#AmWriting

But wait, isn’t a memoir a book about my life? What do you mean, I need an idea?

We mean, you need an idea. Because your whole life is… really not book material. But one thematic chunk of it? One recurring event, one series of catastrophes, one relationship, one moment that changed everything?

Now you’re talking—and so are we, to the amazing Rachael Herron, host of the How Do You Write Podcast, author of Fast Draft Your Memoir and leader of a recurring, very hard to get into multi-week class of the same name. We talk about what does and doesn’t serve as memoir material and how to get from a vague glimmer of an idea to something that will carry you (and your reader) through chapter after chapter, and we quote a line from Cami Osmond: In memoir there’s the what and the so what.

Go where the sparkle is.

A few assorted links from the pod:

The Art of the Book Proposal, Eric Maisel

Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert

Broken, Furiously Happy, Jenny Lawson

The Art of Memoir, Mary Karr

Devotion, Inheritance, Hourglass, Slow Motion, Dani Shapiro

Bittersweet, Susan Cain

I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy

When Women Were Birds, Terry Tempest Williams

A Life in Stitches, Rachael Herron

I Miss You When I Blink, Bomb Shelter (Memoirs in Essays), Mary Laura Philpott

Essays that start light, then hit hard: Episode 312 with Mary Laura Philpott

Still Writing, Dani Shapiro

The Shepherd’s Life, James Rebanks

Good news for memoir writers! Y’all probably know how much I love Jennie Nash’s Blueprint books. They really are the closest thing I’ve found to a guide for getting through draft after draft. I start with them, and I go back to them when I’m stuck. The Blueprints keep me on track and help me write the book I set out to write for the readers I hope to reach.

Her newest, Blueprint for a Memoir: How to Write a Memoir for the Marketplace Is coming August 1, 2023. If you’re seeing this in July 2023, there’s a fantastic event available only to those who pre-order: a live—or recorded—deep dive into the four key steps of memoir writing, with a chance for Jennie Nash to select you for a live Hot Seat coaching session to review your work and an entry to win the Grand Prize: a written review of your Blueprint and an exclusive 50-minute strategy session with Jennie.

I think this Blueprint is Jennie’s best yet, with insights into story-telling that I’ll be using in all my work. Find all the details for the book and the pre-order event at bookcoaches.com/podcasts.

Hey you! Are you following Jess on TikTok?

This is the third in our 2023 Summer Idea Factory series. Jennie Nash is back, and this time, she and I are talking about the process of testing out ideas, talking through them, and spending enough time with them to figure out if they’ll sustain you through an entire book—and if you want them to.

Good news for memoir writers! Y’all probably know how much I love Jennie Nash’s Blueprint books. They really are the closest thing I’ve found to a guide for getting through draft after draft. I start with them, and I go back to them when I’m stuck. The Blueprints keep me on track and help me write the book I set out to write for the readers I hope to reach.

Her newest, Blueprint for a Memoir: How to Write a Memoir for the Marketplace Is coming August 1, 2023. If you’re seeing this in July 2023, there’s a fantastic event available only to those who pre-order: a live—or recorded—deep dive into the four key steps of memoir writing, with a chance for Jennie Nash to select you for a live Hot Seat coaching session to review your work and an entry to win the Grand Prize: a written review of your Blueprint and an exclusive 50-minute strategy session with Jennie.

I think this Blueprint is Jennie’s best yet, with insights into story-telling that I’ll be using in all my work. Find all the details for the book and the pre-order event at bookcoaches.com/podcasts.

Are you on TikTik? Check out Sarina’s feed for plenty of examples of great book promotion fun!

THIS IS MY FAVORITE THING EVER. Jennie Nash and I (KJ here) are talking ideas this summer: getting them, keeping them, taking them from baby spark idea to big-enough-to-hold-a draft idea. In this episode, I lay out my favorite technique for forcing myself to do two things: thing of something beyond the single spark I’m attached to at any given moment and take all of the sparks I can generate and push them harder until they get to a point where they might just stand on their own.

I hope you like it as much as I do. If you play the airport game, I’d love to hear about it! Just reply to this email and tell me how it went.

