Writing Your Memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/start-writing-your-memoir/) - This "let's get started" article shows you how to move from memories, to anecdotes to a full fledged story, so you can reap the many rewards of memoir writing.
- [How to Pick the Best Title for Your Memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/how-to-pick-the-best-title-for-memoir/) - To help you find a title for your memoir, I pick apart all the tasks performed by the title, and offer examples of some that I like.
- [Memoir as a Hero’s Journey: Character Arc and Homecoming](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-heros-journey-character-arc-and-homecoming/) - To turn life into a story, you need to understand how stories are structured. By reading lots of memoirs, you find patterns you can apply to your own.
- [Hero’s Journey as a Model for a Memoir, Part 2](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/heros-journey-model-for-memoir-pt2/) - When I dive into the structure of a memoir, the Hero's Journey often jumps out. Going back the other way, how would you apply this model to your own life story?
- [Show versus Tell in a Memoir’s Internal Voice](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/show-dont-tell-memoir-voice/) - When I started writing my memoir, I tried to obey "show don't tell." It took years to learn the importance of bending that rule to suit the memoir genre.
- [What Lessons Can You Learn by Reading Memoirs](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/what-lessons-reading-memoirs/) - Memoirs set my mind on fire with three benefits every bit as pleasing as a powerful literary experience. In these essays, I explain the process.
- [Interview With Memoir Editor Brooke Warner](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/interview-memoir-editor-brooke-warner-pt1/) - Published memoirs are a collaboration between author and editor. In this interview, memoir editor and coach Brooke Warner shares insights into the process.
- [Two Inspiring Memoirs about Suffering](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/two-inspiring-memoirs-about-suffering/) - When the suffering in one memoir was too much to handle, I set it aside until I found the courage to appreciate one of the great gifts of the Memoir Revolution
- [By reviewing her roots she continues to grow](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/reviewing-her-roots-healing-ancestor-trauma/) - Linda Joy Myers was so desperate to understand the roots of her pain that she peered with all her heart and mind into her ancestors' stories.
- [Grieving memoirs – a different slant](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/grieving-memoirs-a-different-slant/) - Grieving a loss is one of the most emotionally wrenching experiences any of us must go through, and memoirs are a perfect medium in which to share that journey.
- [A Mormon, Mennonite, and Jew Convert to Spirituality](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/a-mormon-mennonite-and-jew-convert-to-spirituality/) - In the great dispersal of autonomy in Western society, we continue to evolve from the authority of institutions to the wisdom of individuals. Each of us wants to know these truths on our own. And to learn those truths, we go on a journey. Memoirs enable us to share those journeys.
- [Tragedy and courage in memoirs](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/tragedy-and-courage-in-memoirs/) - In Losing Malcolm by Carol Henderson, the author almost goes mad. To compensate me for accompanying her to the depths, she lets me climb to new heights.
- [Story untangles distorted memories and reveals truths](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/story-untangles-distorted-memories-and-reveals-truths/) - Many of the stories that come down to us from youth or from the family lore have taken on a life of their own. Memoir writing helps untangle the myths.
- [Kate Braestrup's memoir transforms grief into love](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/kate-braestrups-memoir-transforms-grief-into-love/) - In this memoir, Kate Braestrup shares stories of loss and healing, first of her husband, then the people she works with as a chaplain.
- [Storytellers shed light on the horrors of war](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/homer-iliad-ptsd/) - Pain is part of life, but should it be part of memoirs? To understand, I read and look for lessons within the most painful of all, war memoirs.
- [Exclusive Interview with Xujun Eberlein Part 2](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/exclusive-interview-xujun-eberlein-2/) - When I was young, whenever I read a new expression or adage in a newspaper or book, I hand-copied it into a notebook and made my own customized lexicon. That was how I acquired a large Chinese vocabulary. It is kind of ironical that at mid-age I'm repeating the same painstaking process for English now. I envision doing this for the rest of my life.
- [What does Dani Shapiro, or any of us, really want?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/dani-shapiro-desires/) - To understand how Dani Shapiro's memoir works, I l try to decipher her addictive and self-destructive desires.
- [Give Thanks for Your Family Stories](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/thanksgiving-family-stories/) - When extended families gather, the conversation takes a mind of its own. Here are suggestions for increasing intimacy and understanding across generations.
- [Making memories, remembering memories, writing memories](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-workshop-story/) - When my wife's sister asked us to visit her quaint town, we stalled. When she asked us to come and teach memoirs, we jumped on the plane and rode the Rockies.
- [Annotated List of Memoirs](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/annotated-list-memoirs/) - This is a list of the memoirs I write about in the MemoryWritersNetwork. I have added a brief note with each.
- [What is the difference between journaling and memoir writing?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/compare-journal-memoir/) - When I wrote in a journal, I felt whole and clear, but my writing was unreadable. Memoir writing required new skills and focus. Here's how I switched.
- [Make sense of loss: Grieving in Memoirs](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/grieving-in-memoirs/) - Loss sends us on an emotional journey. Memoirs both describe that journey and facilitate it by helping us knit together before and after into a narrative.
- [How Much Childhood Should I Include in My Memoir?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/childhood-include-memoir/) - When turning life into story, many authors ask "where do I start." In this post, I explore examples of childhood and youth in memoirs..
- [Should You Use Flashbacks in Your Memoir?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/use-flashbacks-memoir/) - Should I flashback or not? And if so, how? Like so many stylistic questions the "right" answer is a matter of craft.
- [Alice Sebold's Lucky, a searing memoir of trauma](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/alice-sebolds-lucky-a-searing-memoir-of-trauma/) - A college girl walking across campus had her innocence violently ripped away. This memoir tells of her journey to reclaim as much of it as possible.
- [Three writing prompts to flesh in memories](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/three-writing-prompts-to-flesh-in-memories/) - When looking back through the maze of memories, writing prompts act like a guide to help me find my way. I use examples drawn from my own life.
- ["Good shame" improves memories](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/good-shame-improves-memories/) - Many memoir writers avoid memories, or feel confused about what to share and what to hide. Understanding the emotion of shame can help you choose.
- [Fame, laughter, and self discovery: a review of the memoir The Sound of No Hands Clapping](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/fame-laughter-and-self-discovery/) - Toby Young has to make a living as a writer. Will he make it? Apparently so, and on the way he discovers lessons about writing, life, and growing up.
- [Too many secrets hide my spark](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/too-many-secrets-hide-my-spark/) - When I write my memoir, will I keep in the embarrassing stuff or leave it out? This entry discusses the tension between privacy and disclosure.
- [Memoir writing lessons from the heart](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-writing-lessons-from-the-heart/) - To learn lessons about writing a memoir, I read as many as I can, and try to understand what makes them work and what doesn\'t.
- [Memoir writing is a step along my spiritual journey](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-writing-is-a-step-along-my-spiritual-journey/) - Getting old means I\'m under even more pressure to figure out what it all means. This podcast offers my clearest ideas about how to live a fulfilling life.
- [Freedom Writers Diary Turns Journaling Into Activism](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/freedom-writers-diary-turns-journaling-into-activism/) - A bunch of gang-infested high school kids wrote about their horrible lives, turning themselves into courageous social activists, trading in hatred for harmony.
- [Sharing the Wisdom of the Ages](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/stories-wisdom-aging/) - As I look for the wisdom of growing older, I turn for answers to the elders in my memoir writing workshops, and find wisdom in the stories.
- [Interview With The Man Who Couldn't Eat, Part 2](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/interview-jon-reiner-pt2/) - After reading the excellent memoir, Man Who Couldn't Eat by Jon Reiner, I asked how he did it. Thanks to incredibly perceptive questions I weaseled his tricks.
- [Interview Jon Reiner, The Man Who Couldn't Eat](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/interview-jon-reiner-pt1/) - In response to a question about honesty, Jon Reiner offers fascinating observations about maintaining trust with loved ones when writing a memoir.
- [Writing Conference: Tip for Memoirists, memoir as literary non-fiction](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/writing-conference-tip-for-memoirists-memoir-as-literary-non-fiction/) - At the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group conference, Gary Fincke offered advice on how to turn life experience into literature.
- [Beyond Kubler-Ross, memoir as a new language for grief](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/beyond-kubler-ross-memoir-as-a-new-language-for-grief/) - Instead of psychological formulas, follow this author's gentle guide through grief: how writing help her (and could help you) regain purpose after loss.
- [Lessons for memoir writers from my first year of blogging](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/lessons-for-memoir-writers-from-my-first-year-of-blogging/) - Now that I\'ve been blogging for a year, I summarized what sorts of lessons I\'ve learned, and how blogging can help other memoir writers as well.
- [Writing Conference: Tip for Memoirists - Use myth to find story](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/writing-conference-tip-for-memoirists-use-myth-to-find-story/) - Journalists are supposed to just write what they see. Right? But Lule started noticing some news caught fire, and some didn't. He began looking for the reason for this difference, and he realized that when a story just conveys information, it does not generate energy. The stories that have the most energy are organized as a story, not as "information."
- [Writing Conference: Tip for Memoirists - Use fiction to tell truth](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/writing-conference-tip-for-memoirists-use-fiction-to-tell-truth/) - Writing conferences give inspiration, networking and all sorts of tips for memoir writers, even ones from fiction classes.
- [To reach readers, learn from writers](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/to-reach-readers-learn-from-writers/) - While writing is a private activity, finding readers is a public one. Writing conferences teach techniques for going public.
- [My Day at a Writer's Conference - or - The Benefits of Showing Up](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/philadelphia-stories-conference/) - My day at Philadelphia Stories conference - met writers, came away inspired about cultural community.
- [A Healthy Community Needs a Healthy Writer's Group](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/community-writers-group-grant/) - After years in writing groups, I have come to see them as an important contribution to the community. In this portion of a grant application I list my reasons.
