Words to Write by

Last episode we mapped all 12 steps of Christopher Volger's Hero's Journey (as presented in his book, The Writer's Journey) to J.R.R. Tolkien The Hobbit. As you can see from Renee's show notes, they lined up pretty well. But what about a story not written by a British scholar steeped in mythology and folklore? For this workshop, we put Kim's soon-to-be-published novel, Our Comeback Tour is Slaying Monsters, through the same analysis, to mixed success.

Remember, we have a Writers Process meetup every Tuesday. Check us out.

We've officially started our new book, Christopher Vogler's The Writer's Journey. And boy is there a lot in the first two chapters!

First (or first after Kim's rant) is an overview of the Hero's Journey, yes, dear listener, we cover all twelve steps. And as examples for those steps we turn to... The Hobbit (the OG book version, not the movie). After that, we move to archetypes, what they are and what they mean for your story. 

It's a very informative episode. Also, check out our show notes.

Remember, we have a Writers Process meetup every Tuesday. Check us out.

We're on the last chapter of Judith Barrington's book, Writing Your Memoir: practical advice on critique groups, plus the dos and don't of giving and getting feedback. It's practical and useful and everything thing we've come to expect from Barrington.  And before we close the book on memoir, we give our final takes on the book along with what chapters we think are mores useful.

And then .... something new.

Our new book is Christopher Volger's The Writer's Journey. Written back in the 90's this book brought the Hero's Journey mainstream for scriptwriters, and also, as the subtitle promises, for writers. Before we jump into the book proper, we take a moment to consider its introductions (there's two of them) and the promises they make. Get ready for the snark, but also an examination on the mythic structure plotting approach to your writing. 

Remember, we have a Writers Process meetup every Tuesday. Check us out.

Your memoir is about you (obviously) but it’s not just about you. In this episode we cover Judith Barrington’s chapter on how (and why) to bring events from the real world into your memoir. And in our writing exercise we try it out by remembering our own lives during a moment in history.

Then it’s on to the penultimate chapter in Writing the Memoir  where Barrington has some writer self-care advice. Who can disagree about self care? Well… 

Also in this episode Kim interviews a poet who left the Plain community about how she navigates revealing true details when writing about her experiences from that time.

Remember, we have a Writers Process meetup every Tuesday. Check us out.

For this week's workshop episode, Renee wrote about the brief time she spent as a child in Pacific Grove, CA, taking care to identify specific streets and locations as recommended by Judith Barrington in her book Writing the Memoir.  We discuss and analysis this technique to see how it can improve our memoir writing.

Remember, we have a Writers Process meetup every Tuesday. Check us out.

Writing (and publishing) a memoir can be nerve wracking. What if the people you’re writing about don’t like your portrayal of them? What if they hate it? What if they decide to sue?

In this episode we discuss the chapter (and appendix) that cover this memoirist’s fear in Judith Barrington’s book, Writing the Memoir — both from an emotional and legal perspective. We also talk about the importance of using place names in your memoir and practice the technique in our writing exercise.

And, check it out, we have a new intro (same music of course)!

Remember, we have a Writers Process meetup every Tuesday. Check us out.

Okay, maybe that's a bit of hyperbole, but not by much. In this stand alone episode we talk with Erik Klass, the entrepreneurial editor behind the submission service Submitit about what literary journals are looking for in short stories and creative non-fiction.  He also discusses how his company evaluates and chooses particular journals for their client's stories.

Remember, we have a Writers Process meetup every Tuesday. Check us out.

Last week we covered time in memoir, specifically how the writer can jump back and forth in time and the reader can follow along easily.  

In this episode, we identify signposts and time jumps in two short memoir pieces. One by one of Kim' s favorite science writers, Rebecca Skloot.

Remember, we have a Writers Process meetup every Tuesday. Check us out.

Memoirs are rarely straight chronological narratives, what with the musing we talked about last episode, and they almost always jump forwards and backwards in time. We discuss Judith Barrington take the mental Time Machine from her book Writing the Memoir, specifically the idea of the “Now” and how with a little signposting, readers can follow along. We also do a bit of grammar review (just a little) and how we use tenses in our own books.

Then it’s onto the nearly ubiquitous chapter that every writing craft book has on sensory detail. We cover the difference between concrete and abstract detail and the best practices for describing characters. 

This week’s exercise is some text analysis where we pick apart a short memoir timeline. Time to get our literature geek on.

Remember, we have a Writers Process meetup every Tuesday. Check us out.

We’ve gotten to the part of Judith Barrington’s Writing the Memoir  where she covers the actual writing of in a memoir, the words on the page. In addition to scenes, which we’ve covered in our fiction writing podcasts, Barrington says memoirs contain summaries and musings. In this episode, we discuss all three (with examples!) and talk about how they fit together. And if you’re still not clear about the musing, check out our writing exercise where Renee writes about an awful Great America experience, with and without musings.

Remember, we have a Writers Process meetup every Tuesday. Check us out.