Good news for memoir writers! Y’all probably know how much I love Jennie Nash’s Blueprint books. They really are the closest thing I’ve found to a guide for getting through draft after draft. I start with them, and I go back to them when I’m stuck. The Blueprints keep me on track and help me write the book I set out to write for the readers I hope to reach.

Her newest, Blueprint for a Memoir: How to Write a Memoir for the Marketplace Is coming August 1, 2023. If you’re seeing this in July 2023, there’s a fantastic event available only to those who pre-order: a live—or recorded—deep dive into the four key steps of memoir writing, with a chance for Jennie Nash to select you for a live Hot Seat coaching session to review your work and an entry to win the Grand Prize: a written review of your Blueprint and an exclusive 50-minute strategy session with Jennie.

I think this Blueprint is Jennie’s best yet, with insights into story-telling that I’ll be using in all my work. Find all the details for the book and the pre-order event at bookcoaches.com/podcasts.

If you’re big on scrolling Instagram, why not give Jess a follow? Warning: addictive puppy pics ahead!

Writers, I have IDEAS. Usually a lot of them. 99% of them go nowhere. You can feel me bubbling over with ideas in every episode and even in the title of many episodes. There is so much I always want to say.

Like me, Jennie Nash is an idea cannon. So between us, we come up with a lot of plans. This is all to say that first: this episode, and the 7 “Idea Factory” episodes that follow, are the result of one such idea. At the beginning of this year, I (It’s KJ here) was deciding on what to do for what I hope will be my fourth novel, and Jennie and I got to talking, as we often do, about the difference between a “spark” and an actual, full on IDEA.

In this episode, we talk about what makes a full idea and why it’s so fantastic, in memoir, fiction and non-fiction, to have that idea in hand before you start writing a book—or why, when you hit a wall in drafting, the answer often involves going back and figuring out what that idea was in the first place.

It’s the first of 8 Idea Factory Episodes that will take us through my process for coming up with ideas, kicking their tires, and letting them evolve in fiction as well as involve sitting down with guests to talk more in depth about non-fiction and memoir ideas (because yes, you need an “idea” even for a book that’s based on your own life.

Every time I sit down to write, I wish it were easier. One of my most common thoughts is that I wish there were an instruction book. I was a gold star student back in the day. Just tell me how many words to write and about what, teach! I’m on it.

Sadly writing doesn’t work that way—but Jennie Nash’s books, Blueprint for a Book and Blueprint for Nonfiction, really are the closest thing I’ve found to a guide for getting through draft after draft. I start with them, and I go back to them when I’m stuck. The Blueprints keep me on track and help me write the book I set out to write for the readers I hope to reach. They give me tools to figure out the answers to questions that I’ve been known to avoid, like “why now” and “why does the reader care”.

But even more than that, the Blueprints serve as a reminder that while writing a book is hard, it’s do-able. It’s not magic, and there’s no muse. There’s just going at it, again and again, until you get it done. Blueprint for a Book and Blueprint for Nonfiction are available on Amazon and you can pre-order her newest: Blueprint for a Memoir: How to Write a Memoir for the Marketplace—coming August 1. Pre-order that one, and there’s a super cool bonus.

Pssst: if you love #AmWriting, kick in some $$ to support us and get bonuses and appreciation. Lots of appreciation!

I did a call with a writer this week who really is just getting started, with a few short stories finished and dreams of the future, and after we talked at probably unnecessary length about the fundamental truth that writing is hard and you have to actually DO it, not just think about it and plan for it, so annoying, she asked me how I start a new project*.

This episode is my answer, pretty much—because I’ve just done exactly that. My first outline document for the book I’m working on is dated 2/15; I opened a scrivener doc in March, there were 3 chapters in early April and I’m heading to the finish line on the first draft as I write (which would be quite fast for me so please do note that it’s a very very very first draft).

So I have just started. Here’s how.

