The NAMW telesummit event is still going on–if you are still listening and learning from the audios. The event for me was all about being immersed in the world of story, creativity, and a sensual spring day. From my window I  had a great view of my wisteria, and the birds and bees that nuzzled into the flowers while on the phone we were all sharing our passion about the power of stories to transform us.

In case you haven’t noticed, I love the world of story writing, I love how  stories enter us and change us, and how we wrestle with words, images and ideas when we as writers open the door to a story. There are circles of stories–all entwing around each other as we share, read, and create. I hope that your week is rich in story, that you find ways to tune into the next story that is making its way to you.

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The Audio File from the April 23, 2010 Monthly Memoir Writing Member-only Teleseminar is now available for download by NAMW Members!

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Topics That Were Discussed:

• What is an Author Platform & Why Do I Need One?
• Is an Author Platform the Same Thing as My Identity?
• Questions You Need to Ask Yourself
• Keys to Success
• Tools to Build Your Platform
• …..and More

As a writer, you most likely find pleasure in creating your work, tuning into your muse, and all this marketing and platform stuff leaves you cold. But you can learn it, slowly and surely, along the way as you continue to write and complete your book. Just accept that it requires the other, more linear side of your brain. Give yourself permission to be patient and open to learning this new world.

There are so many ways to set up a blog or a website and develop a following. Linda and her Marketing Consultant, Staci Motherwell, discussed the tools that can be used, and how to get familiar with creating a platform without sacrificing your soul and your muse as you do it.

Linda Joy Myers, Ph.D., MFT, is the President and founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers, and a family therapist who has practiced in Berkeley, California for thirty years. She is the prize-winning author of Don’t Call Me Mother and Becoming Whole. Linda Joy offers online teleseminars on memoir writing, and is an editor and memoir coach. Linda learned about marketing despite being mostly a therapist, poet, and artist, so you can too.

Staci Motherwell is an escapee of the corporate marketing & business development rat race who has spent the last 8 years helping authors, non-profits and technology firms as well as a variety of web based businesses.  She assists with the development of author and business identities as well as strategic business planning.  She also assists a select group of clients–including Linda Joy Myers and the National Association of Memoir Writers–with the execution and management of their tactical marketing & business development plans, to include online and offline marketing efforts as well as client servicing and business development.   She also moonlights as a mother and teacher to two home educated children.  Learn more about Staci at http://www.linkedin.com/in/motherwell

I just returned from the wonderful National Association of Poetry conference in Washington DC, and want to invite writers to include poetry more as they write, heal, and reflect on the important moments of your lives.
At the conference, I taught a Spiritual Memoir workshop called “Moments of Being” named for the amazing book of collected memoir pieces by Virginia Woolf. In 1922, Virginia Woolf stood up in front of friends and colleagues and discussed the sexual abuse she had suffered by her half-brother George Duckworth, as well as other happier memories, some of which formed the basis for her book To the Lighthouse. In those days, and in London especially, this was a bold and brave act. She writes not only of this darkness in her life, but dares to write deeper truths about her father and other family members in ways they would not have approved of. By the time she wrote the memoir pieces, some members of her family had died, which perhaps gave her permission.

During my workshop, I encouraged everyone to come up with a “Turning Point List” of events that were significant in a deeply emotional or spiritual way, and then to write one of those stories. I also talked with the group about plotting their turning points on a timeline so they could visually locate when these events happened.
Suggestion: Write a list of 10-20 turning points, moments of being, moments of significance in your life. Then each week, choose 2-4 of those moments and write about them. Soon, you will have written what could be the spine of your memoir. Writing even just 20 minutes at a time helps you to get your memoir written!
Be Brave–Write your Story