- [Unwrapping the gift of birth somewhere toward the end](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/unwrapping-the-gift-of-birth-somewhere-toward-the-end/) - I’d prefer to be eternally young. But when this author reminds me of aging, I join her. This memoir by Margaret Mandell offers as much uplift as any I’ve read.
- [Memoirs Show Two Sides of the Islamic Revolution](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoirs-show-two-sides-of-the-islamic-revolution/) - By reading two memoirs, Ed Husain's "The Islamist" and Azira Nafisi's "Reading Lolita in Tehran" I gained an education in crucial global trends.
- [60's nostalgia: two memoirs of growing up Black](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/60s-nostalgia-memoirs-of-growing-up-black/) - Both of these books are about growing up poor and black in the segregated south. That's proof that what was incredibly boring and mundane while you were living it as a child can years later become fascinating in your memoir. If the reader has never experienced that side of life, it gives a window into something they didn't know. If the reader did experience those things, the book can evoke nostalgia, that fascinating emotion that transports us into our own memories.
- [Healing With Words, Hers and Yours](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/healing-with-words/) - When Diana Raab was diagnosed with breast cancer, her surgeon told her to keep writing. She passes on encouragement, inviting you to write in your own journal.
- [Ten Reasons I Loved Man Who Couldn't Eat, Part 2](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/reiner-memoir-pt2/) - The memoir "Man Who Couldn't Eat" taught me things about myself and about the craft of memoir writing. In this essay I explain radical honesty and the "hook".
- [Ten Reasons to Read a Memoir About a Man Who Couldn't Eat](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/reiner-memoir-pt1/) - It turns out we need food for more than biological survival. To learn how food affects the heart and soul, read a memoir of a man who was unable to eat.
- [10 More Brief Book Reviews for Memoir Readers and Writers](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/10-brief-memoir-reviews/) - I continue to expand my understanding of people and their stories by reading a variety of memoirs. Here are 10 I recently read.
- [Looking for the onramp at Philadelphia "Push To Publish" writer's conference](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/publish-journals-philadelphia/) - The second part of writing is finding readers, which requires the daunting challenge of convincing someone to publish our work. I explore that challenge here.
- [Memoir Interview with Matthew Polly Author of "American Shaolin"](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/matt-polly-interview/) - In this interview, memoir author Matthew Polly talks about fame, fighting, and seeking truth.
- [Foster Winans says "Use context when writing memoir"](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/foster-winans-says-use-context-when-writing-memoir/) - In fact, this attention to the way Foster’s world worked is a good reason for aspiring writers to read his memoir. I highly recommend Trading Secrets, as a perfect example of how a memoirist can employ the events in the world around him to drive the story forward.
- [Doreen Orion's brilliant memoir about last year's midlife crisis](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/orion-memoir-midlife-crisis/) - Two psychiatrists take a year off from work to see the US in a bus (an RV). This simple premise results in a delightful, readable memoir.
- [How to write a profile](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/how-to-write-a-profile/) - When you write your memoir, benefits accumulate and multiply. In this essay, I explain how writing my memoir gave me insights about how to write a profile.
- [Parent's Memoir: Finding Roots Across Generations](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/parents-memoir-austin/) - Linda Austin's mother grew up in Japan, married a serviceman and moved to the US. "Cherry Blossoms in Twilight" is a coauthored memoir of that journey.
- [Interview with Diana Raab about Healing With Words: A Writer's Cancer Journey](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/interview-diana-raab/) - Breast cancer compels deep levels of courage and community support. In this interview I ask Diana Raab about how she used writing to help her share and cope.
- [Memoir of a commune stirs hope for a healthier world](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-commune-civic-engagement/) - A memoir about a 60's commune reminded me of the positive aspects of group life and started me thinking about hope for the future.
- [Lie, exaggerate, or tell stories in your memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/lie-exaggerate-or-tell-stories-in-your-memoir/) - Truth is one of the ethical rules of society. If we all lied, we’d be on shaky ground. Truth stabilizes things and lets us share our world. And so, of course parents try to instill in their children a respect for truth. And in the process, they try their best to weed out fantasy, exaggeration, and outright prevarication. But there’s a problem with too much truthfulness. It interferes with storytelling.
- [Mistaken identification - a memoir of injustice and redemption](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/cotton-thompson-memoir/) - After rape, justice was served, or so it appeared. Ronald Cotton spent 11 years in jail. The tragedy turned to friendship, social activism, and redemption.
- [Escaping the prison of what might have been](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/escaping-prison-past/) - When you break from original expectations, life feels "wrong.." That need not be a life sentence. Use the creative freedom of story to discover a new meaning.
- [Be Here Now by Writing a Memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/be-here-now-by-writing-a-memoir/) - A common objection to memoir writing is that it turns to the past. On the contrary, I show how it is a powerful tool to more fully engage you in the present.
- [Matched pair of memoirs show both sides of addiction](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/father-son-memoirs-addiction/) - When a boy falls into addiction, he thinks he\'s in it alone, while mom and dad feel their own world fall apart. Read these two memoirs to see both sides.
- [Lessons memoir writers can learn from Zombies](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/writing-lessons-zombies/) - Writers can learn lessons in surprising places, so when I learned about memoir writing from thriller writer Jonathan Maberry I wasn\'t surprised.
- [Mothers and Daughters Don't Always Mix](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/mothers-daughter-abandonment/) - Breaking the Chain of Mother-Daughter Abandonment, this memoir tells of the evolution of four generations of a wounded mother-daughter relationships.
- [Learn the inner and outer dimensions of memoir writing](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/power-memoir-review/) - Linda Joy Myers, PhD, founder of National Association of Memoir Writers offers insights into the psychological and literary journey of memoir writing.
- [Fact and fiction of a girl in the Chinese Cultural Revolution](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/fact-fiction-chinese-cultural-revolution/) - After reading Xujun Eberlein's short stories about growing up in China during the Cultural Revolution, I ponder the relationship between fiction and memoir.
- [Style, humor, and other tips from Doreen Orion's Travel Memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/style-humor-tips-travel-memoir/) - Author Doreen Orion shares her insights into creating humor as well as advice on taking notes in this essay on memoir writing by Jerry Waxler.
- [Instant regional memoir at a Bed and Breakfast](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/instant-regional-memoir-at-a-bed-and-breakfast/) - I asked the owner of the Bed and Breakfast what he knew about the history of the area. He told me his life story, and how it intertwined with the region. Memoirs are everywhere.
- [A memoir author's first book is a triumph over odds](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/tool-for-learning-memoir-authors-first-book-a-triumph-over-odds/) - by Jerry Waxler I was excited last night when I reached the end of George Brummell's memoir, Shades of Darkness. The very last paragraph in the book is about him volunteering to help other struggling people tell their story. (Note to myself: I've got to be careful about telling what excites me in a book.
- [Memoir of Redemption: Author Shares His Writing Experience](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/bill-strickland-memoir-author-interview-part-1/) - After reading Bill Strickland's redemptive memoir of child abuse, I asked him questions about writing the book.
- [Creative brain jam in Philly ties it all together](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/creative-brain-jam-in-philly-ties-it-all-together/) - To figure out what is going in, come together with like minded people and talk about it. In this boomer panel, I learn more about creativity and aging.
- [Two memoirs that teach](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/two-memoirs-that-teach/) - Not all memoirs are focus on \"this is my life.\" In these two memoirs, life experience is used to teach or explain a subject. This essay shows how life experience can turn dry subjects into page turners.
- [Bookstores provide valuable information for memoir writers](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/bookstores-provide-valuable-information-memoir-writers/) - by Jerry Waxler According to successful author, Jonathan Maberry, from whom I have taken many writing courses, "despite the power of online marketing, bookstores still provide vital information to any writer who wants to get their work into print. By exploring bookstores, you can find what's hot and get ideas for your own work." Last
- [An agent teaches writers to face their hopes and fears](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/agent-query-workshop/) - I'm a writer, not a sales person, so how do I convince a publisher to buy my work? This agent-led workshop helps me understand the road ahead.
- [Listening Is An Act of Love](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/storytelling-and-listening-is-a-social-trend/) - StoryCorps founder Dave Isay spoke at Philadelphia\'s National Constitution Center. I went to find out about storytelling as a cultural trend.
- [StoryCorps - a national initiative to gather oral memoirs](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/storycorps-a-national-initiative-to-gather-oral-memoirs/) - Oral history is memoir too, especially when it is recorded for posterity. This organization facilitates and encourages telling and recording of oral history.
- [Turn economic hardships into stories of strength](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/hardship-stories-strength/) - To gain perspective on economic hardship, turn your life experience into a story, and then post it online to develop community and insight.
- [Barack Obama's memoir ends with a homecoming](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/barack-obamas-memoir-ends-with-a-homecoming/) - Barack Obama's exploration of his roots takes him "home" to the continent of his father, bringing him full circle to the source of American black culture.
- [Storytelling lessons for memoir writers](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/storytelling-lessons-for-memoir-writers/) - by Jerry Waxler The tiny town of Bethlehem in Southeastern Pennsylvania has a lot going on. It was the birthplace of Bethlehem Steel, it sports an 81 foot high Christmas star, hosts the annual regional music bash called Musikfest, is home of Lehigh University and Moravian College, and has its own public radio station, WDIY
- [To improve your memoir, break down the code](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/to-improve-your-memoir-break-down-the-code/) - by Jerry Waxler My dad owned a neighborhood drugstore in north Philadelphia, and on the nights he was able to make it home for dinner, most of the conversation centered around him telling us about the menagerie of characters who streamed through the store and gave him endless raw material. We sat and dutifully listened,
- [Writing your memoir grows neurons](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/writing-your-memoir-grows-neurons/) - For most of the twentieth century, scientists believed we are stuck with the neurons we were born with. Well, it was actually worse than that. After birth our neurons started dieing, and it was all downhill from there. But then, in one of the great flip-flops of the last 100 years, neurologists now say we can grow neurons at any age.
