Day: December 19, 2011

Desperation: The Mother of Invention.

Yes, I do believe necessity IS the mother of invention. I don’t know who K. S. Brooks on Snow Shoesoriginally said that, and I’m too damned lazy to Google it. Huh, in fact, I’m so lazy that I just used “Google” as a verb. So there.

I have no intention of defending my laziness. Frankly, I’m proud of it. I use my energy solely for writing and marketing my books. My houseplants are wilting and my dinner is still in the freezer. But I put in a long day filled with paper cuts, taping my fingers together and filling in U.S. Customs paperwork so I could send out “Advance Review Copies” of my new book.

There’s that word: review. That all too elusive review – the one that should be written quickly and gladly by the person receiving your book for free. But it doesn’t go that way, does it? BE HONEST – you know it doesn’t. Even though they basically gave their word they’d review your book – what percentage of them actually do it?

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What a writer looks like…

I majored in Creative Writing.  Not because I like writing – because I like Ferraris and fast women.  Majoring in Creative Writing in San Francisco was one of the smartest things I have ever done.  We drank wine during class.  We took lots of smoke breaks.  We were passionate and in love with writing and reading and the sheer bliss of it all.  I met a lot of great writers.  And I met some crappy ones, too.

I am going to make a huge generalization here.  That’s how I roll.  Most of the good writers I knew looked like your average citizen.  But there was always one or two kids…kids who actually wore berets and smoked those short foreign cigarettes.  Kids who wore scarves when it was warm.  Kids who carried notebooks everywhere and tried to sit in conspicuous spots and look like they had existential jock itch.  Man, they annoyed me.  And they never seemed to produce much actual writing. Continue reading “What a writer looks like…”

Writing a Memoir: Five Things to Consider by Barbara Morrison

Innocent: Confessions of a Welfare Mother
Innocent: Confessions of a Welfare Mother by Author Barbara Morrison

People—me included—love reading memoirs because they are true stories that give us insight into someone else’s experience. Memoirs differ from autobiographies in that they only cover a short period of time, not an entire life. Also, they are understood to be the author’s experience rather than an objective document. Here are five things to consider when writing a memoir:

1. What is the purpose of your memoir?

You can write a memoir as therapy, an effective way to understand and cope with a confusing or traumatic experience. As Abigail Thomas says, “Writing memoir is a way to figure out who you used to be and how you got to be who you are.”

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