Welcome to the season of celebration, gatherings of family and friends. At this time of year we appreciate the blessings, and even the challenges, of the old year while we imagine what might be coming in the New Year. In a few days is the Winter Solstice, a time where the world tips from the darkness into the light. In this darkness rest the seeds of our future, waiting for the warmth and light of spring to give birth to new creativity.
The darkness and silence of these long evenings envelop us in a layer of quilts, comforters, and, if you are like me, good books! How special to turn off the television and curl up with a good book. Or I might muse about ideas for a story in my journal. For memoir writers, it is a great time to pick up the pen and reflect on memories of the past, or stories about our young years and holiday memories.
As a child, I would eagerly await Christmas, and felt lucky to spend some Christmases in Iowa with my great-grandmother Blanche and hordes of relatives. She was matriarch of a family of seven children, many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. An Iowa winter is perfect, with soft billowing snow and crisp cold. Always there were the delightful smells of home cooking—pies, cakes, fried chicken, roasts, homemade gravy, cookies, and fluffy rolls. The sound of laughter and the buzz of voices rolled around the rambling house where my Aunt Grace was hostess, where all the grey haired folks chattered the old stories harkening back to the 19th century—horses with bells, men hunting on the frozen Mississippi, the first horseless carriages. I take the tradition of pies and stories with me now as I host Christmas with my children, or visit their homes and share in how they celebrate and join with other traditions, knowing that the circle of memory is being created for my grandchildren.
The stories we share with our family affirms who we are as a tribe and as individuals. I wish you the best of celebrations with your family and friends, and best wishes for a wonderful New Year!
Writing Your Holiday Memories
The holidays can be very emotional events—everyone is supposed to be happy but the old conflicts have a chance to be aired. Most families have rituals that carry them through. Holidays are gathering points for our memories, our hopes and dreams. Reflect upon these moments, notice if you find a deeper meaning for you now.
- Describe your childhood home during the holidays—how was it decorated? How did your neighborhood and town or city look during the holidays?
- Was there another favorite house or home that you enjoyed during the holidays? Use sensual details—color, sound, smell, and taste.
- What is one of your favorite photographs from a holiday in the past? Describe it—why is it your favorite?
- Write about your favorite holiday food, recipe, or story that you associate with holiday food rituals—cookie baking, special cakes,
- What was your most wished for Christmas or Chanukah present?
- Write about Christmas holidays from the past—were they happy or sad for you? What did your family do to celebrate?
- What New Year’s celebration do you remember best? How old were you, and where?
- What rituals do you bring from past holidays into your celebrations?
New Online Workshops taught by Linda Joy and guest faculty
Online Workshops for 2009
Give yourself a gift or perhaps a friend—an online memoir workshop. Sign up for our new online workshops and get started on your memoir. Perhaps you want to develop stories you have already begun. The new year invites New Year’s resolutions about getting that memoir written and published!
We are happy to announce that the National Association of Memoir Writers is going to offer workshops for you to attend from the comfort of your home. These workshops will be offered online through a password protected blog site, along with weekly phone meetings. An online workshop is just like attending a regular writing class—with instructor presentations online and on the phone, handouts, and writing suggestions, and the chance to "meet" everyone on the phone. The workshops are supportive, with the goal of giving you skills and tools to help you in your writing life, and to help create success for you in your memoir writing.
Discover the story amidst the facts by Jerry Waxler
Workshop runs from January 27 - February 24, 2009
5 Tuesday evenings—class meets for a hour
8 PM EST | 7 PM CST | 6 PM MST | 5 PM PST
Price: $190. Credit Cards Accepted. QUICK REGISTER
Many aspiring memoir writers fear their lives are not interesting enough to keep people reading from beginning to end. Many successful writers take the opposite point of view, that the events of any lifetime contain compelling material and that the writer’s real job is to find the story. In this course, you’ll learn to view your collection of memories not as a ready-made story, but as the raw material. Like a sculptor looking at a block of granite to find the beautiful figure inside, a memoir writer looks at the disorganized tangle of memories, looking for pieces that can be linked and shaped into a compelling story. Learn more
Writing a Healing Memoir TeleWorkshop—Level One with Linda Joy Myers, Ph.D.
