Posted by Kathleen Pooler/@kathypooler.
I am honored to be a guest over at Madeline Sharples’ blog, Choices, today:
Six Tips for Honoring the Story Within: A Memoir Writer’s Challenge…
Writing a memoir is hard work.
I know because I have been writing mine for the past four years.
I actually started writing vignettes about twelve years ago and have journaled since my teens. But I didn’t get serious about my memoir writer’s journey until 2009 when I started taking memoir writing workshops and attending writing conferences.
It’s very humbling to learn what you don’t know and when I started out, I didn’t know anything about writing a memoir. I only knew that I had a story inside me and that I wanted to write about it.
It is a well-known fact in memoir writing circles that writing a memoir is a daunting task fraught with many challenges, not the least being: excavating painful memories, standing in your truth, and dealing with family members or close friends who may not agree with your perception of the truth.
All that on top of a market that says you have to be a celebrity to sell your story.
The odds against writing a memoir that will sell can feel pretty overwhelming.
But readers love stories they can connect with and we all have a story within to share.
How can we honor these stories?…
To read more please visit Madeline’s blog here
Please join me over at Madeline’s blog. I’d love to hear from you either here or there~
Next Week: “Back to My Roots: A Memoir Moment.”
“It is a well-known fact in memoir writing circles that writing a memoir is a daunting task fraught with many challenges, not the least being: excavating painful memories, standing in your truth, and dealing with family members or close friends who may not agree with your perception of the truth.”
Many times I would get discouraged, knowing that family members would NOT agree with me. I continued on, because getting the truth out there was important to my inner being. I will tell you that my fears were worse than reality and my family members (for the most part) were quite accepting.
The painful memories were my biggest concern, but I found it to be significant to persevere. It healed my heart. Now that my book is published and I am speaking around the country, it continues being cathartic and the inner pain is slowly dissipating.
Dear Jane, It is so nice to meet you. I appreciate you stopping by and sharing your personal experience with family -related issues, a topic that every memoirist has to face.Your comment about your “fears being worse than reality” are very encouraging. Sometimes, writing a memoir opens avenues of communication with family members that may not even happen until we face painful or challenging areas, as you have. You said it best- “I persevered and healed my heart”. I visited your website. Your memoir First Aid for Heroes-your story of how 911 affected you- sounds intriguing. Like you say, we each have our own 911 story. I love that your story lives on- “continues to be cathartic and the inner pain is dissipating.” You have captured the healing aspect of writing and sharing our stories. Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing your story. Be sure to check out Viki Noe’s series on friendgrief which includes a book on 911:http://www.friendgrief.com/2013/09/celebrating-on-911.html Viki will be a guest here on 9/26.
Thanks Kathy. If you need guest bloggers I would enjoy that!
By all means, Jane. Here are my guest post guidelines:http://krpooler.com/guest-post-guidelines/ Let me know if you have any questions via email kpooler63@gmail.com and we’ll start from there. Thanks for your interest in being a guest blogger. I look forward to hearing from you!
Great job Kathy! I continue to enjoy reading your blog.
Thanks Sue and the feeling is mutual about your blog. I’m still in catch-up mode and will stop by soon!