Everything You Wanted to Know about Writing and Publishing in Two Days—at the Writing Conference last weekend

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This last weekend I had the pleasure of attending and speaking at the Write and Publish your Book in 2012 conference held in Oakland, California, organized by Beth Barany. It was an intimate room full of people who attended all of the sessions—no breakout sessions, so we all learned, shared, and laughed together. From Catharine Bramkamp we learned about the publishing world, from traditional and agented work to the “old” form of self-publishing and then into the modern new world of Print on Demand through Create Space and Lightning Source, and the really brave—and successful—new world of eBooks. Whew—it’s dizzying but a lot of information indeed, and all of it was accurate and useful.

 

From Ezra Barany, we learned about how to optimize your book titles and website for SEO—which means Search Engine Optimization—which means: making yourself searchable by the little bots inside all those search engines.

On the second day, Beth Barany regaled us with inspirational moments and a presentation on how to enter the Social Media world and stay sane! There is so much to learn, but the way she puts it is like this. “I think of social media the way I do about going to a party—I hang out, get acquainted, exchange small talk and just learn about who’s there.” That makes it sound easy and friendly, doesn’t it.

The reason we need to go to that party is so that we can get found, known and seen. You DO want people to read your book, don’t you?

I talked about—guess what—memoir writing of course—How to Make your Book Irresistible to Readers—which is what we all want—readers to dive into our book and our message and be happy that they have been invited into our world. Most memoirs are inspirational and informative in some way. The way to think about your memoir is to ask:

What is my message, and who is the audience that really needs to know what I have to share?

The different elements of the conference worked together, so when we think about the message in our book, we begin to see how the keywords for the SEO will start to line up and we can imagine our audience on Twitter and Facebook.

5 Tips that Will Help You Get Your Book Written in 2012

The weekend included 20 minute complimentary coaching sessions, so I got to meet a lot of people who wanted to know how to get their book done.

  1. Create a list of significant turning points that will help you organize the important stories.
  2. Use this list to clarify your theme and message: Your theme will answer the question—what is this book about? What is the message that I’m delivering my readers?
  3. Write in any order your turning points—just freewrite quickly and get the first draft of these stories done. You can quilt them together later.
  4. Use sensual details to create a world for your reader that they will feel. These are: sight, sounds, smells, textures, and setting. Where are you, what time frame is your scene set in? What is happening with you and other people?
  5. Create a character list—yes, even though this is a memoir, you need to decide who the main players are, and who might need to be on the sidelines or just have a bit part. List the 5 most important people in your memoir and write character sketches.
  6. Bonus: Use photographs and research on the internet to help you create the world of your memoir.

Think about these questions and write in your journal: Are your characters fully fleshed out people? Do you use dialogue to convey character styles?

What are the 10 most significant moments in your life? Write them down now and see if that helps to clarify your plot and theme.

 

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Blog Tour: Dawn Novotny and her book Ragdoll Redeemed: Growing up in the Shadow of Marilyn Monroe

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I’m so jazzed that I’m over at the National Association of Memoir Writers today to host my friend, former student and brave writer Dawn Novotny to celebrate her book Ragdoll Redeemed: Growing up in the Shadow of Marilyn Monroe. I was with her during the birth pangs of her stories, which at the time she had no intention of putting into a book–but now, she’s an author.

This is what can happen when you’re just writing to heal, and writing to learn how to write–you might find yourself an author!

Dawn has said many times, “I just wanted to learn about verb tenses. I didn’t really know what I was getting into!” Dawn’s journey from new writer to brave writer to author will inspire you, as it did me and the other members of our workshop. For three years, Dawn worked hard to get out some very painful stories, one by one, and then learned how to edit and develop the stories. I’m pleased for her that she was so determined to not only heal, but then to put a book together. As you will learn in her book, she goes from being ”nobody” to being the wife of Joey DiMaggio, plunged into the world of the rich and famous where she finds out about other aspects of Marilyn Monroe than what was published in the press. From there her life takes downward spirals and upward transcendence as she develops into a whole person, and eventually a gifted therapist. Dawn draws parallels between Marilyn, who was also a lost, abused, and discarded child and herself, and many other girls who were abused and confused by parental dysfunction, sexual abuse, and the demands on a girl/woman by society in the 1950s.

Join us over at the National Association of Memoir Writers to visit Dawn’s blog post today. Leave a comment and join the conversation!

Dawn D Novotny, author of Ragdoll Redeemed: Growing Up In the Shadow Of Marilyn Monroe, is a clinician, teacher, author, spiritual director and national workshop leader. She writes a weekly blog @ http://www.thefaceswelive.com. and her website is http://beyondtheparts.com

 

 

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Journaling Your Way to a Memoir

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My first diary was a 6×6 inch leather bound book with a lock and key. I only wrote brief code-like entries. The rules in my house were that I could have no privacy, so I played it safe and didn’t record my truths, but sentences and phrases that reminded me of my memories. Years later, diary and journal writers like Virginia Woolf, Anais Nin, and May Sarton showed me that writing personal stories could invite the reader into musings and intimacies that helped me learn about my own life and showed me new ways to live.

