Getting Started on Your Memoir (Pt. 2)
You want to write but don’t know how to get started, right? If you are absolutely sure you want to write your story, or even a memoir, I can help. You want to write. You know that much. Do these sound like things you say? “I want to leave my story for my grandkids.” “Writing…
Getting Started is the Toughest Part (Pt. 1)
Start with what’s easy. Start with the big story, and get the burst of energy that being productive on the page gives you. Tell your tale. Start there. Here is one way to get yourself writing today. Let me walk you through the way you can build up to telling your big story. Chances are…
Size Matters When You're Growing Up Giant
Parenting makes us protective from day one. When our kids are couch surfers and becoming teetering toddlers, we get expert at assessing risk from their perspective. Out go the pristine sharp-cornered glass-topped tables and the décor items that can be gummed, swallowed or face-planted on. We go to exhaustive and embarrassing lengths to prevent injury,…
He Has His Own Definition of Forever
I call them the Invincibles: those teenagers who walk across parking lots and streets in defiance of the “look both ways” that you can be certain their parents repeated laboriously to them as toddlers and preschoolers. I see the Invincibles stepping off of sidewalks, with hoodies pulled up and forward like the blinders on an…
Promises to My Boys and Other Failings
I had no doubt I’d adore my boys. I did relish the advice of the many folks who insisted upon telling me just how much I’d love them. They’d try synonyms for huge, attempting metaphors for that inexplicably enormous and all-consuming feeling. One person got it right by admitting to the impossibility of the task:…
Why Parenting a Child With a Rare Illness Isn't Easy
“Eighteen blue, silver and white gift bags, stuffed with contrasting tissue paper lined the table. Aaron and his brother moved from bag to bag, exploring the contents together. Each bag sported a number from one through 18. He’d made it to 18. We’d made it to his 18th birthday.” Continue reading the rest of my…
Don't Wait for Answers to These Questions–they aren't comin'
Over on Huffington Post, I’m coming clean about the questions that just won’t be getting answered to your satisfaction before the memoir gets rolling. you can read it Here: or scroll down. Those questions that run through your mind like a song on repeat.. We all have plaguing, nagging questions that get in our way…
12 Reasons You Should Write Your Memoir Anyway
It’s time, right? You’re ready to write about your life. You bought the gorgeous notebook, the beautiful pen, the tea is made, your butt is in the chair and then the really hard part begins… Telling the voices of criticism, doubt and skepticism to pipe down (especially the ones coming from inside your own head.)…
What Every Memoir Writer Must Eventually Decide
“One of the unique features of humanity is our desire to be part of a community of storytellers and listeners. I have a simple explanation for why I can conclude this with confidence—if stories were not so important in our interaction with each other, why would we spend so much time talking? Our stories compiled,…