Memoir writing is a much more serious task than it’s often considered to be. It’s not informal, it’s not casual. It really is the writing of history.
Writing What You Don’t Know
Writing workshop wisdom used to be write what you know, a doctrine I’ve found increasingly confining.
Writing Memoir/Writing History
We need to expand our understanding of memoir; it is actually the writing of history from often ignored points of view.
Why Teach
I want to persuade writers to use all five senses in their writing, instead of just the visual—and to sharpen visual descriptions with fresh, unexpected adjectives.
Forgiveness
One of the problems with memoir writers, as I see it, is that we aim too low.
I Can’t Teach You to Write
What I can inspire, if not teach, is the appetite for putting words down on the page that has been my theme and my salvation since I was a child.
Taos Writers Conference
From 9am to 12pm on Saturday, I’ll be teaching a workshop entitled, Notching it up: Using reading and writing to sharpen your writing skills. This brief video chat has more information about the content of the workshop.
How to Write
As my biography of Doris Duke continues to simmer in the editing vats at Farrar, Straus, I must for my salvation begin to write—again.
Upcoming Workshop: “When Words Really Matter”
For words really to matter, they must illuminate a larger reality than the inevitably small perimeters of our daily lives.
What They Really Want Isn’t Fame or Fortune But Permission to Articulate Their Feelings
This essay, by Steve Almond, from the March 25th edition of The New York Times, comes like a bombshell, dispelling not only my notions about why people take the writing workshops I teach, but why I often find teaching them frustrating.