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Let’s Talk Memoir host Ronit Plank joins the Writing Your Resilience Podcast to discuss writing about abandonment, the importance of understanding the context of your story, the challenges around writing about family, publishing with small presses and much more. 

Here are a few questions to ponder as you listen to this episode: Have you ever written about someone who's abandoned you? What kind of feedback did you get? Do you wonder how to do this without making them a monster or abandoning yourself? Ever wonder what it might be like to publish this work, or where you might publish it?

Ronit Plank’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories. She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and is working on her next book.

Episode Highlights:

8:00 Lessons on writing about abandonment

14:00 The power of context

20:30 The challenges of publishing stories about complex characters 

29:15: How to tell if your project is complete

35:01 Finding your story’s emotional truth 

40: Publishing with small presses 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Courtney Maum post on hiring a publicist. 

Hot Sheet Article on Books Being Sold by Word of Mouth

Ronit’s essay “How to Approach Family and Friends About Your Memoir

Ronit’s essay “I want to heal my son so badly”

Connect with Ronit:

Website: https://ronitplank.com

Instagram: @ronitplank

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Connect with your host, Lisa:

• Get Your Free Copy of Write More, Fret Less: https://lisacooperellison.com/newsletter-subscribe/ 
• Website:

Sign up for Revise Your Memoir series: https://bit.ly/4ooLTDi

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Get Your Free Copy of Ditch Your Inner Critic: https://lisacooperellison.com/subscribe/
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Laura Davis joins the Writing Your Resilience Podcast to discuss the healing power of writing, the difference between writing to heal and writing for a public audience, and  the challenges she faced while writing her memoir, The Burning Light of Two Stars.

Here are a few questions to ponder as you listen to this episode: What role has writing played in your life? If you have been writing for a while, which piece has healed you the most? Have you ever received feedback that something should be taken out of a piece of writing only to have a burning desire to keep it around? How do you know if a piece of writing is really ready to be published?

Laura Davis is the author of The Burning Light of Two Stars, The Courage to Heal, and five other groundbreaking books. In addition to writing books that inspire, the work of Laura’s heart is to teach. For more than twenty-five years, she’s helped people find their voices, tell their stories, and hone their craft. Laura has been published in Publisher's Weekly, Writer's Digest, CrimeReads, Brevity, and The New York Times, featured in Los Angeles Review of Books, and on QWERTY, Write-Minded, The Only One in the Room, and dozens of other podcasts. She's a featured speaker for The National Association of Memoir Writers and a popular teacher at The San Miguel Writers’ Conference and at Esalen in Big Sur. Learn about her workshops, classes and international retreats, and read the first five chapters of her memoir at www.lauradavis.net.

Episode Highlights 

• 8:25 Dealing with the emotional rigors of memoir writing
• 12:45: Writing to heal 
• 21:00 Writing for yourself versus an audience
• 34:45 Beginning your book 
• 46:50 Structuring your book and including primary sources 

Connect with Laura Davis:

Website: www.lauradavis.net 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurasaridavis

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewritersjourney

Free Ebook: Writing Toward Courage: A 30-Day Practice. Click here to receive this beautiful, thought-provoking creative gift. 

FEATURED RETREAT: Writing as a Pathway Through Grief, Uncertainty and Change - May 7-13 - Northern California.

THROUGH FEBRUARY 2024: Purchase The Burning Light of Two Stars for 70% off here. Insert the code BURNINGLIGHT70 when you get to the final step on the shopping cart.

Connect with your host, Lisa:

• Get Your Free Copy of Write More, Fret Less: https://lisacooperellison.com/newsletter-subscribe/ 
• Website: https://lisacooperellison.com/
• Instagram:

Sign up for Revise Your Memoir series: https://bit.ly/4ooLTDi

Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Ditch Your Inner Critic: https://lisacooperellison.com/subscribe/
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Zebib Abraham joins the Writing Your Resilience Podcast to discuss why she writes fiction, the relationship between writing and mental health, and tools writers can use to cultivate resilience, self-compassion, and radical acceptance of themselves and their work. 

