“I do a lot of encouraging people to journal and to just write it out, sing it out, dance it out, whatever you need to do,” says Carolyn Holbrook, author of Tell Me Your Names and I Will Testify: Essays (University of Minnesota Press).
Continue reading “Episode 241: Carolyn Holbrook and the Indispensable Nature of Writing and Teaching”I don’t know about you, but I tend to have really productive Mondays.
I don’t check social media. I’m clearing tasks. From dawn to dusk I’m feeling good. I get my lifts in. I get my 15,000 steps. Check check check.
But then Tuesdays and Wednesdays tend to be a drag and I never feel good. In fact, I feel sluggish and don’t get much of anything done compared to Monday. Then the shame cycle kicks in and I can’t believe how little I’ve gotten done.
What’s the answer?
My guess is two things.
One, social media isn’t much worth the time. When I abstain, I feel better emotionally and I’m more productive and more energized.
Two, doing too much on one day leaves you “sore” for the next day or two. Probably better to spread the tasks over a few days and get more “workouts” in.
Similar to my riff on load management, maybe spreading the workload over more days instead going so hard on one will lead to greater gains over the course of a year.
Something to chew on. What do YOU think?
By Brendan O’Meara
But what do you mean? A memoir is defined by it being MY story. How can you possibly expect to take myself out of the memoir?
That’s a different question, but here’s what many of the best memoirs have in common: The “me” is a narrator, but the narrator is looking outward while telling her story.
For example, though it is a novel, The Great Gatsby is a perfect example of a memoir that focuses on a scene and a central figure beyond the narrator. A Christmas Story, though grounded in Ralphie’s boyhood takes moments to shine light on his father, his mother, his brother, his peers.
Sarah Einstein’s Mot looks more outward than inward.
Certain navel-gazing memoirs, or memoirs that are so grounded in the interiority of the writer, have become famous and this sets up many writers to think that in order to write memoir, it must be about them at all costs. Me. Me. Me.
In the end, a reader doesn’t care about you. She cares about you as the conduit onto which she can overlay her own experience. If you’ve done your job, you dissolve away and the truth of your story sweeps the reader into her own.
That’s taking the me out of memoir.
By Brendan O’Meara
David Duchovny, the author, actor, musician, recently said about himself when he was young, “I had a way with words with nothing to say.”
There are any number of people who can write a nice sentence, maybe even in the MFA programs where they think beauty or lyricism can carry the day.
Fact is, if you don’t live a life on which to make art, you won’t have anything to say.
And you don’t need trauma in your life to have something to say. Someone recently told me that they were writing an essay and they said it wasn’t going to be personal since there wasn’t any trauma in the piece.
I resisted saying that a piece does not have to be traumatic to be a personal story. In fact, I appreciate the skill it takes to make something seemingly innocuous into a compelling story.
That isn’t to devalue the trauma, but you don’t need to trauma to make things interesting.
The technique will come. All you need is to live a life worth writing about.
Scott Eden returns to the show to talk about his incredible and ambitious piece for The Atavist titled “The Guilded Age.”
This extra interview in your feed is part of a new partnership with The Atavist where I interview that month’s featured writer about that month’s story to provide readers and listeners some extra depth to the experience.
In this very first one with The Atavist, Scott talks about:
I hope you dig this extra bit of goodness. If you’re new to The Creative Nonfiction Podcast, it’s the show where I speak to badass people about the art and craft of telling true stories. Subscribe wherever you podcast!
If you want to support the show, the audio magazine we produce and help keep the lights on at HQ, consider becoming a member at patreon.com/cnfpod.
We put out a great monthly newsletter with book recommendations, cool blogs and articles, podcast news, and an exclusive invite to a monthly CNFin’ Happy Hour. Once a month. No spam. Can’t beat it!
So excited to have the one and only Alexandra DiPalma back on the show to talk all things podcasting.
She leads the Podcast Workshop, a part of Akimbo Workshops, and in it you’ll learn what it means to find your voice and develop skills that will translate to other areas of your life and career.
If you follow this link ===> THIS ONE <=== you’ll get pretty slick discount. I’m not sure when it expires, but check it out.
Continue reading “Episode 239: Alexandra DiPalma Leads the Podcast Workshop”It seems our devices don’t want us to shut them down. Without us, who are these objects?
The same might be said for you when you’re even tempting to shut it down (but do you ever really?). If you want to take that nap, take that vacation, god forbid work less than an arbitrary eight-hour day, isn’t there some part of your psyche that says, “Are you sure you want to shut down your computer now?”
Guilty, you work more. Guilty, you burn more fuel. Guilty, you drink more coffee because in order to “make it,” you’ve been told you must work until you can no longer keep your eyes open. Anything less and you’re lazy.
Tell yourself whatever story you need to tell yourself to accomplish your dreams, but understand that these machines operate better when you give them rest. The same can be said for you.
You wouldn’t call your computer lazy if you shut it down every night, would you?
Ashkan Soltani Stone and Natale Zappia (@natzappia) wrote a killer little book based on a killer documentary called Rez Metal: Inside the Navajo Nation Heavy Metal Scene (University of Nebraska Press).
I mean, you know I was into this, right, CNFers?
Continue reading “Episode 238: Ashkan Soltani Stone and Natale Zappia Rock Out with ‘Rez Metal’”As we keep unpacking great writing lessons from “The Queen’s Gambit,” let’s take a look at subtlety.
“The Queen’s Gambit” never hits you over the head with signals and symbols. Early on, her prized dress with her name Beth sewn into it was burned at the orphanage. She identified with that piece of clothing. It’s no wonder she grows up to love clothes and to identify with fashion. It was taken from her and she sought to take it back.
Continue reading “Lessons from ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ Part 3”Halfway through The Queen’s Gambit, Benny Watts, the top U.S. chess player with swagger, confidence, and sharp wit, asked Beth why the Soviets were so dominant.
Continue reading “Lessons from ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ Part 2”