- [Never too late. Harry Bernstein's first Memoir at 93!](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/never-too-late-start-first-memoir-at-93/) - If you are thinking it's too late to write your memoir, take a look at Harry Bernstein who published his first memoir when he was 93.
- [Memoir touches history, and I touched the memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-touches-history-and-i-touched-the-memoir/) - by Jerry Waxler I went down to center city Philadelphia last night to Larry Robins book store, to hear a talk by Tommie Smith. Smith won gold in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, and then shocked the world by raising his fist during the awards ceremony. It seems innocent enough now, but in 1968
- [Interviewing is an Act of Love, Even After Memory Starts to Fail](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/interviewing-alzheimers/) - When memory starts to fail is it too late to gather history? Surprisingly the answer appears to be "no." Early memories are still there for the asking.
- [Author interview with Naomi Gal: Life and art intertwined](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/author-interview-with-naomi-gal-life-and-art-intertwined/) - Yes, seasons were an amazing revelation for me. Their healing power was good to me as it is to Daphne. I am still awed by the lush flowers of spring, by the unpredictability of summer, by the changing colors of fall leaves and by the serenity of snow in winter. Nature allows you to feel deeply the change of seasons in your own life cycle, it gives one hope since there is a constant renewal and change.
- [Memoir of 9/11 reaching out along memory lane](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoirist-amidst-my-memories/) - by Jerry Waxler I went to a book fair in Philadelphia yesterday, hoping to find a few memoirists. The book fair was held on the sidewalk surrounding the Philadelphia Free Library on the Parkway, a few blocks away from the Philadelphia Museum of Art (made famous by Rocky Balboa). Driving into the city yesterday down
- [Trauma shatters story. Memoir helps rebuild it.](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/trauma-shatters-story-memoir-helps-rebuild-it/) - While I, and most of the world, saw the 9/11 disaster on television, Artie Van Why saw it standing on the street outside the World Trade Center where the day before he had eaten lunch, and watched people laughing in the noonday sun.
- [Memoirs Start Last Night](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoirs-start-last-night/) - A cultural event last night brought together memories of the past with opportunities for the future.
- [Memoir as an expression of Free Will](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-as-an-expression-of-free-will/) - But what really caught my attention was her comment about Free Will. That's interesting to me too, from the opposite direction than is faced by addicts. Many aspiring writers have the problem of wanting to write, but are not able to do so. It seems peculiar that a person would want to do something, and then not. I wonder, "who is in charge." To write your memoir, you'll need to find the solution to this age old challenge of Free Will.
- [Refute these 14 reasons not to write your memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/cut-through-14-reasons-not-to-write-your-memoir/) - Before you even begin to write your memoir, or during slumps, your mind offers many objections. Try these suggestions to refute 14 common ones.
- [Write your memoir when you get a Round Tuit](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/write-your-memoir-when-you-get-a-round-tuit/) - By Jerry Waxler The first time I heard about a Round Tuit was in the early seventies. I was working at my first real job after college, at United Engineers in Philadelphia. As I tried to understand how to cope with the working life, the old timers generously dispensed their wisdom in the form of
- [Fame and Story Structure in Dee Dee's 60's memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/fame-and-story-structure-in-dee-dees-60s-memoir/) - Fame is a mystery into whose eyes I keep peering. In this memoir by a once famous singer, I gain insights, and have a good read through the 60s singing scene.
- [How does John Robison end his memoir of lifelong learning?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/how-does-john-robison-end-his-memoir-of-lifelong-learning/) - John Robison's memoir "Look me in the Eye" is about a life well lived, under the weight of Asperger's. He ends it not by being cured, but by "coming home."
- [A Novelist Plays at the Border of Fact and Fiction](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/hendricks-interview-1/) - I interview fiction writer Judi Hendricks about her creative process, and found a rich vein of insight into the mysterious shadow-land between fact and fiction.
- [Celebrity interviewer turns the camera on herself](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/celebrity-interviewer-turns-the-camera-on-herself/) - When Jancee Dunn set out to find herself, she ended up interviewing celebrities. But who was she? This memoir turns the camera on the her. It\'s a good read.
- [Insights from Brooke Shields' celebrity memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/insights-from-brooke-shields-celebrity-memoir/) - A so-called Celebrity Memoir sometimes deserves respect. In this reflection on Brooke Shields' memoir, I note a literary strategy that might apply to anyone.
- [Memoir structure and pacing: Multiple plots?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-structure-and-pacing-multiple-plots/) - Trying to answer a question, "Should memoirs have multiple plots," I explore a few and conclude "usually not."
- [Boomer memoir is a step towards social activism](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/boomer-memoir-is-a-step-towards-social-activism/) - As boomers reach that certain age, we wonder what was the point, and what comes next. In this essay, I offer reasons why writing memoirs answer both questions.
- [Good hair in the melting pot](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/hair-in-the-melting-pot/) - "Colored People" by Henry Louis Gates about growing up black in the segregated south triggers thoughts about the significance of hair in the human story.
- [The Nine Best Attitudes for Memoir Writers](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/attitudes-memoir-writers/) - Writing classes teach the craft and business of writing, but to learn good attitudes we're on our own. This essay lists the attitudes you need to succeed.
- [Fear of publishing: Try these ten (more) tips to increase courage](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/fear-publish-ten-more-tips/) - It's hard enough to sell books when you are filled with courage. What if you experience fear? Here are tips for finding the emotional strength to reach readers.
- [Interview with Robert Waxler, English Professor and memoir author, Part 1](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/robert-waxler-interview-1/) - In this interview, I ask English professor Robert Waxler to talk about writing his two memoirs. He talks about journaling, and compares the two books.
- [Interview about crossing from academic to popular writing](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/interview-academic-popular-writing/) - In this interview, Robert Waxler, author of 2 memoirs about his sons, tells of his journey from a literature professor to memoir writer.
- [Courage to Write, Passion to Read](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/courage-walk-review/) - When Robert Waxler (no relation) found his son paralyzed on the floor it set him on a journey for help, and a journey within himself.
- [Publish This Book: The Unbelievable True Story of How I Wrote, Sold and Published This Very Book by Stephen Markley](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/publish-this-book-the-unbelievable-true-story-of-how-i-wrote-sold-and-published-this-very-book-by-stephen-markley/) - After college, Markley, 24, hit on an unlikely memoir - The True Story of Publishing This Very Book. It sold, I bought and loved it. It's funny and insightful.
- [Stephen Markley Interview Part 2: Humor and Politics in his Memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/markley-interview-part-2/) - In this exclusive interview, Stephen Mark answers questions about humor and politics in his memoir "Publish this Book."
- [Stephen Markley Interview Part 3: Satire, Truth, and Risk](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/markley-interview-part-3/) - Stephen Markley, author of "Publish this Book" takes risks in his humor, politics, and satire. In this interview I ask him to talk about risk.
- [Stephen Markley Interview Part 4: Structure of a Memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/markley-interview-part-4/) - The middle and end of Stephen Markley's memoir is a parody of these parts of a book. In this section of my interview I ask about parody and structure.
- [Stephen Markley Interview Part 6: Post-publication blues?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/markley-interview-part-6/) - After publishing his memoir, Stephen Markley has his whole life ahead of him. But first he has to sell this book. I talked to him about his next steps.
- [Stephen Markley Interview Part 5: What do Publishers Want?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/markley-interview-part-5/) - Now that Stephen Markley's book is in the stores, he ought to be able to tell the rest of us how to do it. In this interview I ask him for his secrets.
- [5 More Memoir Book Reviews](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/5-more-memoir-reviews/) - I never seem to run out of curiosity about the next best memoir. So many people to learn about, so many writing styles to learn from and enjoy, so little time.
- [Harry Bernstein reveals the Invisible Wall](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/harry-bernstein-reveals-the-invisible-wall/) - This memoir, published when he was 93, tells about Bernstein's childhood in England, where the invisible wall separated Jewish from non-Jewish neighbors.
- [The New Social Etiquette](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/the-new-social-etiquette/) - A growing body of readers are willing to immerse themselves in stories about painful situations, on two conditions.
- [Siblings disagree: family feuds in memoirs](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/siblings-disagree-family-feuds-in-memoirs/) - Freeing Teresa, I stretched far beyond the surface and found deep insights into some of the most profound ethical challenges of social responsibility.
- [The Journey of Ethnic Identity in America](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/the-journey-of-ethnic-identity-in-america/) - I once met a woman in my cultural diversity program who, when asked the origins of her ancestry, said she had no idea. It was the first time it occurred to me that an adult could not know their own ethnic identity. My First Ethnic Identity When I grew up in the fifties, Philadelphia was
- [Collapsed lives that turned into memoirs](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/collapsed-lives-into-memoirs/) - Telling the authentic story of life can sometimes include failures, regrets, and parts of the life journey that didn\'t go as planned.
- [Memories, past, present, and future](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memories-past-present-and-future/) - The first time I heard the concept of making memories was years ago, in Victoria Island in British Columbia staying at a Bed and Breakfast run by a retired couple. The sun was shining brightly through picture windows that opened down a hill towards the docked boats in the harbor.
- [The Character Arc in a Celebrity Memoir - Sydney Sheldon's "Other Side of Me"](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/example-of-character-arc-in-a-celebrity-memoir/) - A poor boy in the Great Depression becomes rich and famous. This rags to riches story was made less compelling by too much focus on the glamor of fame.
- [The Genius of an Uplifting Memoir Conclusion](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/the-genius-of-an-uplifting-memor-conclusion/) - The mix of East Meets West proposed by Amy Scher’s memoir is innovative, in the same way the music and culture of the sixties broke through limits.
