Giving Yourself Permission

Some memoir data can be volatile to the author, characters and situation making it hard to write. Releasing a manuscript to the public creates more tension. As time and space passes, start a new project.

My Lake Superior Writers memoir facilitator, Mara Hart, gave the group sample books to read to improve our skill. One of them, Writing & Selling Your Memoir, by Paula Balzer, has a chapter titled, ‘Controversy: Navigating the Difficult Waters of Memoir Writing.’ Blazer quotes from Joyce Maynard’s 'At Home in the World' memoir afterword, “(No) human being owes another human being her silence, at the expense of her ability to know and be her own true self.”

That, dear readers, gives memoir authors permission to break the silence. By the way, Maynard’s story focused on her life with J.D. Salinger. You may want to pick up a copy of Balzer’s book.