Did you update your Life Story Writing Blog today?

jerrywaxler · Mar 15, 2008

Blogs are a neat way to share bits of life, memories, and to develop material for a full blown memoir. But even though blogs are available to the world, it's not always easy to know how to find what our fellow writers are posting. So I thought it would be a valuable service to each other if we listed our latest blog entries about Life Story Writing here on this thread.

If you have a blog entry about your life, or about life story writing in general, please reply to this thread and tell us about it.

My blog already contains a year's worth of essays, interviews and book reviews. The blog entry I posted this week was the second part of an interview I did with Bill Strickland, the author of a powerful memoir "Ten Points."

Here's the permalink:

I'm looking forward to swapping tales of life story blogging here.

Best wishes,
Jerry Waxler

Ritergal · Mar 16, 2008

The topic of Life Story blogs was the focus of a panel discussion at the recent national Story Circle Network conference in Austin. I was delighted to be asked to sit on the panel to discuss my blog, which is different from the others. Mine is full of tips, thoughts about writing, and prompts, with some of my own story thrown in. The others are what I'd call Journal Blogs, with entries about comings, going, and the doings of daily life.

The life story blogs I most enjoy reading are the ones with essay type narratives about life in general, not just annotated calendars.

Then there are the totally cool life story blogs like Jerry's which has helpful information and awesome book reviews and author interviews. Any author who happens to catch Jerry's fancy is fortunate indeed.

jerrywaxler · Mar 18, 2008

I hope lots of people will mention the subject of their post

Thanks, Sharon. I love your blog about memoir writing. Since people come to this forum to learn about lifestory writing, I thought it would be great if any lifestory blog writer would leave a link here to let us know not only about the blog in general, but also to give a sentence or two synopsis for every new post to help readers of this forum decide if they want to click through and check it out.

So for example, my post today was a book review about John Robison's memoir "Look me in the eye." Well, it's not exactly a book review, but more a discussion of what an aspiring memoir writing can learn from his book about writing their own. Here's the permalink.

Jerry

jerrywaxler · Mar 26, 2008

How can I turn life turn into a story?

While John Robison's life has several unusual features, he is also stuck with the same fact we all are. Life goes by in its petty pace, and finding the story requires some introspective work and creative shaping. In my blog entry today I look at Robison's memoir as a model to help me understand how to transform life into story.

(Yes, it's my second essay about John Robison's memoir "Look me in the Eye."

Jerry

Newport2Newport · Mar 26, 2008

jerrywaxler said:
If you have a blog entry about your life, or about life story writing in general, please reply to this thread and tell us about it.

Jerry Waxler

Great idea! I'm looking forward to reading other people's comments on this thread.

I blog about my current interests as much as I do about my past. When I post something about my memoir project*, I try to relate it to something current. For instance, I wrote this entry right before Easter:

http://newport2newport.livejournal.com/116335.html?mode=reply

*CAN I GET A WITNESS: Memoir of a Tent Revivalist's Daughter

Antony B · Mar 26, 2008

I personally write crime fiction, but I use my blog to draw cartoons about the writing life here.

I recently posted a three part comic about the desire to give up writing.

Part One
Part Two
Part Three

Leah J. Utas · Mar 26, 2008

My Gratitude Monday post was about a very patient dog we had when I was young. with pics. My Friday posts are about growing up with a violent, insane sister and will be in my memoir.

slsherwood · Mar 27, 2008

Fat Man's Daughter

I blogged today about talking about weight with my children who aren't fat as well as a memoir/help book I'm reading about the issue.

My blog tends to be about my memoir, my own weight loss, and about memoir writing in general.

The link is www.fatmansdaughter.com

I do have the first chapter of the memoir on the blog (a page titled "on the brink"). What do all of you think about that? Should I take it down? Leave it up? Shorten it?

jerrywaxler · Apr 8, 2008

Reading is part of my life

To figure out who my audience is, it turns out I need to understand the relationship between books and readers. I know a lot about that since I've been reading my whole life. In this blog, I tease apart the layers of which books I read at different periods of my life, and why.

Jerry

jerrywaxler · Apr 16, 2008

Sensitive to both genders in memoir

I date myself, remembering back to a time when most books were by men, or at least the ones that came my way. As I develop my insights into how to reach an audience, I am learning that writers now have a different approach to gender than they did when I was young. Today I posted an essay on this topic, titled "Keep your memoir in touch with changing gender roles."

(It took me several months to write including 2 rounds of critiquing, so hopefully it's sensitive and fair.)

Jerry

michelle25 · Apr 18, 2008

Hi Jerry, just thought I'd pop in here 'cause I recently started reading your blog. Tomorrow I'm going to the library to check out that book by Jancee Dunn that you mentioned. I look forward to your future posts

jerrywaxler · Apr 19, 2008

Thanks for stopping by

michelle25 said:
Hi Jerry, just thought I'd pop in here 'cause I recently started reading your blog. Tomorrow I'm going to the library to check out that book by Jancee Dunn that you mentioned. I look forward to your future posts

Hi Michelle,

Thanks for stopping by my blog. But enough about me.

I started this thread hoping everyone would jump in. It's a way for AbsoluteWrite life story writers to share their wares.