- [Awakening bad memories helps shape your new life](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/how-awakening-pain-can-heal-it/) - When I learned about helping communities in trauma, I awakened the memory 30 years earlier of being attacked. Turning the memory into a story helps me grow.
- [How memoirs increase empathy](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/how-memoirs-increase-empathy/) - Memoirs take us on journeys through complex emotions. This post teases apart the dance between Teresa Rhyne's emotions and my own. (Dog Lived and So Will I)
- [Who protects the children? Author Ashley Rhodes-Courter's Foster Care activism](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/who-protects-children-rhodes-courter/) - When Ashley Rhodes-Courter was two, her mother was declared incompetent. Ashley entered the foster care system. This is her story.
- [Blind veteran finds his voice by writing](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/blind-warrior-finds-his-voice-by-writing/) - When I came back from Vietnam I wasn't doing too well, and writing the memoir helped me organize my thoughts. Putting my thoughts on paper was elevating for me. It was quite therapeutic. I needed it at the time, especially those times that were not the best for me. When I began to write it had a tendency to take away my thoughts, and I could drift back to my childhood days and think of things that I could probably have done a little bit better. It was just exciting to be able to see what I have accomplished in writing.
- [Anne Lamott's Memoir, Traveling Mercies](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/anne-lamotts-memoir-traveling-mercies/) - Ann Lamott's Traveling Mercies is a cross between a memoir and a set of essays, with tremendous voice raising a sense of the author's presence in each line.
- [Tim Elhajj about Writing and Publishing His Memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/elhajj-interview-pt3/) - If you are trying to finish your memoir and get it out in the world, read this interview to learn how it felt for author Tim Elhajj.
- [A Memoir That Relieves the Lifelong Burden of Shame](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/ragdoll-novotny-1/) - Events that seem like a lifetime ago still haunt. In this review of Dawn Novotny's Ragdoll Redeemed I explore issues of life review.
- [If this memoir author is famous, maybe you are too](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/ragdoll-novotny-2/) - In the new century, the definition of fame is shifting. We all know each other, and by reading and writing memoirs, we go deep into each others' lives.
- [Ten Things to Learn From a Combat Memoir, Part 1](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/ten-lessons-bellaviacombat-memoir-pt1/) - War stinks, literally, no matter how much hi-tech equipment you carry. This memoir reminds me of the power of the genre to spotlight yet another side of life.
- [Will the Examined Life Become a Memoir Subgenre?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/examined-life-subgenre/) - If you try to write too much of your life, you risk deviating from the "rules". As the memoir revolution heats up, perhaps it's time to extend the definition.
- [How Excellent Must Your Memoir Be?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/how-excellent-must-your-memoir-be/) - It can take years to polish your memoir. During that period you constantly learn skills and raise the bar. How will you know it's ready?
- [Ten Things to Learn from a Combat Memoir, Part 2](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/bellavia-combat-memoir-pt2/) - In this second of two parts, I explore the power of the memoir to reveal the inner workings of even the most arcane slices of life: the soldier in combat.
- [In Memoirs, Literature Helps Explain Life](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoirs-literature-nafisi/) - Memoirs take place at the intersection between real life and literature, where they reveal dazzling insights into the link between these two realities.
- [Gender Sensitivity and Wisdom in Memoirs](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/gender-memoirs-wisdom-pt2/) - To prepare for an online discussion about gender in memoirs, I reviewed my bookshelf and found a wealth of views on the subject through each author's eyes.
- [What Is the Nonfiction Bonus in your Memoir?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/nonfiction-bonus-memoir/) - Nonfiction readers often want some facts with their story. But how much? The dilemma may force you to grow into the next chapter of your writing skill.
- [Ghost Wrote Her Mother's Memoir, Part 3](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/parents-memoir-austin-3/) - Linda Austin, author of her mother's ghost-written memoir, answers questions about conducting interviews and gaining insights.
- [Ghost Wrote Her Mother's Memoir, Interview Part 2](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/parents-memoir-austin-2/) - Linda Austin longed to visualize her mother's early life in Japan, so they worked together to write a memoir of those years. This is part 2 of my interview..
- [Coming of Age Never Ends](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/coming-of-age-never-ends/) - We typically suppose Coming of Age is over around 24 years old, but calendar years don't tell the whole story. In other ways, Coming of Age goes on and on..
- [8 Lessons and Prompts from Tim Elhajj's Recovery Memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/elhajj-recovery-memoir-prompts/) - Overcoming addiction is a perfect, heroic topic for a memoir. However, whatever the subject of your memoir, you can learn valuable lessons by studying this one.
- [Memoir Interview: A Fresh, Personal Look at Twelve Steps](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/elhajj-interview-pt2/) - Profound life experiences like recovery in Twelve Steps seem too cliched at first. And yet, memoirs of authentic experience convey powerful important insights.
- [Memoir Interview: Shame, Addiction and Anonymity](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/elhajj-interview-pt1/) - Tim Elhajj's memoir Dopefiend tackles powerful issues of shame and honesty. In this interview I ask him questions about writing so openly about his past.
- [Memoir Author Finds Drama in Everyday Life](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-interview-lisa-fineberg-cook-pt3/) - After enjoying the memoir "Japan Took The JAP Out of Me," I asked author Lisa Fineberg Cook to share tips about writing it.
- [Memoir Interview: Look inside for the story of self, Part 1](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-interview-seeley-part-1/) - Turning life into a story reveals the uniqueness of the writer's voice. In this interview I ask Tracy Seeley about her writing process and choices.
- [Stretching the Memoir Form, Tracy Seeley Interview, Part 2](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-form-tracy-seeley-part-2/) - Tracy Seeley, author of "My Ruby Slippers" answers questions about stretching the memoir form to incorporate other Creative Nonfiction techniques.
- [Conversation versus Story Style in Memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-interview-seeleypart-4/) - After enjoying Tracy Seeley's memoir, "Ruby Slippers" I asked her about stylistic choices that could help me learn more about the art of memoir writing.
- [Memoir writer on conforming, rewriting, publishing](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-interview-tracy-seeley-part-3/) - I loved Tracy Seeley's memoir even though it broke several conventions. In the third part of my interview I ask more about her unique approach to memoir.
- [Grace Notes and Self Confidence Tracy Seeley Interview Pt. 5](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-interview-seeley-part-5/) - Writers are drilled to write tight, but some anecdotes are fun because they are frivolous. I ask Tracy Seeley about her philosophy about such grace notes.
- [Cultural Crossroads: Memoir of An American Princess In Japan](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/cultural-japan-memoir/) - When Lisa Fineberg Cook boards the plane to Japan. she feels like a princess. A year later, she no longer feels entitled to be the center of the universe.
- [Endings of Memoirs: She Returns Home](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/endings-memoirs-return/) - At the end of "Japan Took the JAP Out of Me" Lisa Fineberg Cook returns to Los Angeles. The memoir explores how she has grown during her year abroad.
- [Spoiled brat? What does spoiled even mean?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/spoiled-brat-lisa-cook-pt2/) - In the memoir "Japan Took the JAP Out of Me" Lisa Fineberg Cook travels from the make believe world of pop culture to the reality of adulthood.
- [Memoir Author Offers Writing and Story Insights](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-interview-lisa-fineberg-cook-pt2/) - In this second part of my interview, memoir author Lisa Fineberg Cook offers insights into the process of writing "Japan Took the JAP Out of Me."
- [Interview with Memoir Author Lisa Fineberg Cook](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-interview-lisa-fineberg-cook/) - In this first of a three part interview I ask Lisa Fineberg Cook about how she wrote her memoir "Japan Took the JAP Out of Me."
- [Interview: Lessons From a Flock of Memoir Experts](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/namw-telesummit-2011/) - In this interview, Linda Joy Myers tells about a free all-day event for writers. Called Truth or Lies, it explores the boundary between memoir and fiction.
- [Interview: Young Adult Fiction versus Coming of Age Memoirs](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/interview-marie-lamba-pt1/) - After reading a Young Adult novel, I asked the author Marie Lamba to help me understand how fiction writers view Coming of Age.
- [Million Dollar Challenge: YA fiction is Coming of Age](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/ya-fiction-coming-of-age/) - Coming of Age has become a robust subgenre of memoir writing. This article explores its relationship to Young Adult (YA) fiction.
- [Relationship between Fiction and Memoir, Interview Pt2](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/interview-marie-lamba-pt2/) - Young Adult novels cover the same age as Coming of Age memoirs. Novelist Marie Lamba shares perspectives on the relationship between fiction and life.
- [Modern Magical Objects in Memoirs](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/modern-magic-memoirs/) - Reading deeper into Andre Agassi's Open, for storytelling techniques, I was surprised to realize how everyday magic could strengthen a story.
- [Shapeshifting, Costumes, and Imposters in Memoirs](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/shapeshifting-memoirs/) - I always thought "shapeshifting" was a mythological device for fantasy and horror stories. After reading Andre Agassi's Open, I discovered its wider relevance.
- [More Fantasy Techniques To Help Your Memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/fantasy-writing-techniques/) - What do fantasies and memoirs have in common? Storytelling techniques! Consider for example potions, and weapons that turn up in Andre Agassi's memoir, Open.
- [Cast of Characters in His Chosen Clan](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/chosen-clan/) - Writing a memoir requires story techniques. In this essay, I explore the use of your band of allies, found in many hero stories such as Andre Agassi's "Open."
- [Spiritual memoirs, interview with author Rick Skwiot](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/spiritual-memoir-skwiot-1/) - My search for meaning is as important in my sixties as it was in the sixties. In this interview, a memoir author talks about his search for meaning in Mexico.
- [A Memoirist Talks About the Backstory of His Memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/rick-skwiot-part-3/) - Memoir writers struggle to decide how much to of themselves to put on to the page and how much to leave out. In this interview, Rick Skwiot provides insight.
