Vol. 1, Issue 3
Sitting at your computer, staring at a blank screen? You find that you have the time to write, but what? Like each of us, you have a story to tell—one that you actually lived. No need to search for a main character, create a setting, or manufacture a formidable protagonist. You draw on memory for the essentials of your story. And only you can tell your story, your way—from your point of view.
What do you most wish that your children, family, or writer friends knew about you? The real you who secretly writes poetry, has a novel tucked away but too shy to offer for critique, or writing awards only appearing on your office walls? Are you a serious nonfiction writer who has a whopper of a mystery you yearn to sit down and start writing?
Staying at home may be a good time to contemplate writing your story. Maybe not from the day you were born but perhaps focusing on a special period in your life—perhaps living the writer life, or experiences traveling solo, an amazing job you held, surviving a tragedy, a learning journey taking you into an unfulfilled passion of your life, or a defining moment that gave you the strength to make a 360 degree turnaround—fill in the blanks with the story only you can feel, only you can tell.
Do need some helpful guidance to approach writing your story, or memoir? A few sources below:
The National Memoir Association, www.namw.org, offer supports and guidance to assist you in writing your memoir.
Story Circle Network, www.storycirclenetwork.org is a national organization focused on offering support for women writing about their lives. They also offer excellent online writing courses (I sometimes lead writing courses for them). Online courses are especially helpful during this time when most writers’ conferences have been cancelled or postponed.
An excellent example of writing a book focused on a special aspect of your life: France My Way, Adventures of a Solo Traveler, by Barbara Youree, www.amazon.com
CHS Publishing, offers Memoir Writing Guide: Brighten Your Leaf on the Family Tree, a step-by-step ebook to help you organize your project, choose others to include in your book, select events and places that influenced your life, deal effectively with those tough times, and a section for producing/marketing your completed memoir. www.marilynhcollins.com/books
Please send other support groups in the Comment section that you’ve found helpful in telling your own story.