Here are a few questions to ponder as you listen to this episode: Have you ever considered whether something should be written as fiction or nonfiction? Do you wonder which genre might be the most compassionate to you and allow you the freedom to explore your emotional truth? Do you know what self-compassion actually means and what it takes to cultivate it? 

Zebib K. Abraham (she/her) is a writer and psychiatrist. She is a graduate of Cornell medical school and completed a Master’s in Creative Writing with distinction from the University of Edinburgh. Zebib has been published in FANTASY Magazine, The Rumpus, The Chestnut Review, Podcastle, and Necessary Fiction, among others. She is a full member of the Science Fiction and Writers Association and has been a commissioned storyteller for the Scottish Storytelling Centre. Zebib publishes under the name Z. K. Abraham, and writes film criticism in addition to her work in fiction and creative nonfiction. She is represented by C. L. Geisler at ArtHouse Literary Agency.

Episode Highlights:

• 10:00: Choosing Fiction Versus Nonfiction 
• 20:30 Writing and Mental Health 
• 30:00 The Inner Work of Your Writing Life 
• 35:00 Understanding Radical Acceptance  
• 39:30  The Challenge of Oral Storytelling 
• 49:00 Tools for Being a Resilient Writer 

Resources mentioned during this episode: 

• Self-Compassion by Kristin Neff
• “How Can You Tell If You’re Starting Your Story in the Right Place?” by Susan DeFreitas: https://janefriedman.com/how-can-you-tell-if-youre-starting-your-story-in-the-right-place/
• “What Is Wise Mind” by Dr. Paul Green: https://www.manhattancbt.com/wise-mind-dbt/

Connect with Zebib:

• Twitter - https://twitter.com/pegasusunder1
• Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/pegasusunder.bsky.social
• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/pegasusunder
• Website: https://zkabraham.com/

Connect with your host, Lisa:

• Get Your Free Copy of Write More, Fret Less: https://lisacooperellison.com/newsletter-subscribe/
• Website: https://lisacooperellison.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisacooperellison/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UColPDzpoQlVktIv7-f7ObRg
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lisacooperellison/
• LinkedIn:

Sign up for Revise Your Memoir series: https://bit.ly/4ooLTDi

Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Ditch Your Inner Critic: https://lisacooperellison.com/subscribe/
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Melanie Brooks joins the Writing Your Resilience Podcast to speak about her book, A Hard Silence: One Daughter Remaps Family, Grief, and Faith When HIV/AIDS Changes It All. This is the book she once struggled to write about her father's death.  In today's episode, we'll explore the powerful impact silence has on you and how to break through it. 

Before we get to this conversation, I have a few questions for you. What role has silence played in your writing and in your life? Has it ever been helpful? Has it ever held you back? If you could learn one thing about it, what would that be? How could learning this help you become more resilient? 

Melanie Brooks is the author of A Hard Silence: One Daughter Remaps Family, Grief, and Faith When HIV/AIDS Changes It All (Vine Leaves Press, September 2023) and Writing Hard Stories: Celebrated Memoirists Who Shaped Art from Trauma (Beacon Press, 2017). She teaches professional writing at Northeastern University and creative nonfiction in the MFA program at Bay Path University in Massachusetts. She holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast writing program. She recently completed a Certificate of Narrative Medicine at Columbia University. Her work has appeared in Psychology Today, the HuffPost, Yankee Magazine, the Washington Post, Ms. Magazine, Creative Nonfiction, and other notable publications. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, two children (when they are home from college), and two Labs.

