The Power of Memoir: How to Write Your Healing Story
Author: Linda Joy Myers
Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Jossey-Bass (Jan. 26, 2010)
Synposis:
The Power of Memoir is a how-to book for both beginning and more experienced writers. With this book, memoir writing becomes more than just recording family history. With this book, readers can explore questions such as
• Why am I writing this book?
• How do I pinpoint what I want to write about?
• Who will this book affect?
• Should I publish this book?
Personal stories of Myers and her students are used to illustrate the “how-to” sections. The book also provides plenty of nuts and bolts information about publishing a memoir if that is the reader’s ultimate goal.
Review:
Although I’ve read several memoirs, I’ve never considered the idea of writing a memoir. Nothing against memoirs, it was more a comment on my view of my life history. Uneventful. After reading Myers’ book and doing a few of the exercises, memoir writing became much more appealing. She frames memoir writing, not something you do with an eye toward publication(although she does give helpful information if that’s your goal), but something a writer does for themselves first. As a way to explore and better understand your personality. So even though a memoir of my life probably wouldn’t convince someone walking into a local bookstore to plunk down $20, it would be interesting to me.
I think The Power of Memoir would appeal to many audiences, not just budding memoir writers. Writers interested in writing personal essays about their life, not a full-fledged book length memoir can find a road map in The Power of Memoir. It could also be eye-opening for someone with no interest in writing anything. Just reading the book and thinking about the questions she raises can make a reader think about their life and why they do the things they do. And couldn’t we all use a little personal insight?
Linda is on a WOW-Women on Writing Blog Tour and you can learn more about Linda, The Power of Memoir and enter to win a copy of her book at future stops.
Hi Jodi,
Your link about to “future stops,” doesn’t seem to point to Linda’s next stops. We’ve got a list on our site of Linda’s stops (she the president of NAMW) and I thought I would share it with you for ease of access.
It can be found here: http://tiny.cc/BBDwp
Thanks for the review!
Dear Staci,
If you scroll down a bit you can find the WOW Blog Tour calendar on the right hand side at http://www.wow-womenonwriting.com/blog.html. But everyone should check out the NANW link also since it includes other events Linda is participating in.