8-Week Workshop
Price: $295. Credit Cards Accepted. QUICK REGISTER
Writing a memoir is a powerful process of self-identity, healing, and integration. In this course (taught by a therapist who uses writing to heal), you will learn how to write a memoir that helps to heal, as well as create a meaningful story.
In this class, you will explore ways that writing helps to heal and how to take care of yourself as you create your stories. We will talk about the roles in the family that challenge the memoir writer; explore the "I" narrator and the "I" character; learn about emotional themes; discuss "what is truth"; write scenes that show more than tell in several turning point stories, and understand how to cope with both inner and outer critics. The class is designed for beginning and intermediate writers. Learn more
Make Your Stories Sparkle TeleClass
Sharon M. Lippincott
4-Week Class
Time to be decided after enrollment
Weekly meetings on the phone.
Workshop runs from January 31 – February 21, 2009
Price: $150. Credit Cards Accepted. QUICK REGISTER
Nothing adds life and sparkle to your writing like lyrical descriptions and shimmering images. Well-crafted description makes a story come alive, and gives readers the sense that they were there with you as events unfolded. Whether you write a full-length memoir or a simple collection of personal essays and vignette stories, careful attention to descriptive details can make the difference between a ho-hum story and one readers will want to pass along.
In this class you will experiment with activities to expand awareness of your surroundings, help you view ordinary objects and events in fresh ways, and access your "write brain". Short readings will fire your imagination, and writing exercises will help you discover metaphors, similes, and descriptions that flow through a reader’s mind like silken ribbons. You’ll learn to go beyond simple labels for adding description and discover new techniques for overcoming writer’s block.
Your experience in this class will change more than your writing. By the time you finish, you’ll find yourself looking at the world in new ways, seeking precise and imaginative words to describe the color and texture of a wall, the fragrance of a bar of soap, or the oddities of your aunt’s earlobe. Learn more
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.
- Lily Endlich
Berkeley Classes
Winter 2009
Thursday Bi-Weekly Women’s Memoir Circle—Berkeley, CA
January 15 - April 9 | $340
Register here.
Women of all ages meet to write and talk about the different stages in women’s lives—childhood memories, careers, love and family, and spiritual quests. The writers use poetry and prose to capture memories and to explore the richness of their lives, dipping into memories, stimulated by each other’s remembrances. We write about important turning points–the lighter, humorous moments along with the dark nights of the soul. There is laughter and a few tears, and most of all the witnessing of our stories, an important component of healing and moving into the future.
You will learn how to explore your memories, choose scenes to write, how to use fictional tools, and tips to keep the inner critic at bay. We write during class, and share our work in a supportive atmosphere
Write to Linda at linda@memoriesandmemoirs.com for more information.
A teleseminar about Contests
At the National Association of Memoir Writers in January:
Getting Noticed: Contest Entries & First Impressions to Build Your Platform by B. Lynn Goodwin
Please join us on JANUARY 15, 2009, 11am to 12pm PST, for a teleseminar with B. Lynn Goodwin. The NAMW teleseminars are offered free for NAMW members. If you wish to become a member of the NAMW, please click here.
We all know that it takes a lot of work and many stages of preparation to be ready for agents and publishers. One way to develop your “platform”—the body of work and brand you create as an author—is to enter contests and to submit your work to literary journals both online and in print. The more you are published and have a writer’s resume, the more likely an agent or publisher will consider you.
As a judge for many contests, including contests from her own site, B. Lynn Goodwin has expertise in knowing when a work is ready to be published, and offers tips and suggestions for how you can get ready to showcase your memoir and get that book contract! Learn More
Contests and Publications
Entering contests is a good way to push your writing skills and hone your work. There are literally hundreds of venues where you can enter your work. Use Google to surf the web for sites that are looking for publications and lists of contests.
Other resources for upcoming contests are in Poets and Writers www.poetsandwriters.com and Writers Digest www.writersdigest.com
San Francisco Writers Conference contest
The SFWC Writing Contest—sponsored by the San Francisco Writers Conference.
Go to www.sfwriters.org for contest and conference info. You do not have to attend the conference to enter the contest.
Being witnessed to by all the group as I read my stories is one of the most powerful writing methods I've ever known. Linda knows how to provide a writing atmosphere that nurtures each one in the group. Non-competitive, only support and non-judgmental acceptance flows.
-- Allene Hickox