Episode Highlights

• 2:55: The pain of living with secrets
• 5:54: Navigating anticipatory grief 
• 15:45: The transformative power of finishing your story 
• 20:00 The magic of timing and the stories we tell ourselves 
• 26:00 The influence of narrative medicine on Melanie’s story
• 30:00 Marrying two stories into one 
• 37:00 Melanie’s best writing advice 

Connect with Melanie:

Website: melaniebrooks.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/melanie.brooks.1690

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melaniejmbrookswriter

X: https://twitter.com/MelanieJMBrooks

LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/melanie-brooks-504826121
Get Melanie’s book: https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-hard-silence-one-daughter-remaps-family-grief-and-faith-when-hiv-aids-changes-it-all-melanie-brooks/20151761?ean=9783988320209

Connect with your host, Lisa:

Get Your Free Copy of Write More, Fret Less: https://lisacooperellison.com/newsletter-subscribe/

Website: https://lisacooperellison.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisacooperellison/

Sign up for Revise Your Memoir series: https://bit.ly/4ooLTDi

Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Ditch Your Inner Critic: https://lisacooperellison.com/subscribe/
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Produced by Espresso Podcast Production

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TW: Mention of Suicide 

Get to know your host Lisa Cooper Ellison. Whether she was working to stay safe in an abusive home, running away from it, or navigating her brother’s suicide, Lisa has always turned to the page. She had no idea that losing everything while Battling Lyme disease would transform a hobby into an essential tool that helped her reignite her resilience and rewire her nervous system. 

Resilience has always played a huge role in Lisa’s life, and through this podcast she wants to help you learn how to become a resilient writer. She’ll help you do this by teaching you the concepts that can help you flourish, sharing stories from writers and mental health professionals who’ve done this work, and inviting you to flip the script on the stories that no longer serve you. 

This season on the podcast we're going to look at how silence, loneliness, self gaslighting, and trauma impact the stories we tell ourselves. You're going to learn how self-compassion, seeing the big picture, and claiming your neurodiversity can help you become more resilient and a better writer. 

Plus, we're going to look at how to navigate difficult research when you're working on a trauma-filled story, how to portray difficult characters, and how to care for yourself when you are writing the toughest of stories. 

Lisa Cooper Ellison is an author, speaker, and trauma-informed writing coach with an Ed.S in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. She has spent the last two decades helping clients and students turn difficult experiences into art, and the past seven specifically teaching people how to write their resilience. She currently teaches courses in memoir, the psychology of writing, and the book proposal. Her essays have appeared in Huffington Post, Hippocampus Literary Magazine, and Kenyon Review Online, among others. She’s represented by The Bindery and recently completed her memoir Please Stage Dive Carefully: How I Survived My Brother’s Suicide and Forgave Myself

Connect with your host, Lisa:

Get Your Free Copy of Write More, Fret Less: https://lisacooperellison.com/newsletter-subscribe/

Website: https://lisacooperellison.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisacooperellison/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UColPDzpoQlVktIv7-f7ObRg

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lisacooperellison/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/i

Sign up for Revise Your Memoir series: https://bit.ly/4ooLTDi

Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Ditch Your Inner Critic: https://lisacooperellison.com/subscribe/
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Produced by Espresso Podcast Production

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The Writing Your Resilience Podcast is for anyone who wants to use the writing process to flip the script on the stories they’ve been telling themselves, because when we tell better stories about ourselves, we live better lives. 

Every Thursday, host Lisa Cooper Ellison, an author, speaker, trauma-informed writing coach, and trauma survivor diagnosed with complex PTSD, interviews writers of tough, true stories, people who've developed incredible grit, and professionals in the field of psychology and healing who've studied resilience.

Over the past 7 years Lisa has taught writers how to write their resilience. Each time her clients and students have confronted the stories that no longer serve them, they’ve felt a little safer, become a little braver, and revealed more of their true selves. Now, with this podcast, she is creating a space for you to do this work too. 

Equal parts instruction, motivation, and helpful guide, Writing Your Resilience is an opportunity for you to join a community of writers and professionals doing the work that helps us cultivate our authenticity and creativity. 

More about Lisa Cooper Ellison: https://lisacooperellison.com

Sign Up For My Writing Your Resilience Newsletter and Get Your Free Copy of Write More, Fret Less: Five Brain Hacks that Will Supercharge Your Productivity, Creativity, and Confidence: https://lisacooperellison.com/newsletter-subscribe/

Sign up for Revise Your Memoir series: https://bit.ly/4ooLTDi

Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Ditch Your Inner Critic: https://lisacooperellison.com/subscribe/
Website | Instagram | YouTube | Facebook | LinkedIn

Produced by Espresso Podcast Production