Do you keep a journal? What do you write in it? Is it a place to download your memories, or try out writing ideas? Do you draw, doodle, or vent? Is it a legacy keeper or a way to gather ideas for your memoir?

 I got over my shyness with journals, and I, like many people, have dusty boxes filled with journals. For years, I didn’t look at them, but sometimes I do, which is a mixed blessing when I see the same themes over and over again! But I also see that the basic bones of my memoir appear again and again in my journals. The first drafts of every chapter in my memoir were born in my journals. The pages are torn and stained, a testimony to my efforts to write my memoir over the years.

Writing in a journal means that we can freely write, we have invited our writing to flow without thinking of the critics whispering in our ears because we’re not “really writing.” We are journaling, spending time in the private creative space of our minds, weaving imagination and memory.

I’m looking forward to my monthly teleseminar at the National Association of Memoir Writers on May 18th with journaling expert  and writer Amber Lea Starfire. Her book Week by Week—A Year’s Worth of Journaling Prompts and Meditations is a wonderful collection of ideas, themes, and writing prompts that will chase away any writer’s block—and inspire a new relationship with your journal. The book will inspire you to investigate memories that you may have forgotten, and lead you to new ways to make the connections in your heart and mind to write more–and better.

We are going to talk about the many ways you can use your journal to enhance your memoir writing—and help you get to “The End” sooner! We all know what a journey it is to write a memoir.

Where are you on your memoir journey?

What books have inspired you the most as you continue to write?

Tell us about your journaling history–do you have boxes and stack of journals?

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Imagining Mother | An Imaginary Memoir

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 My mother Josephine, age 10, with the dark hair. She had lived with her great-grandmother since she was 6.

 

All of humanity has something in common: we were born to a mother. We might not know who she is/was, or we might have been blessed to be bathed in her love–however she might have shown that love. Perhaps we were close to our mother, or yearned to be closer. Once she became a mother, she may have lost her original identity–what was her maiden name. Do you know what her life was before she had children–before you were relating to her as “mother?”

 Look at photographs of your mother–was she smiling? What was she wearing? Is there a familiar mood she exudes? Can you tell what she was feeling; do you know what she was doing just before or just after the photograph was taken? What do you imagine she felt/thought/did that day so long ago?

I’m often asked by people who are writing memoirs, “How can I write about my mother’s life? I don’t want to write fiction, but of course I wasn’t born yet for a lot of what she lived through. The stories I know are from others, from letters, from journals.”

 Here’s a great way to learn about your mother or grandmother:

1. Read about the era she lived in–clothes, furniture, food, holidays, schooling, expectations of those times. These can be found in history books, online, in diaries and in fictional stories set in that era.

2. Look at a photograph of your mother–is she smiling, posed or casual, what is her body language, what do you know about her at that age?

3. From what you know or imagine about your mother, write some pieces about her–from her point of view. Write a letter from her to her mother when she was 18 years old. What might she have said?

4. Write a diary entry about a secret your mother had, or might have had. See what comes out.

5. Write a diary entry she might have written on the day, or week, of your birth.

6. Create a scene where something in her life that was negative turned out to be positive. Rewrite her history.

7. Journal about your experiences as you create someone new in your imagination. Call it fiction, call it body knowledge or intuition. Who knows? But these exercises might tempt you to know more about her, or see her as separate from you–as a person with her own life, hopes, dreams, and disappointments.

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It’s Muscatine Iowa, circa 1926.  Josephine is playing with another child in the family who lives with her great-grandmother, also called Josephine, the mother of Blanche.

The woman who became my mother was an abandoned child, like me. As a little girl she would wait and wait for her mother to visit, and melt into her arms for the few moments of ecstasy before having to face the “real” world, which later she would describe as dingy and depressing.

Muscatine was the home of several generations of her mother’s side of the family. Her father lived about 20 miles away with a new wife and their baby daughter. I see her feeling displaced, I can see the sadness in her eyes from the time she was very young. This photograph was given to me by a relative after she died. I stare at the photos of mother when she was young, and I can see her then, her small limbs, her dark wistful eyes.

Little Josephine used to walk up and down the sidewalk on Iowa street, glancing at the boats and barged that plied the Mississippi River just a few blocks away. The button factories, the alcohol plant, the industries along the wharf were more interesting to her than the women’s life at home, cooking, taking care of everyone.

She yearned for Chicago where her beautiful mother would come from on the train. She ached for the big city clothes and excitement. Her mother has planted hope in her heart. “Someday,” she says, brushing the dust off her smooth wool coat.

For now, Josephine must practice piano, study her lessons, and put up with farm people who have no dreams. She squeezes her eyes shut, and grits her teeth. One day, she will have her mother and all the finery and live in the big city. One day.

 

 

 

 

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