And here are links to last year’s Blueprint for a Book series, in which Jennie Nash and I talked about all the stages of starting all the things:

Find Your Why: Blueprint for a Book Step 1

What's Your Point? Blueprint for a Book Step 2

Who Will Read My Book? Know Your Market: Blueprint for a Book Step 3

Your Jacket Copy is Your Promise to the Reader: Blueprint for a Book Step 4

There Must Be Change: Blueprint for a Book Step 5

What's the Structure of Your Narrative? Blueprint for a Book Step 6

How to Drive that Narrative Forward: Blueprint for a Book Step 7

One Outline to Rule Them All (Even if You Hate Outlining): Blueprint for a Book Step 8

But Does this Book Work? Blueprint for a Book Step 9

How to Go From Planning a Book to Writing One: Blueprint for a Book Step 10

And—starting next week—a whole summer series on getting the IDEA, refining it, testing it, poking it and revising it. You’re gonna love it.

*And then she asked how to get an agent because… we are who we are, and everyone asks that!

LINKS

The Idea: The Seven Elements of a Viable Story for Screen, Stage or Fiction, Erik Bork

Save the Cat Writes a Novel, Jessica Brody

Blueprint for a Book, Jennie Nash

#AmWriting Prewriting Episode 178 #WriteFaster

Rachael Herron’s How Do You Write Podcast episode 376 with David Ellis

If you love a good writing retreat—especially one that comes with good solid coaching and the chance to meet others who are working on similar projects—here’s one to check out. This fall, three Author Accelerator certified book coaches are offering Mainely Memoir, a retreat for women writers in historic Biddeford, Maine, held over three days in the gorgeous Maine woods in September, with one-on-one coaching both before and after the retreat. It’s the perfect opportunity to give yourself the gift of time and focus so that you can make real progress on your memoir this year. Find out more at www.mainelymemoir.com

Do you get KJ’s Box of Chocolates email—for erratic doses of books and enthusiasms? If not, what are you waiting for?

Two years ago, Jennie Nash and I (this is KJ) got into a debate about what was the best, most helpful book for a writer’s bookshelf. Almost instantly we realized that we couldn’t choose just one (although if we could, I suspect it’s Save the Cat Writes a Novel for me and Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit for Jennie, but even as I write that I’m having second thoughts in favor of Big Magic but I’m just SO ANNOYED with her right now because of the whole take-back-my-book thing) and, yeah.

Anyway. It’s summer reading time, and to my summer reading list I’ve added a few books about writing, starting with Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act: A Way of Being and, yes. Twyla Tharp’s book (it’s taken me this long to get over my resistance but JENNIE IS ALWAYS RIGHT about these things) and adding, for a practical note, Save the Cat Strikes Back by Blake Snyder and The Trope Thesaurus from Jennifer Hilt. (Want my non-professional summer reading list? Subscribe to #AmReading.)

If you’re looking to add to your own professional summer reading, you can’t do better than going back to the series of summer episodes that Jennie and I recorded as a result of that first debate. They’re all listed and linked below, along with the books we discussed, and I’m putting the first of them (Episode 269) here—in which we debate, yes, Big Magic versus The Creative Habit.

Since then, Jennie’s published two Blueprint for a Book books: one each for fiction and nonfiction and, coming later this summer, memoir. They’re all EXCELLENT and highly recommended as well.

Working Bookshelf Episodes:

* Inspiration (Big Magic versus The Creative Habit)

* Plotting (Save the Cat Writes a Novel versus The Situation and the Story)

* Productivity (Productivity with Deep Work versus From 2K to 10K)

* Up Your Game (The Practice versus The Bestseller Code)

* When You're Stuck (The War of Art versus Dear Writer You Need to Quit)

* Getting Published (The Essential Guide to Getting Published versus 78 Reasons Why Your Book May Never Be Published and 14 Reasons Why It Just Might)

* Writing While White (The Anti Racist Writing Workshop, Craft in the Real World, Writing the Other)

* When You Don't Know Why You're Doing This (Start with Why versus How to Write an Autobiographical Novel)

* Writer Comfort Reads (Bird by Bird versus Making a Literary Life)

* Editing (Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative versus Blueprint for a Book)

If you love a good writing retreat—especially one that comes with good solid coaching and the chance to meet others who are working on similar projects—here’s one to check out. This fall, three Author Accelerator certified book coaches are offering Mainely Memoir, a retreat for women writers in historic Biddeford, Maine, held over three days in the gorgeous Maine woods in September, with one-on-one coaching both before and after the retreat. It’s the perfect opportunity to give yourself the gift of time and focus so that you can make real progress on your memoir this year. Find out more at www.mainelymemoir.com

Hey - are you following Sarina on Instagram? It’s a great place for romance goodness (and check out her (Surprise!) billboard at 34th and 7th Ave!).

