Summer's Call
Summer calls us outside to nature, whether we are planting a garden or hiking. It is a time when the landscape around us inspires us, entering minds that are full of i-pod music or TV or the many words that fill our days and nights. Words—they fill our heads and are part of our tool box as writers, but there are times when we must allow the words to smooth away into contemplation, into experiences without words so our souls can be soothed.
Time in nature allows us to tune into another aspect of life, one that moves more slowly, one that beckons us to stop the chatter and rush, and to turn our attention to the earth’s messages. What do trees have to say about the world, rocks? How do they speak to you?
"Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful: they are sunshine, food and medicine to the soul."...Luther Burbank
Perhaps you like to listen to the earth as you dig in your garden, cultivate the soil, get your hands dirty. I grew up with a great-grandmother who taught me about the garden. She got up at 5 AM and worked hard until 7 when she came up and rousted us up for breakfast. My grandmother, her daughter, was not an outdoor type nor an early riser, but she’d try on those summer Iowa mornings to sit and stare at a cup of thick coffee to listen to Blanche boast about her strawberries, her tomatoes, and how the eggshells she tossed into the soil made everything grow just right!
There was a kind of listening I learned as she dug at the weeds, promoting the good growth and getting rid of the bad. The watering, glorying in it, the canning afterward showed the bounty of the earth. In August in Iowa, everything is coming into fruition, and it was always a visceral, body experience to see, taste, and feel her connection to the earth.
What is your connection to the earth, the seasons, to this kind of subtle listening. It is from these quiet moments that we are refreshed, our creativity fed and watered like the plants. During your hike or your gardening, have fresh eyes. My grandson Seth wanders my garden like an explorer, noticing each small detail of leaf, rock, plant and petal. He helps me to slow way down and to see the unfolding world through his open and curious eyes.
As creators, we can learn from the small among us.
Harvesting Our Wisdom- Writing Retreat
Napa Valley, California
November 7-9, 2008
This retreat offers a chance to immerse yourself in your thoughts and ideas, and explore your deepest being. Whether you write memoir, or fiction, our retreat gives you time to focus on yourself and capture the stories that have shaped you. Click here for more.
Listening to the Earth
The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider's web.--Pablo Picasso
Within us are worlds of creativity and passion, though the light may seem dim in the constant stream of busy-ness and responsibility. But if you are interested in writing, chances are your secret self has been writing, and reading, for a very long time. There has been a voice, a force that you have been listening to and it is demanding your attention. That is another definition of the Muse.
• Write about your desire to write.
• What is your favorite memory of early childhood? When you were 10; 15?
• How long have you written and what kind of writing?
• Were you a reader as a child? Write about what reading gave you.
• What have you written that you enjoyed creating?
• List five stories that show the essence of who you are.
• Who has helped you to develop your creativity?
Tips for getting your stories onto the page
- Write brief stories, vignettes, regularly—at least once a week.
- Don’t spend a lot of time wondering where to start. Just jump in and write a vignette. Start anywhere.
- Be willing to learn from the story about who you are and what you think. Writing just flows from the end of our pens, if we allow it to.
Write from photos or even magazine pictures that speak to you, that give you a special feeling of reminiscence or even longing. When you write from a feeling, you have a jumpstart into your story.
- Your stories can be written in the tone of letters to a friend, telling them about your experience. Paint a picture on the page of what you remember.
New Teleseminars for NAMW
I am happy to announce that we have booked teleseminars all the way through November, 2008 for NAMW. We are busy finding new experts to address subjects important to memoir writers through 2009. We are growing each month, and the members appreciate our efforts to offer something special, the monthly teleseminars, that help them in very specific ways to learn new things about memoir writing.
The next few months will bring new information that members will receive by download and then a CD sent at the end of the month.
Writing Your Family Memoir: Linda Joy Myers
August 21, 2008 | 11:00 am to 12:00 pm
Writing a family memoir is a wonderful way to gift your family with a legacy they will always treasure. However, family memoir writers have many questions and arrive at the task with a feeling of responsibility and even worry to the project.
Family memoir writers have questions like these:
- What do I do about the stories the family does not want me to write?
- How do I deal with the problem of everyone having a different memory of events; what about the family myths and downright lies–I would like to leave a truthful and favorable document.
- Who decides what the final draft will be?
- What about using real names vs. pseudonyms?
- How do I start?
- How should it be structured?
These and other questions will be discussed. Matilda Butler, owner of womensmemoirs.com and author of Rosie’s Daughters will interview Linda this month, and in September Linda will interview Matilda about writing a collective memoir.
Enjoy the benefits of the NAMW teleseminars by subscribing for NAMW membership! Click here to read about what you get as a member of the NAMW.