- [A novelist comes alive in a memoir, or is it the other way around?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/novelist-memoir-interview/) - A writer of both memoir and fiction shares insights about the links between literature and life in this fourth part of an interview with Rick Skwiot.
- [Explore Painful Memories by Writing Fiction](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/hendricks-interview-3/) - The protagonist in the novel Bread Alone suffered a terrible betrayal. I asked author Judi Hendricks to explore the relationship between fiction and real life.
- [How a Novelist Strives for Authentic Reality](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/hendricks-interview-2/) - Novelists need to create authentic worlds. Memoirists need to tell great stories. In this interview a novelist explains her side of the dilemma.
- [Recovering Self-concept after Trauma](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/self-concept-trauma/) - Self-concept is the story we tell ourselves about who we are. After events disrupt the story, memoir writing can help us reclaim it.
- [Character Development of a Novel’s Hero](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/hendricks-interview-4/) - In stories, the fire of life creates a stronger richer protagonist. In this part of my interview I ask Judi Hendricks more about character arc in her novel.
- [Mom of Troubled Teens Tells Her Side of the Story](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/gwartney-memoir/) - To grow up, we all go through "that stage" to find ourselves. Read this memoir to find what happens when finding yourself turns into a living hell.
- [Recovering Self-concept after Addiction](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/self-concept-addiction/) - Addiction damages the story we tell about ourselves. To recover, we not only stop using. We must reflect on the journey, and revise our self concept.
- [Revealing Death and Other Courageous Acts of Life](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/two-waxler-workshop/) - Two Waxlers share their passion for literature, revealing a few things about their own lives and encouraging the audience to do the same.
- [Memoir Lessons: Mysteries of emerging consciousness](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/lessons-memoir-consciousness/) - When a baby goes from nothing to something, language plays an important role, while mom leans in to help, to understand, to guide. Consider these insights.
- [Lessons 4-5 from Beth Kephart’s Memoir, Slant of Sun](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/lessons-memoir-4-5/) - Every time I try to understand a memoir, I find a few lessons. From Beth Kephart's Slant of Sun I found 20. Here are 2 more, suspense and vital language art.
- [Use this memoir as a study guide: lessons 1 to 3](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-study-guide-lessons-1/) - I learned so much from this one memoir, Slant of Sun by Beth Kephart. Here are the first of 20 lessons that you can use to help you write your own.
- [Four More Writing Lessons from Reading a Memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/lessons-memoir-5-8/) - Remembering is only half the job. The other half is shaping the words into compelling form. Here are several tips for doing so, gathered from Slant of Sun.
- [Lessons from Kephart: Labels, Definitions, Language](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/philosophy-of-labels/) - When Beth Kephart's son was labeled with a weird sounding psychiatric diagnosis she wrestled to see her darling boy shining through the clinical term PDDNOS.
- [Memoir Lessons: Moms, Quirks, Choices](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/lessons-memoir-psychology/) - Memoirs offer lessons about life, and from these lessons we learn to develop our own story. Here are three more from Beth Kephart's "Slant of Sun."
- [Interview with Memoir and YA Author Author Beth Kephart](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/interview-author-beth-kephart/) - After reviewing the lovely memoir "Slant of Sun" I interviewed the author to learn more about writing, publishing, and the writer's life.
- [Self-concept and memoir - launching problems and identifying with a group](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/self-concept-launch-group/) - Launching from child to adult, you press your story of self into service. If it doesn't achieve satisfaction, you must try again. Perhaps your group will help.
- [What Creative Nonfiction (CNF) Means to Memoir Writers](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/cnf-memoir-writers/) - I was asked to speak about the Creative Nonfiction Craze, but first I had to learn what it was. It turned out memoirs run through it.
- [When is a memoir by a celebrity not a celebrity memoir?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/celebrity-memoir-not/) - Andre Agassi's memoir "Open" is one of my all-time favorite despite the fame factor. In this first of a multi-part review, I dig in and find out why.
- [Conflict with Parent Fleshes in Authentic Character](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/conflict-parent-fleshes-in-authentic-psychological-portrait/) - Andre Agassi, in his memoir "Open," exposes his father's role in shaping him, creating a powerful character study worthy of any memoir writer.
- [The Protagonist of a Memoir Must have a Goal and Obstacles](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/protagonist-goal-obstacles/) - We turn pages to find out if the hero came closer to his goals. But what if the goal itself is uncertain? This twist deepens the texture of this great memoir.
- [This celebrity has flaws. How about you?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/celebrity-flaws/) - Andre Agassi is a flawed character: rebellious, ungrateful, and crossed the taboo of drugs in sports. And yet, his flaws make him more complete. So will yours.
- [In your memoir, how does your character grow?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-character-arc/) - Character arc is the key ingredient that changes Andre Agassi's memoir "Open" from a forgettable celebrity memoir to a meaningful study in human nature.
- [Two Types of Trainings in Your Memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-training-war-peace/) - Like every hero, Andre Agassi required fight-training, but over the course of his memoir "Open" he regretted his lack of peacetime training.
- [Too shy to publish your memoir? Try these ten tips to reach towards strangers](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/social-anxiety-10-tips/) - Offering your life story to strangers may seem daunting. If you feel shy, try these ten tips to overcome social anxiety and reach towards the world.
- [Frequently expressed fears about publishing a memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/faq-fears-publishing-memoir/) - Public speaking frightens more people than death. Is memoir writing even scarier? Here are answers to some common fears about revealing private life.
- [Is a Travel Memoir Really a Memoir?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/travel-memoirs/) - At first I didn't see why travel books were memoirs. After research here's what I learned.
- [Your Autobiography is the First Step Towards Writing Your Memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/autobiography-step-memoir/) - From the raw material of your life, the first effort to create a story produces an autobiography. Look at this an an intermediate step towards art.
- [10 Ways Writing Helps Develop the New You](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/10-ways-writing-self-development/) - Writing looks lonely, but over the years I continue to find more reasons why this isolated activity will help me grow individually and socially.
- [Princeton Student transfers to the School of Hard Knocks or Learning Kung Fu at the Shaolin Temple](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/shaolin-kungfu-princeto/) - Matthew Polly dropped out of Princeton to attend the school of hard knocks, taking a vow of celibacy and learning Kung Fu at the ancient Shaolin Temple.
- [How These Memoir Authors Emerged Into Adulthood](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/examples-emerging-adult/) - For almost all of us, the transition from child to adult contains dramatic tension. These memoirs demonstrate the crucial story-impact of this time of life.
- [Let us now praise those who serve – a new way to earn fame](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/serve-earns-fame/) - Must we only worship the eye-candy types? In this essay I offer the suggestion that memoir authors would make more deserving celebrities.
- [Life's desires create the chapters of our story](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/desire-creates-chapters/) - Looking for the fundamental rule for storytelling, I light upon desire as the main motivator. It not only structures life but structures story as well.
- [Frequently asked questions about "Should I write a memoir?"](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/faq-should-i-write-a-memoir/) - Before starting the long project of writing a memoir, it's natural to want reasons. In this FAQ I answer some common questions about why.
- [Why Coming of Age Memoirs ought to be a genre](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/coming-of-age-memoirs/) - In memoir after memoir, growing from child to adult turns out to be a fascinating story, rich with drama and insight.
- [Answers to Frequently asked questions about "How to write a memoir"](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/answers-to-frequently-asked-questions-about-how-to-write-a-memoir/) - When teaching or speaking about memoir writing, certain questions come up over and over. In this entry, I answer ones about how to write a memoir.
- [Author and creative writing teacher helps me steer between fact and fiction](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/fact-fiction-interview/) - Creative writing teachers spend years teaching how to create a story from imagination. I wonder what we can learn from them about creating stories from reality.
- [A leader of memoir writers tells her own story](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/interview-linda-joy-myers/) - Linda Joy Myers, founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers, discusses her latest book as well as her journey of teaching and writing life stories.
- [Memoir Writing Prompt - Your Rocky Story](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-writing-prompt-your-rocky-story/) - To remember their dreams, these people visited the stairs of the Art Museum in Philadelphia where Rocky Balboa found his.
- [Memoir about Caregiving for Mother offers lessons for life](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/caregiving-memoir-for-mother-offers-lessons-for-life/) - Caring for parents and children is infinitely harder when mother no longer recognizes you. This memoir offers an account of caring for a mother with Alzheimers.
- [Is horror based on life? I asked author Jonathan Maberry.](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/is-horror-based-on-memoir-i-asked-the-author/) - I asked horror writer Jonathan Maberry how he used real world experience to create an authentic horror novel.
- [Veterans seek healing by cycling through Vietnam](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/veterans-seek-healing-by-cycling-through-vietnam/) - In this documentary film, American vets rode on bicycles with their former enemies seeking peace in Vietnam.
- [6 Life Story Writing Prompts Inspired by a Book of Short Stories](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/writing-prompts-book-short-stories/) - When aspiring to write a memoir, you can even read fiction for lessons. Here are 6 lessons drawn from a book of fiction short stories by Xujun Eberlein
- [Harry Bernstein's Second Memoir, Still Writing at 98!](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/harry-bernstein-memoir-dream/) - Harry Bernstein finished his first memoir in his early 90's. Now he's done it again, a compelling read, about immigration and the Great Depression.
- [Finished Memoir: Angela's Ashes](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/finished-memoir-angelas-ashes/) - Angela's Ashes exposed the fact that ordinary life can sell when told in a compelling story. Here's what I learned about memoirs from reading this book.
- [Truth, Lies, and Memories](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/truth-lies-and-memories/) - Trying to pick apart the difference between Truth and Fiction, I reminisce about the difference between my mother's and my aunt's recollection of their childhood.
- [Afraid to write your memoir? Read this book!](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/writing-social-anxiety/) - Read this memoir and self-help book to overturn anxiety about public exposure, an important challenge facing writers who want to publish their work.