The book is The Society of Shame and one of the many, many ways you can tell it’s satire is that it keeps making people who don’t get it mad. Satire is fiction, hopped up on humor and then amped up by all the things that seem like they couldn't quite happen and yet you know they might. (Another commonality of good satire? The most outrageous bits are often the ones that come straight from the headlines.

The author is Jane Roper, who is also the author of a memoir, Double Time: How I Survived–and Mostly Thrived–Through the First Three Years of Mothering Twins, another novel, Eden Lake, numerous personal essays and humor pieces, and a very eclectic Substack, Jane’s Calamity.

She MAY be the first graduate of the famous Iowa Writer’s Workshop to appear on the pod, and we talk about that, as well as the parenting memoir ghetto. But mostly we’re focused on satire—what it is, how it’s really playing with fire, and why it still needs heart.

A few other satires mentioned:

Dietland, Sarai Walker

The Startup Wife, Tahmima Anam

#AmReading

Jane: The One, Julia Argy

Daughters of Nantucket, Julie Gerstenblatt

KJ: Ms. Demeanor, Elinor Lipman

Find Jane on Instagram - @writerjaneroper

If you love a good writing retreat—especially one that comes with good solid coaching and the chance to meet others who are working on similar projects—here’s one to check out. This fall, three Author Accelerator certified book coaches are offering Mainely Memoir, a retreat for women writers in historic Biddeford, Maine, held over three days in the gorgeous Maine woods in September, with one-on-one coaching both before and after the retreat. It’s the perfect opportunity to give yourself the gift of time and focus so that you can make real progress on your memoir this year. Find out more at www.mainelymemoir.com

If you love #AmWriting, kick in some $$ to support us and get bonuses (and appreciation!).

Howdy from KJ’s office, where I’m trapped because outside these doors, an angry child lies in wait, ready to tell me all I’ve done wrong as a parent over lo these many years. Good thing I had Jess and Sarina to keep me company while we talk about marketing, selling, navigating the socials, blurbing and asking for blurbs and reading blurbs and oh, still writing the whole time.

Links from the pod:

The Flying Pig

The Chain, Adrian McKinty

On Good Authority, Anna David

The Eragon series, Christopher Paolini

Good As Gold, Sarina Bowen

Jess’s daily videos

I’m not linking the dumb lounge chair I’m sorry.

#AmReading

Jess: On Good Authority, Anna David

KJ: Yellowface, R.F. Kuang (The Plot, Who Is Maud Dixon, The Writing Retreat) (note—I wrote more about this in the #AmReading Substack HERE —link also below.)

Sarina: We All Want Impossible Things, Catherine Newman

Ghosts of the Orphanage, Christine Keneally

If you love a good writing retreat—especially one that comes with good solid coaching and the chance to meet others who are working on similar projects—here’s one to check out. This fall, three Author Accelerator certified book coaches are offering Mainely Memoir, a retreat for women writers in historic Biddeford, Maine, held over three days in the gorgeous Maine woods in September, with one-on-one coaching both before and after the retreat. It’s the perfect opportunity to give yourself the gift of time and focus so that you can make real progress on your memoir this year. Find out more at www.mainelymemoir.com

Hey! Hey you! Are you looking for more book recs? You are going to want to check out KJ’s Bookstagram and her many reasons why you want to pick up that book…

SO. Virginia’s Substack—here it is right here—which also features a podcast, went from 700 people to 4500 people to 28K subscribers. BEFORE her new book, Fat Talk, hit the NYT best-seller list. Wouldn’t you like to hear how?

We’ve got you covered. Replicating her success? Well, that’s never the way it works. But everything we learn helps.