Jerry

jerrywaxler · Apr 30, 2008

Documentary movie, revisiting the past to heal

A few months ago I wrote about how the movie Pursuit of Happyness helped Chris Gardner revise his feelings about the past. In today's essay, I look at the way a documentary movie has a similar effect on its participants

The movie was created by a non-profit company, Kartemquin Films, (you may be familiar with their famous documentary Hoop Dreams about inner city kids playing basketball). The film I wrote about today "Long Time Coming" followed Vietnam vets on a bike ride from Hanoi to Saigon.
Jerry

jerrywaxler · May 6, 2008

Essay about memoir "Here if you need me"

I published an essay based on the memoir "Here If You Need Me" by Kate Braestrup, a book that starts with her loss and then moves on to how she recovers. Since she became a minister and worked with the Maine State Game Wardens, she uses nature as a picturesque backdrop for her stories. It's a lovely book.

I've run into a dry spell on comments - so if you have anything to add, I would appreciate it.

Jerry

jerrywaxler · May 13, 2008

How to use an intense memory in my memoir

When I was a kid, a big cop jumped out from between two cars and demanded we let him in. He wanted my dad to help him chase a crook. In today's essay I explore how to use such an anecdote in a memoir. It includes writing prompts if you want to try it yourself.

Jerry

jerrywaxler · May 16, 2008

Three finds at the bookstore for memoir writers

I posted another blog this week about things I learned at the bookstore that can help memoir writers. Those brick and mortar buildings still have a few benefits, like for example learning about the book business, and learning what other memoir writers are doing.

Jerry

jerrywaxler · May 21, 2008

Four books about lives that went astray

As I look back through the story of my life, one of the most remarkable features is the utter failure to achieve my original goals. This doesn't sound story-worthy so I go back to the books to find other lives that following strange courses, especially while coming of age. In today's essay I give an overview of four such books.

Jerry

Leah J. Utas · May 23, 2008

Today's Friday's Child post was about my mentally ill sister being a bully and coward.

jerrywaxler · Jun 5, 2008

extreme pain in memoirs, and how to write about it

In today's essay, I write about a Vietnam veteran's story, Jim McGarrah's Temporary Sort of Peace. To help me steer through his painful experience, I find deeper lessons in war trauma, thanks to a book on that subject, Achilles in Vietnam by Jonathan Shay. Hopefully the two parts of this essay will inform any memoir writer who is trying to understand the benefit of digging back into painful times to share the story with readers.

Jerry

Lavinia · Jun 16, 2008

Hi Jerry- Just found this thread. Great idea. Today's post on my Write Now blog is about a particular food that evokes memories for me. It involves cheese and taco flavored Doritos. ~Karen

jerrywaxler · Jun 17, 2008

Welcome to my little 'did you blog" thread!

How cool, Lavinia, that you have jumped in to share your life story posts. I love Absolute Write - I wish there was a little more action in the Life Writing section, so I thought this would be a good excuse for people to stop in, share their stuff, and maybe stick around and offer thoughts and questions about life writing.

Oh, an my latest blog entry is about how I learned about the importance of hair from memoir writer, Henry Louis Gates.

Best wishes,
Jerry

BBShopMom · Jun 18, 2008

I just found this thread as well. Thanks to Jerry for a great thread! Hopefully it will get a little more traffic in the Life Writing forum.

My blog is your basic combo of life stories and day to day stuff. Stuff about my kids and general things that happen in my life with some occasional opinion pieces thrown in here and there.

Can't wait to check out your blog Jerry . . I'm very interested in learning more about memoir writing. Second to general history stuff . . it is my favorite genre to read.

jerrywaxler · Jun 18, 2008

Love your blog, great title

Hi Bbshopmom,

I checked out your blog. I love it, and feel drawn by the title, "Vocabulary of my Life" - that evokes a lot of neat emotions. As for loving memoir and history, I think memoir IS history. I'm writing an essay about how a memoir ties in with the world. (I think it's the next one I'm going to post.)

Also, by writing stories about your life today, you're developing material for your memoir tomorrow. This is the weird thing about growing older - I start to see the way things develop over time.

By the way, you have a broken RSS link at the bottom of your right hand widgets. I see you are using Wordpress, and I just experienced this EXACT problem last week. Send me a message offline and I'll explain what happened and how to fix it.

Jerry

jerrywaxler · Jun 19, 2008

Memoirs are also related to society

I love picking apart memoirs to lessons about what the author's life can teach me about mine. After finishing the memoir "Colored People" by scholar and television documentarian Henry Louis Gates, I realized how powerful it can be to consciously include social influences in with private ones.

Jerry

Lavinia · Jun 24, 2008

Hi BBShopMom- I'll go visit your blog later. Mine is a combination of several things as well. I include information on everything from writing down your family history to my current experience with sending out queries. Of course any successes I experience gets a special post too! I am both a freelance writer and have written books (yet unpublished). Yesterday's post is about the critiques I received from a literary contest I entered. No, I didn't win. But the confusing part is that the critiques were so positive.

I found out something about this contest earlier today and will post about it later. Dang. Who knew I was competing with pros? Not me!

Anyway- Yeah, Jerry, it's too bad this thread is sooo far down. I think it's that more than anything. Plus the "nonfiction" thread snags people and divides it up too. AW is just such a huge place. ~Karen

Did you update your Life Story Writing Blog today?

jerrywaxler

Ritergal

jerrywaxler

jerrywaxler

Newport2Newport

Antony B

Born to lurk

Leah J. Utas

Protecting Teddy with all my might.

slsherwood

jerrywaxler

jerrywaxler

michelle25

jerrywaxler

jerrywaxler

jerrywaxler

jerrywaxler

jerrywaxler

jerrywaxler

Leah J. Utas

Protecting Teddy with all my might.

jerrywaxler

Lavinia

jerrywaxler

BBShopMom

jerrywaxler

jerrywaxler

Lavinia