- [How memoirs enhance emotional intelligence (EQ)](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/how-memoirs-enhance-emotional-intelligence-eq/) - Writing your own memoir helps overcome isolation and increase compassion by enhancing your sensitivity to the emotional dynamics of the human family.
- [Crafting your memoir restores meaning after loss](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/crafting-you-memoir-restores-meaning-after-loss/) - The story of Paris Blue is not just an expression of the author’s pain. Like the haunting emotional power of an opera, the story is also its solution.
- [The Memoirist’s Manifesto: Savor it all!](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/the-memoirists-manifesto-savor-it-all/) - Savoring the present imparts deep wisdom, but that's only the beginning. Memoirs let you appreciate the infnite now, lined up in the sensible shape of a story.
- [The Feminine Viewpoint in Memoirs](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/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.
- [Should you include romance in your memoir?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/should-you-include-romance-in-your-memoir/) - Committing to a partner is one of the most important decisions any of us will make. As a memoir writer, you then must decide how much to write about it.
- [Memoirs are a path toward mutual respect](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoirs-are-a-path-toward-mutual-respect/) - Growing up Jewish gave me a front row seat to the hatred proudly on display against people of other races, not only in Europe but right here in my own country. By the time I arrived in college, the signs posted on beaches and restaurants throughout the American South – No Jews or Blacks Allowed Since I’ve spent the last 15 years making the audacious claim that memoirs have the power to transform society, it makes sense to tack on this additional hope
- [Writing a life: memoir or autobiography?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-or-autobiography/) - Short and long stories capture pieces of a life. When you stack them together are they memoir or autobiography?
- [Ancestor Research Memoirs Give History a Voice](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/ancestor-research-memoirs-give-history-a-voice/) - These three authors write about multi-year journeys to bring to life the voices of their ancestors. In the essay, I share the lessons they and I learned.
- [Losing yourself to find your new truth](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/losing-yourself-to-find-your-new-truth/) - To find her best self, Erica Elliott lost herself in the Navajo Tribe. Join her magical journey, in order to go on one of your own.
- [Checklists for Memoir Writers](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/checklists-for-memoir-writers/) - The checklist scales things down to a delightfully bite size chunk. Persistently make progress in small steps, over and over, to achieve mighty things
- [Short Story and Six Writing Prompts: Locate Love in Space](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/bhaswati-essay/) - I enjoy full length memoirs because they allow time to develop character, but a well-written shorter piece achieves many of the same goals.
- [Interview with an Indian Lifestory Author, Part 2](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/interview-indian-lifestory-author-pt2/) - In this interview with Indian author Bhaswati Ghosh, I ask about life writing for an international audience.
- [Interview with an Indian Lifestory Author, Part 1](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/interview-indian-lifestory-author-pt1/) - The shorter form of lifestory writing could be a valuable onramp for memoir writers. In this interview with writer Bhaswati Ghosh I learn more about her craft..
- [Interview about the relationship between literature and life](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/literature-and-life/) - In this Part 2 of a three part interview, English Literature professor Robert Waxler talks about the relationship between literature and life.
- [Gary Presley's Memoir Defangs the Horror of Disability](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-aging-disability/) - As I grow older, I no longer have the luxury of hating disabilities, so I learn about them from inside the life of a man in a wheelchair. Great Story!
- [Author Sue William Silverman Talks About Confessions, Memoirs, and the Craft of Writing](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/silverman-interview-pt1/) - Writing a memoir requires both courage and craft. Sue William Silverman has both. In this author interview she shares how memoir writing has worked for her.
- [Unbearable Courage of Living](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/unbearable-courage-of-living/) - While I can see how life works every day, how about death? For that, I need to read. In this memoir, Perry Foster shows how he faced the ultimate challenge.
- [User's Guide to the Brain by a Writer Who Lost Half of Hers](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/brain-stroke-insight-taylor/) - When Jill Bolte Taylor awoke, she felt disconnected from her body. Through 8 years of rehabilitation she discovered the secret of personal and world peace.
- [Barack Obama, Dreams from My Father, first thoughts](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/barack-obama-dreams-from-my-father-first-thoughts/) - Barack Obama's memoir Dreams from my Father tells through one man's eyes the struggle for compassion among groups throughout history and the world.
- [Are Memoirs True? ](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/are-memoirs-true-or-false/) - If 2 people disagree about a conversation yesterday, how can we agree about the details of a whole life? It's an important puzzle for every memoir writer.
- [Memoir author speaks of spirituality, religion, and cancer ](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-spirituality-cancer/) - In this interview a memoir author speaks of the journey of breast cancer, including support from friends, spirituality, religion, her husband, and her doctors.
- [Interview with Vietnam vet memoir writer Jim McGarrah](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/interview-vietnam-vet-memoir-mcgarrah/) - After writing a review of the memoir about the Vietnam War, I asked the writer for more insights into writing and publishing a memoir.
- [Beatles and other loaded words in your memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/beatles-and-other-loaded-words-in-your-memoir/) - Just because you know what you mean doesn't guarantee your reader will. Loaded words sound so right when you are writing, but can fail to deliver their payload.
- [Memoirs - self-indulgent or connection to the world?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/writing-memoirs-self-indulgent-or-connection-to-the-world/) - In my ongoing rant against the accusation that memoirs are "self indulgent" I claim that our individual stories contribute to global community.
- [Seeking Truth in a far off land, "American Shaolin" Part 3](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/spirituality-shaolin-pt3/) - While seeking Truth is an ancient tradition, people who do it now must discover their own rules. Matt Polly seeks in China, surrounded by blossoming modernity.
- [How does it feel to write a book? Tenacity of a writer.](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/skwiot-interview-part4/) - Memoir writers are time travelers, looking forward to looking back. I ask memoirist Rick Skwiot to recount some of his journey through time.
- [Bill Novelli, CEO of AARP, transforms life for boomers](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/bill-novelli-ceo-of-aarp-transforms-life-for-boomers/) - I tried to find answers to my burning question, "where are the boomers and when will they rise up?" Bill Novelli president of AARP, suggested it was up to me.
- [5 Reasons why I read Brooke Shields' "Down Came the Rain" even though I avoid celebrity memoirs](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/5-reasons-why-i-read-booke-shields-down-came-the-rain/) - A list of 5 reasons why I read "Down Came the Rain" by Brooke Shields even though I avoid celebrity memoirs.
- [Stephen Markley Interview Part 1: Launching from College to Career](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/markley-1-launch/) - When struggling from college to career, I had few role models. In this author interview, I wonder if Stephen Markley would have inspired me to do better.
- [Frequently asked questions about published memoirs](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/faq-published-memoirs/) - This is the first in a series of questions and answers that summarize my multi-year research project to understand this fascinating literary trend.
- [Author Interview: Curtis Smith talks about publishing in Literary Journals](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/author-interview-curtis-smith/) - Author Curtis Smith loves the writing life so much, I asked him to share his observations of the literary marketplace.
- [A diary for social change. A young girl's terrible experience of war. ](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/diary-war-zlata/) - Typically, diaries are very different than memoirs. This one crosses the border, offering insights into a war torn life through the eyes of a little girl.
- [Failure to Launch Generates  Dramatic Tension](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/failure-to-launch-generates-dramatic-tension/) - When trying to turn a complicated life into a readable story, I look back to my attempt to emerge from child to adult and find a rich vein of drama.
- [Catch-up grief: how visiting my brother helped me grow ](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/grief-brother-grow/) - Of the many benefits of writing memoirs, catching up on grief is one of the most sublime. In this essay I describe my reconnection with my older brother.
- [Flawed heroes and mechanical body parts: Shaolin Memoir Part 2](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/flawed-heroes-and-mechanical-body-parts-shaolin-memoir-part-2/) - On Matthew Polly's journey to study Kung Fu, he bumped against the dark side, making it easier for other memoir writers to understand their own.
- [John Robison's Asperger's gave me permission to write about myself](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/john-robisons-aspergers-gave-me-permission-to-write-about-myself/) - Before I read John Robison's memoir, Look me in the Eye, I thought it had nothing to do with me. By the end, I saw it as a model for my life or at least my memoir.
- [Philadelphia Push To Publish, Lessons in Courage from a Writing Conference](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/philadelphia-courage/) - Philadelphia Stories annual writing conference drew me out of my house again, into the rain for a lesson in the courage to write.
- [Memoir interview about privacy, activism, style](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-interview-mirriam-goldberg-2/) - While organizing a regional environmental movement, Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg received deadly news. In this interview she tells of weaving treatment into life.
- [Celebrity Lessons for Writers](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/celebrity-fame-tenacity-writers/) - Despite the risk of shallow celebrity memoirs, I found this one by Steve Martin to be lovely. Born Standing offers an inspiring look at his climb to fame.
- [Reach deep into memory to build a scene](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/recover-memory-scene/) - As I struggle to tell about high school, I am faced with a hazy blank wall. Gradually I build up bits and then hook them together into scenes.
- [One man's battle with sexuality changed the world](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/sexuality-memoir-schaeffer/) - Frank Schaeffer's journey through life has included many chapters. It is only by watching how they unfold that the full story takes shape.
- [Life with a famous parrot, Alex and Me by Irene Pepperberg](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/alex-parrot-memoir/) - This African Gray parrot is cute and smart and captured his owner's heart. Together they broke through scientific barriers to find genuine friendship.
- [Reading error teaches a writing lesson - or - A good character is hard to define](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/character-development-lesson/) - A mistake I made while reading a collection of short stories revealed a powerful insight to help me communicate authentic characters in my memoir.
- [Break the Rules! A Travel Memoir with a Twist of Zen ](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/zen-memoir-motorcycle/) - I thought Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was deep, but obscure. This memoir reprises the original, with terrific research and great writing.