Here is the list of speakers for 2008:
August 21 Linda Joy Myers - Writing a Family Memoir
Linda will be presenting this important topic with Matilda Butler. Writing a family memoir is a wonderful way to gift your family with a legacy they will always treasure. However, family memoir writers have many questions and arrive at the task with a feeling of responsibility and worry to the project. How to begin, structure and keep writing; truth and lie and family secrets; family dynamics and memoir writing and much more. www.memoriesandmemoirs.com
September 18 Matilda Butler - Writing the Collective Memoir
Matilda Butler will talk to us about the collective memoir, a weaving together of different threads of stories written by many different people. Matilda will draw upon her own experience writing Rosie's Daughters, the compilation of over 100 stories by women she interviewed interspersed with archival photographs and published memoirs to create a tapestry of voices that deepen our understanding of how women's lives changed and evolved since WWII. www.womensmemoirs.com
October 16 Martha Alderson - Plot for Memoir Writers
Marta Alderson, author of Blockbuster Plots, will help memoir writers learn about the backbone of a book - its structure - and the kinds of tools that help create a vibrant and publishable memoir. www.blockbusterplots.com
October 23 - Free 2008 National Association of Memoir Writers Telesummit
Writing and Publishing your Memoir Writing a memoir requires endurance, dedication, and hours of introspection into your life journey. To stay the course and become a published author, you need skills, inspiration, and knowledge.
This is the very first telesummit especially for memoir writers!
Click here to learn more and REGISTER FOR FREE.
November 13 Denis LeDoux - Memoir Writing as Myth Making/Meaning Making
When we write memoir, we necessarily select to write this rather than that (not being able to include all). This selective detailing inevitably produces a fiction, but a fiction that is attempting to be true to a lived life. In this tele-class, Denis LeDoux will outline a process by which memoirists bring the fiction making element under control through understanding the myth-making process--which creates meaning and underscores the important themes in our lives and our memoir.
Denis LeDoux is the author of Turning Memories into Memoirs and other texts on memoir writing. Visit his wonderful rich website www.turningmemories.com
December 11, 2008 Jerry Waxler - Four Stages of Memoir Writing—Challenges and Strategies
Writing a memoir sounds daunting if you think of it as a single task. One way to get your arms around it is by breaking it down into parts. In this presentation, Jerry Waxler will show you how to look at memoir writing in stages, what the challenges are at each stage, and suggestions for overcoming them. www.memorywritersnetwork.com
Enjoy the midsummer light and special moments!
The National Association of Memoir Writers
FREE conference event in October!!
The National Association of Memoir Writers First Telesummit
A telesummit is a conference by phone.
October 23, 2008
11 AM - 5 PM PST
Downloadable Workbook
included for FREE
Writing and Publishing your Memoir Writing a memoir requires endurance, dedication, and hours of introspection into your life journey. To stay the course and become a published author, you need skills, inspiration, and knowledge.
We know that we can learn more about writing and publishing by attending conferences, which are great fun and stimulating. But now it is possible to attend a conference from the comfort of your home, on the telephone. Furthermore, it is FREE! To attend a telesummit, all you need to do is to call in on the number you receive after registration and join us.
At our first NAMW we are hosting the following great speakers and topics:
[11:00am] Building Your Brand through Writing your Book - Sheri McConnell
As you begin to publish your work, you will discover that agents and publishers are looking for writers who have a “platform” and a way to market themselves for the most appeal to a larger audience. Don’t let this language scare you!
Read More
[12:15pm] The Path to publishing—Traditional vs. Self-Publishing, and Everything in Between - Dan Poynter
Entering the world of publishing can seem daunting for someone who has been sitting at a computer for years alone, writing. There is so much to learn about—finding an agent, how the publishing world works, and how to makes one’s way through the maze.
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[2:25pm] Injecting Emotion into a Memoir Plot - Martha Alderson
Martha Alderson, an expert on plot and structure and the author of Blockbuster Plots, will present a special topic at our telesummit—Infusing Emotion into a Memoir Plot.
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[1:30pm] How to Make Yourself Irresistible to any Agent or Editor
Every writer needs to know about how the publishing process works, which includes learning about agents—what they do, how you can get their attention, and how they intersect with the publishing community.
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[4:00pm] Developing Voice and Theme in Your Memoir and Personal Essay - Sheila Bender
How do writers approach writing meant to discover and share the shape of their experience? How can we approach our writing in a way that allows us to evoke our unique way of observing, remembering, and putting events and perceptions together to find insight? How do we write the way Robert Frost advised: “No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader” (even if we are writing funny, by the way)?
Read More
This is the very first telesummit especially for memoir writers!
Visit www.namw.org to see the long list of membership benefits and learn more about us.
Sign up for our weekly newsletter and receive a download of your free e-book: Begin Your Memoir Today!
There is a growing national and international memoir community where writers need support solving the difficult questions about how to write a memoir, how to have a successful writing life, and keys to the path of successful publication.
Memoir writers have other needs too: encouragement to listen to the stories that whisper in their ears, guidance about taming the inner critic, and coaching for the ways that memoir is a healing path toward self-realization and freedom of expression.
Being in the space you create has helped me a LOT. I find that I'm getting braver and braver. Sometimes I think: what the hell, might as well say it, what's there to hide or protect? No matter how difficult it seems, after I write it / read it / share it, I discover that the telling of it blows it wide open. There's no going back to the closed-in, closed-up feeling of "nursing" the wound in my own little corner.
Ongoing Groups in Berkeley, CA
