Making Meaning of Your Memories

One of the most common and paralyzing obstacles for memoir writers is telling stories that expose family secrets. The fear of being ostracized—or worse, excluded—from your family for disclosing long-held family secrets can cause you to get stuck in your writing.

If you're wrestling with how to writ...

When I moved to the city to start a new life after my divorce, I splurged and bought myself a special writing desk. It has the look of an old drafting table with a matching swivel stool. Both the desk and the stool can crank up and down depending on what height I want to position myself at or if I w...

Writing prompts are a great way to get your creative juices flowing when you sit down to do your daily writing. They provide a focal point to quickly generate stories.

For memoir writers, writing prompts can help stir up new stories when it feels like your memory well has run dry. They can be a gre...

Everyone has a story to tell. A slice of life to share hard-won wisdom, transformation, trauma, redemption, or laugh-out-loud hilarious moments. How many times have you thought, I should write my life story. Only to follow with, The End.

Thinking you’ve got a story to tell and actually sitting down...

I spent many years working as an editor and writer for a Christian magazine publishing company. A big part of my job entailed reading article submissions and advance copies of books by Christian authors. Many of these works were well-intended memoir-type pieces in which the writer would share their ...

Everyone who embarks on a journey to write their memoir inevitably hits a wall. You have a dream of telling a slice of your life story, but you meet resistance—a too-full calendar, kids who need your full-time attention, a day-job that saps your energy and leaves you too tired to write your tale. We...