- [Riddle of the Sphinx - Stand Straight for Dignity](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/riddle-sphinx-posture-dignity/) - The title of Linda Wisniewski's memoir includes her bad posture. I ponder the implications and find deeper symbolic meaning.
- [Showing ideas is harder than telling them](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/showing-ideas-is-harder-than-telling-them/) - by Jerry Waxler I'm a person who admires ideas, so when I try to talk about my life, I want to talk about ideas. And yet, storytelling is largely about action. How do I turn my predilection for ideas into a story? That's why I've developed a method to gather together scenes for a memoir,
- [Families are an ocean of memoirs](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/families-are-an-ocean-of-memoirs/) - What a great idea, having a memory writing class, at a cemetery. And it's the same cemetery where my brother was laid to rest, so the three of us will be together again for the first time in years, sharing memories about life in the family ocean.
- [Memoirs teach me about life and writing](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoirs-teach-me-about-life-and-writing/) - by Jerry Waxler I'm reading 4 memoirs right now, and I learn something from each one. From Margaret George's "Never use your dim lights," I'm learning how politicians jerk each other around, and how hard it is to stay idealistic in the world of politics. From George Brummell's "Shades of Darkness" I'm learning how brutal
- [The powerful story of an ordinary woman](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/story-ordinary-woman-memoir/) - Caring for her aging mother, the author has reached a crossroad. She must push her mother towards the only right option, and overcome her haunting heritage.
- [Stylistic innovation in Sean Toner's clown story](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/writing-style-clown-story/) - This simple short story about a summer on the beach opens up a deeper understanding of rich stylistic writing and the power of wordplay.
- [Clown story inspires six writing prompts](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/clown-story-writing-prompts/) - Reading like a writer sends me scouting for material in a literary journal. From this lovely short story (online) I derive six prompts for memoir writers.
- [Let Your Memoir Take You to the Fourth Step](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-fourth-step/) - The Twelve Step injunction to take a fearless moral inventory often seems daunting to addicts. Memoir writers perform the same task.
- [Identity moves too in Doreen Orion's travel memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/identity-moves-memoir/) - Character seems static, but over time it moves, and we grow. This light hearted memoir contains a message of hope about the development of human identity.
- [Self-image changes in step with society](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/self-image-in-society/) - This memoir of a boy whose life was affected by the Civil Rights Movement in the sixties, inspires the question, how does society affect every life?
- ["Find meaning through service" or "Making peace with the peasants of Pakistan"](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/meaning-service-peace-pakistan/) - Greg Mortenson\'s passion is to build schools for poor Muslim children. This mission translates into one of the most inspiring and peacemaking memoirs I have read.
- [Memoirs as a journey from blindness to sight](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/faith-blindness-sight/) - While growing up is hard enough, growing up with crystal meth is almost impossible. This essay explores a parent\'s memoir about raising such a beautiful boy.
- [Pets, motion, and other tips from a travel memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/pets-motion-tips-travel-memoir/) - By closely reading this funny travel memoir, I\'ve learned lessons about life and writing. In this essay, I offer more insights and writing prompts.
- [Steve at work - life lessons arise from conflict ](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/lessons-from-conflict/) - When you look back on life situations, you can discover the most amazing lessons. This one was about understanding conflict and empathizing with people.
- [Follow that car! How drama reveals the inner story](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/follow-that-car-how-drama-reveals-the-inner-story/) - While researching the past, many of the most interesting memories are outliers that don\'t seem to fit. This essay explores how to find the links into your narrative.
- [Keep your memoir in touch with changing gender roles](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/keep-your-memoir-in-touch-with-changing-gender-roles/) - As I learn to write my memoir, I realize that the world has changed since I was a kid, and now includes women as equals in the culture.
- [Memoir author talks about writing, sharing, and healing](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-author-talks-about-writing-sharing-and-healing/) - Publishing a memoir that includes child abuse requires courage and some sort of conviction. This author shares his feelings.
- [Memoir writing is a tool for introspection](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-writing-is-a-tool-for-introspection/) - So instead of leaving that pile just sit there and bother me in its messiness, it's more fun to search through the piles, and turn them into something beautiful and sensible. This exercise of finding the stories in life might seem daunting at first "so many memories, so little structure." But like cleaning up any messy pile, the starting point doesn't really matter. I could start anywhere.
- [Rediscovering why I read books throughout my lifetime](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/rediscovering-why-i-read-books-throughout-my-lifetime/) - Books have always played an important role in my life, influencing, informing, and entertaining. Now I want to pass forward to others the benefits I have received. One of the steps of offering my thoughts to "the world" is to visualize who might be on the receiving end. Communication does, after all, require a speaker and a listener. So who are "those people" out there to whom I am speaking? One approach to understanding what makes them tick is to explore how books have worked for me. By picking apart the way books have worked in my life, I hope to learn how other people use books.
- [Write to celebrate midlife crisis](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/write-to-celebrate-midlife-crisis/) - You only have two choices: grow older or die. If you don\'t die, here\'s a suggestion for dealing with the alternative.
- [Publish! How to share your memoir with readers](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/publish-how-to-share-your-memoir-with-readers/) - If you want to get your story out to readers, in addition to the traditional routes, consider the many techniques for printing and publishing it yourself.
- [Your story works like your skin](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/your-story-works-like-your-skin/) - by Jerry Waxler When you cut your skin, you bleed, and if you don't clean it, infection sets in. Human beings also have another type of skin, made not of flesh but of stories. This skin provides a sense of purpose, of safety, of place in the world. When it's healthy it is resilient enough
- [Memoir of abuse and redemption, book review](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-of-abuse-and-redemption-book-review/) - In this memoir book review I explore how Bill Strickland uses love and story to heal the legacy of childhood abuse.
- [Help my aging dad tell his story](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/help-my-aging-dad-tell-his-story/) - A reader asks me how to help her aging dad tell his story. This blog offers my answer.
- [10 ways memoir writing helps you now](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/10-ways-memoir-writing-helps-you-now/) - There are valuable lessons, achievements, and pleasures in there but you can't access them because they are buried under a multitude of experiences. To gather their value, tell the story. To promote the legacy you can take advantage of yourself, I've compiled a list of 10 ways writing your memoir will help you now and in the future.
- [Blubbering while performing his memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/blubbering-while-performing-his-memoir/) - While we wrote, we are simply putting words on the page, but in our mind we see actors on a stage.
- [One reason it feels good to write your memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/does-it-feel-good-to-write-your-memoir/) - What was the point of Frank McCourt\'s memoir? When I look closely, it appears that the entire book is a confession, and we readers are his confessors.
- [Myths and Memoirs - am I a victim?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/myths-and-memoirs-–-am-i-a-victim/) - When Tommie Smith raised his fist in defiance at the 1968 Olympics many saw him as a hero, and others defiled him as a villain. This essay explores his story.
- [Memoir Interview with 60's Celebrity Dee Dee Phelps](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-interview-with-60s-celebrity-dee-dee-phelps/) - Interview with 60\'s celebrity singer Dee Dee Phelps, with tips and personal experience of writing her memoir Vinyl Highway.
- [Tell stories for more thankful holiday gatherings](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/tell-stories-for-more-thankful-holiday-gatherings/) - By putting yourself into the frame of mind of a storyteller, you can change the dynamic of holiday gatherings and find a fresh way to approach the clan.
- [Interview with 60's Celeb Dee Dee Phelps, Part 2](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/interview-with-60s-celeb-dee-dee-phelps-part-2/) - This is part 2 of an author interview with Dee Dee Phelps, who wrote about her life in as a singer in the 60\'s.
- [What was grandmom really like?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/what-was-grandmom-really-like/) - Remembering family members is colored by the limits of our roles. Looking back through the lens of memoir reveals deeper insight to penetrate cartoon like impressions.
- [Memoir writing tips from 60's singer Dee Dee](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-writing-tips-from-60s-singer-dee-dee/) - Every memoir has something to teach an aspiring memoir writer. In this book review I draw memoir writing lessons from a 60\'s pop star singer looking back on her rise to fame and return to earth.
- [Read memoirs like a writer - Purpose of a scene](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/read-memoirs-like-a-writer-purpose-of-a-scene/) - When I remembered a scene from a book I was reading, I went back to find out why the scene stuck in my mind. Here are the lessons I learned from that inquiry.l
- [Relive your memoir by acting: Pursuit of Happyness](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/relive-your-memoir-by-acting-pursuit-of-happyness/) - To recreate scenes from your past, and to explore them with more of your senses, try acting. You don\'t need to be an actor. You\'ll be amazed what you find by playing a role.
- [Wisdom evolves as you live your memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/wisdom-evolves-as-you-live-your-memoir/) - When you wonder why a loving God would create aging, go back to the beginning and see what the bargain was. It makes more sense when you look again at what Adam and Eve were really up to.
- [Memoir of an American yogi - read like a writer](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-of-an-american-yogi/) - The spiritual journey is ultimately an individual one, and yet it often takes place within an organization. This memoir shows the duality of Donald Walters, within Yogananda\'s Self Realization Fellowship.
- [Memoir reclaims fading memories](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-reclaims-fading-memories/) - Too many faded memories washes out our sense of self. Write memoir to help you reclaim your past, and update it to give you momentum to continue into the future.
- [Memoir author interview, Carol O'Dell, Part 2](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-author-interview-carol-odell-part-2/) - Original interview with Carol O\'Dell, author of Mothering Mother, about her experience writing the memoir of caregiving for her mother with Alzheimer\'s. Part 2
- [Memoir author interview Carol O'Dell, Part 1](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-author-interview-carol-odell-part-1/) - Original interview with Carol O\'Dell, author of Mothering Mother, about her experience writing the memoir of caregiving for her mother with Alzheimer\'s. Part 1
- [Money is a good reason to write a memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/money-is-a-good-reason-to-write-a-memoir/) - If you\'re looking for a reason to start your memoir or keep going, consider money. It\'s one of the best motivational tools available.