Links from the pod: FAT TALK: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture@v_solesmith on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok

The Eating Instinct: Food Culture, Body Image, and Guilt in America

#AmReading

Virginia: Momfluenced, Sara Petersen

More Than You’ll Ever Know, Katie Gutierrez

How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water, Angie Cruz

KJ: Dear Committee Members, Julie Schumacher

If you love a good writing retreat—especially one that comes with good solid coaching and the chance to meet others who are working on similar projects—here’s one to check out. This fall, three Author Accelerator certified book coaches are offering Mainely Memoir, a retreat for women writers in historic Biddeford, Maine, held over three days in the gorgeous Maine woods in September, with one-on-one coaching both before and after the retreat. It’s the perfect opportunity to give yourself the gift of time and focus so that you can make real progress on your memoir this year. Find out more at www.mainelymemoir.com

Hey reader - have you followed Jess on TikTok yet? She publishes videos daily and might just be the resource you need.

How do I find a writing group and what if they’re mean?

That’s a question we get asked a lot, and we always encourage writers to reach out in our Facebook group or boldly throw it out there anywhere else online that you hang out and see what happens. You don’t even have to trade pages to be a writing group. You look for the kind of support and camaraderie you need.

But if you’ve ever thought of hying yourself off to your local version of Grub Street or our local spot for in-person writer-ness, The Writer’s Center to find your people—or possibly starting an in-person writer-connection-thing of your own, then you’ll want to listen to my conversation with Joni Cole, founder of said Writer’s Center and the author of Toxic Feedback: Helping Writers Survive and Thrive—which is just freshly out in a revised version, which is why we’re bringing this convo back to you now! This new version has half a dozen new chapters, plus new interviews with famous authors who share their own feedback stories--from the inspiring to the deranged. The new chapters cover issues such as:

-- how to overcome imposter syndrome; 

-- how to catch yourself when you're resisting feedback that you really need to hear; 

-- how to receive and offer feedback on particularly difficult or delicate story material;

-- and one whopper of a story on how to negotiate with your publisher when you absolutely hate their proposed cover of your book (See chapter entitled "Fifty Shades of Writing"). 

Joni is also the author of Good Naked, and the This Day series, which collects diary entries from women all across the United States on a single day, and the host of the podcast Author, Can I Ask You. Joni and I talk starting writing groups, running them, keeping it positive and making sure you don’t lose your own work in the process of helping others.

Links from the pod

Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft by Janet Burroway

The Place Between Breaths by An Na

#AmReading

Joni: Embassy Wife by Katie Crouch

American Dialogue by Joseph J. Ellis

Less by Andrew Sean Greer

Craft in the Real World by Matthew Salesses

(KJ and Jennie discussed Craft in the Real World in Episode 275: Writing While White (or otherwise part of the historically dominant paradigm))

KJ: Writing the Romantic Comedy by Billy Mernit

Find Joni: jonibcole.com

The Writer’s Center in White River Junction, VT

Are you itching for a career change but struggling to figure out that next chapter? By now, you’ve probably heard us talk about book coaching—how much we love being coached, and how much I loved my coach training.  Book coaches help writers bring their dreams to life through support, feedback, project management, and accountability at each step of the book writing and publishing process. Author Accelerator’s Book Coach Certification program teaches you the key editorial, project management, organizational, and people skills needed to launch your own thriving book coaching business. To find out if book coaching is the right career for you, Author Accelerator is launching a new 5-day challenge to help you envision your new chapter. In their $99 One-Page Book Coaching Business Plan, you’ll narrow down your business idea, your ideal client, your ideal service, and more. 

Enrollment opens May 15th and runs through the end of the month! Visit bookcoaches.com/podcasts and enter the code PODCAST at checkout to get 50-percent off the One-Page Book Coaching Business Plan Challenge. bookcoaches.com/podcasts 

Trying to find your TikTok Groove (or just looking for more happily-ever-afters for your TBR)? Make sure you check out Sarina’s TikTok

Psst: if you subscribe to the shownotes, you’ll get #AmWriting episodes straight to your inbox. Double points if you subscribe with $$.