Weekly Writing Exercises

Chronology

I’ve recently become a great fan of chronology, the true representation of the order of events.   Stories, according to E.M. Forster, are narratives of events arranged in their time sequence, with the great advantage of making the audience want to know what happens next.   Beginning, middle, end:   the formula is as old …

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Inherent Wholeness

Underneath the act of writing memoir is an implicit belief:   A wholeness exists among the fractured memories of a life.   If we didn’t believe this, it’s unlikely any memoirist would take on the endeavor.   In fact, I suspect many people write memoir because they long for a complete, unified perspective on their …

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Book-Length Thoughts

Over the course of years of working on my own writing and coaching others, I’ve come to recognize a stumbling place in the process of writing a book.   There comes a moment, usually around the completion of a first full draft, when the project seems utterly overwhelming.   A new form of writer’s block …

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Why is memoir hot?

I was asked this question in class last night, and a lively discussion ensued.   There are many reasons memoir is flying off the shelves right now–Americans’ voyeuristic obsessions, our thrill at the democratization of the personal narrative (you don’t have to be a president or have climbed Mount Everest to write about your life), …

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