- [Ten reasons you're not too old to write your memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/ten-reasons-youre-not-too-old-to-write-your-memoir/) - Aspiring memoir writers offer a variety of reasons why they shouldn\'t bother. In this motivational article, I offer 10 reasons why now is the right time, especially if you think you\'re too old.
- [Should I write a memoir after I'm retired?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/should-i-write-a-memoir-after-im-retired/) - If you look at your free time as time to relax, then more free time will just mean more relaxing. Writing requires a shift in your attitude towards free time, and you can start making that shift right now.
- [Today is the first day of the rest of your memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/today-is-the-first-day-of-the-rest-of-your-memoir/) - If you want to write your memoir some day, try this experiment. Think about today as an important day. What parts of your life right now, today, this month, this year, will be worth reading? This exercise can expand your relationship to memoir writing. For one thing, it will give you an incentive to keep a journal.
- [What to do with regrets in your memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/what-to-do-with-regrets-in-your-memoir/) - If you feel your regrets are interfering with your desire to write, you have company. We're in it together. We all have regrets of varying degrees of intensity burning away in our past. And so, even though your regrets are uncomfortable, they offer another lovely benefit to writing your memoir. You will gain a deeper understanding not only into your own mind, but into the inner workings of everyone you know.
- [Stories heal families](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/stories-heal-families/) - But Gretchen felt unable to tell the story because she was so angry with her dad's irresponsibility and abandonment. She thought her anger would get her in trouble, so she decided to write it as fiction. That turned out to be a great choice, because the more she tried to tell the story, the better she understood it.
- [Fog of memoir, fog of war](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/fog-of-memoir-fog-of-war/) - His strange, impulsive acts remind me of times in my own teenage years when I acted without knowing why I was doing what I was doing, occasionally doing destructive, or even cruel things. It's difficult to remember those times. It's certainly uncomfortable. But reading Wolff's memoir helps me once again stand in that fog and look around. I hate it, and yet it was part of my life.
- [Life and Death in Memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/life-and-death-in-memoir/) - I have enjoyed thousands of stories that involve brutal murder and outright assassination. Why am I so attracted to mayhem, when most of the time my thoughts are no more edgy than wondering what's for dinner, or what I am going to do tomorrow? It turns out death is closer to everyday life than you might think. Just turn on the news -- murders, war, disasters, disease, terrorism.
- [Use story scenes to convey abstract ideas and emotions](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/use-story-scenes-to-convey-abstract-ideas-and-emotions/) - I am musing this morning about the powerful way books and ideas affected my life. I am thinking about this because of a passage from Angela's Ashes in which the author was hired to read Jonathan Swift's Modest Proposal to a blind man. It makes me think about how subtle it was for Frank McCourt's
- [10 reasons to take a memoir writing class in a cemetery](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/10-reasons-to-take-a-memoir-writing-class-in-a-cemetery/) - I attended a memoir class at a cemetery yesterday. There were about 25 people who walked through the gates of the cemetery for a happy reason, to participate in a community outreach program hosted by West Laurel Hill Cemetery, in Bala Cynwyd, outside of Philadelphia. Thank you for hosting this event,West Laurel Hills! I love

## Pages

- [Welcome to Memory Writers Network](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/) - Discover the power of personal storytelling. Learn to shape your memories into a meaningful narrative — and connect with others through the art of memoir. Meet Jerry and learn about memoir coaching. Visit the full blog and read the latest
- [Index to Essays on Memory Writers Network](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/index-to-the-essays-about-memoir-writing-on-this-blog/) - To help you navigate the Memory Writers Network blog, here are links to the essays, articles, and interviews I've published, with their title and a short description
- [Lists of Memoirs: Transition from Sexuality to Committed Relationships](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/lists-of-two-memoirs-by-same-author/memoir-lists-transition-from-sexuality-to-committed-relationships/) - On the march toward maturity, we need to figure out how sex will work in our lives. These memoirs offer examples, both how to live it and how to write about it.
- [8 Reasons to Join The Memoir Revolution](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/8-reasons-to-join-the-memoir-revolution/) - Writing a memoir seems like work, until you discover the thrill of finding and sharing your stories.
- [Ten reasons anyone should write a memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/ten-reasons-boomers-should-write-their-memoir/) - People have all kinds of reasons for writing a memoir. I list ten of my favorites.
- [Memoirs That Taught Me How Women See the World](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/memoirs-that-taught-me-how-women-see-the-world/) - When reading memoirs by women, I suspend disbelief and enter the mind of the other gender, providing me insight into the half of the world I've been missing.
- [About Me and Memory Writers Network](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/about-me-and-memory-writers/) - Who is Jerry Waxler and what is Memoir Revolution?
- [Sign Up](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/sign-up/) - #
- [Why I Am So Passionate About the Memoir Revolution](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/about-me-and-memory-writers/reasons-why-i-blog/) - Many people assume blogging is for dabblers, and don't understand why I take it so seriously. I hope this essay explains my reasons.
- [Memoirs About Spiritual Launching](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/lists-of-two-memoirs-by-same-author/memoirs-about-spiritual-launching/) - This is a list of memoirs that include the journey to understand one's belief system.
- [Why I Write Self Help for Writers](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/about-me-and-memory-writers/about-self-help-for-writers/) - Jerry Waxler talks about his interest in self-help for writers, and explains the background of his book "Four Elements for Writers."
- [Your Memoir Here](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/your-memoir-here/) - So many memoir writers visit Memory Writers Network wanting to announce their memoirs. I've created this page to give you a chance to do just that. Please add a comment to this page, briefly describing your book and providing a link to it. Rules Only one comment per book Keep the synopsis reasonably short. (Maybe
- [Why did you call it Memoir Revolution?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/why-did-you-call-it-memoir-revolution/) - By Jerry Waxler When I entered college in 1965, life was going to be simple. I intended to become a doctor and looked forward to a normal future. Within a few weeks of my arrival in Madison, Wisconsin, I saw my first anti-war picket signs. No one knew at that time that this was an
- [Why and How Writing a Memoir Evolved from Writing in a Journal](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/why-and-how-writing-a-memoir-evolved-from-writing-in-a-journal/) - by Jerry Waxler My college years were every parent’s nightmare. Instead of preparing for adulthood, I joined Vietnam war protests, became fascinated by hippie beliefs, and smoked lots of marijuana. For years afterward, my thoughts and emotions continued to race out of control, as if I was recovering from trauma. I tried many techniques to
- [Online Class: Eight Steps to Write Your Memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/online-class-eight-steps-to-write-your-memoir/) - Take this structured class to learn the steps to start, organize and make progress on your memoir.
- [Memoir Tribes, Clubs and Communities in the Memoir Revolution](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/memoir-tribes-clubs-and-communities-in-the-memoir-revolution/) - When I started writing a memoir, I assumed it would be lonely. Over time, I have found that social bonding is the Memoir Revolution's greatest strength.
- [Interview With Jerry Waxler On Becoming a Writer](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/interview-on-becoming-a-writer/) - In this interview, Jerry Waxler talks about how and why he wrote Memoir Revolution and offers advice on how to become a writer.
- [Lists of Two or More Memoirs by the Same Author](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/lists-of-two-memoirs-by-same-author/) - After writing memoirs, authors often ask "what's next?" Here is a list of memoir authors who answered the question by writing another.
- [Interview with Jerry Waxler - Your Life as a Writer](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/interview-with-jerry-waxler-your-life-as-a-writer/) - Interviewer: What single piece of advice stands out as being most influential in your writing career? Jerry: Hmm. Great question. Writing advice has influenced me throughout my journey to become a writer, it’s hard to identify the best. One piece that jumps to mind was offered by bestselling author Jonathan Maberry who told me I
- [Interview about Me and Memoir Revolution - Romantic!](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/interview-about-me-and-memoir-revolution-romantic/) - By Jerry Waxler What is the most unusual job you ever had? I grew up as a nerd, and intended to go through life relying on brainpower. But during the sixties, I developed an idealistic notion that people who work with their hands are more authentic. When I was around thirty, I had the opportunity
- [How Types of Memoirs Help You Write Your Memoir](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/how-types-of-memoirs-help-you-write-your-memoir/) - By Jerry Waxler I began reading memoirs in the early 2000s for what I thought was a simple reason. I wanted to learn how to write my own. I soon realized that memoirs opened me to a whole universe of personal experience, as seen through the author’s eyes. And there was an extra dimension to
- [How to Turn Your Lawn (or Anything) Into a Story](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/how-to-turn-your-lawn-or-anything-into-a-story/) - After years of learning book-craft, I am trying to apply my lessons to short stories. In this article, I pick apart the process and offer a how-to formula.
- [How does Counseling Relate to Memoir Writing?](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/how-does-counseling-relate-to-memoir-writing/) - By Jerry Waxler This is a terrific question, because it relates directly to the reason I wrote Memoir Revolution. I think that memoir writing is one of the most exciting developments in psychology in the last 100 years. And, unlike other systems, it wasn’t invented by a genius or by a team of researchers. Instead,
- [Comparing the Benefits of Journal Writing and Memoir Writing](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/comparing-the-benefits-of-journal-writing-and-memoir-writing/) - By Jerry Waxler I discovered the benefits of journal writing in the late 1970s when a spiritual teacher suggested, I write my thoughts as if in a letter to God. Allowing my thoughts and feelings to flow onto the page helped me maintain my poise so effectively, I kept going for years. When I began
- [Adult Learning, Self-expression and the Power of Habits](https://memorywritersnetwork.com/adult-learning-self-expression-and-the-power-of-habits/) - Many adults desire to express themselves but have not developed the skills. I share my own experience as an adult learner and tout the power of habits.