Writing Life Stories: How To Make Memories Into Memoirs, Ideas Into Essays And Life Into Literature

by Bill Roorbach

Overview

How to Make Memories into Memoirs, Ideas into Essays, and Life into Literature

From drawing a map of a remembered neighborhood to signing a form releasing yourself to take risks in your work, Roorbach offers innovative techniques that will trigger ideas for all writers.

Writing Life Stories is a classic text that appears on countless creative nonfiction and composition syllabi the world over. This updated 10th anniversary edition gives you the same friendly instruction and stimulating exercises along with updated information on current memoir writing trends, ethics, internet research, and even marketing ideas. You'll discover how to turn your untold life stories into vivid personal essays and riveting memoirs by learning to open up memory, access emotions, shape scenes from experience, develop characters, and research supporting details.

This guide will teach you to see your life more clearly and show you why real stories are often the best ones.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781582975276
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/01/2008
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.06(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.77(d)

About the Author

Bill Roorbach has published six books (both award-winning fiction and nonfiction) and makes appearances at colleges and conferences across the country. He holds the Williams H.P. Jenks Chair in Contemporary American Letters at the College of the Holy Cross, in Worcester, MA.

Table of Contents

Preface     1
Introduction     3
Getting Started     10
Memory     25
Scenemaking     44
Big Ideas     65
Characters and Character     87
Stage Presence     120
Finding the Facts     137
Metaphor and Meaning     158
Saying it Right     179
Building a Building     203
Getting Published     218
"Into Woods"   Bill Roorbach     239
"The Olive Jar"   Kristen Keckler     249
"On Apprenticeship"   Bill Roorbach     265
Suggested Readings in Creative Nonfiction     270
Index     292

Editorial Reviews

This is your life! Why not write it down? Author Bill Roorbach has come up with this guide to Writing Life Stories.

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