Telling Herstories: The Broad View

Gardening for Lifestory Writing Prompts

I love this time of year!   Birds are chirping, bees are buzzing, butterflies are flitting and trees and gardens everywhere are bursting with color.  After a long winter, the sights and sounds of Spring can be absolutely breathtaking. 

When you head out the door each day do you stop and take notice of the sights, sounds, colors and contrasts that are before you?  I hope so!  I also hope that you can try to find a few moments each day to linger in the beauty that is Mother Nature in Springtime. 

While taking a daily walk, I spotted a flower bed that reminded me of the one that graced my childhood home.  By the time I got home, my mind was on a bit of time-travel where I was a child again and my home's garden was the destination.  It's amazing what spotting a bed of daffodils, crocuses and tulips can do for the spirit! 

What's even more amazing is the flood of memories that come cascading as I take in the beauty of the garden in front of me and the images of the gardens of my lifetime.  There are so many stories that can be told once those gardens blossom in my memory:  times spent with my grandfather in his rose garden, the war my mother waged against the big black "piss ants" that were on her peony bushes each May, the variety of flowers that took turns gracing the flower bed as the weeks and months of Spring and Summer marched on.  Then there are the memories of the first vegetable garden I planted - the one where I didn't know that zucchini would overtake the whole thing if you didn't pick them early and often!  And, the memories of my daughters picking dandelion bouquets and bringing them to me with all the pride a wee one can muster. 

What lifestories took place in the gardens of your lifetime?  Think about that this week as you see the beautiful gardens that you encounter each day.  Write down a few of the ideas that come to mind and see if in the coming weeks and months you can make your life stories blossom with all the vivid imagery of today's gardens.

The Big List of Writing Opportunities

Kendra Bonnett--Getting Read #5

Sorry for the very short blog today, but I have a book deadline that requires all my focus right now. Still, I didn't want the day to go by without putting out something worthwhile.

I came across a long list of publishers, websites and magazines that are actively looking for YOU. It's posted on the blog "Great New Books That Area Must Read." Well, actually, the companies listed are looking for authors, manuscripts and proposals. Maybe you have something that would be a perfect match.

I'm working on an interesting article about memoir writing, which I expect to have ready for next month. In the meantime, check out this list of writing and publishing opportunities. Good Luck.

Flooding the senses

There is nothing like a trip to Europe to flood the senses of a Texas small town woman. My trip to Italy, one week before the earthquake, was memorable indeed.

The Pope opened his window and blessed the crowd in 27 or so languages as my friends and I emerged from the Sisten Chapel. Turns out it was International Women's Day, and he was blessing us. Yes, I felt very special, even though I stood among tens of thousands of women. Crowded but civil under a clear Roman sky.

I won't recount my adventure here. This is a blog about lifewriting, not travelogue, but I will say this: The only way to truly understand the world is to see it. I studied world history, Roman mythology, the major religions, etc., but until I walked where Caesar walked, until I actually saw Michelangelo's's David, until I meandered through the Catacombs, knelt in the church St. Francis rebuilt, until I sat in a gondola as it slid through the narrow canals of Venice,until the aroma of garlic and oregano and basil teased my taste buds to attention, until the taste of Parmesan from Parma melted in my mouth, until my own eyes witnessed the exquisite architecture of antiquity... until those ten days in Italy, it was all second-hand information.

In the meanwhile, the journal I have is full of pictures, postcards, menus, and scribblings to bring up those memories that I believe are now a part of my DNA. Nothings beats first-hand experience, but the memory fades unless prompted, and my journal is the key to my memories of Italy, 2009.

Scarcity and Abundance: Sharing Our Stories

M. Jane Ross

Have you seen the internet cooking demos of "Clara’s Great Depression Cooking?" Clara is a remarkably spry and sharp 91-year-old Sicilian-American who loves to cook the Depression-era meals she remembers from her youth and to interweave her cooking with stories from the past. Her grandson offered to video her cooking up some of these Depression favorites and after he’d posted several on YouTube, Clara  became an internet cooking sensation, eventually being interviewed on the morning television shows. She now has a DVD out showing her at work in her modest kitchen cooking up such dishes as Poorman’s Meal and Egg Soup.

Clara’s videos got me thinking about SCN’s own contribution to the down-home school of cooking, the Kitchen Table Stories cookbook and anthology of cooking stories. Looking back over the 60 stories contributed by our SCN authors, I realized what recurring and compelling themes there are in the twin poles of scarcity and abundance.

As Clara discovered, there is something about scarcity that sears food memories into our consciousness. Even in the midst of poverty, certain dishes can give us a sense of abundance and comfort, and their aromas and the stories behind them take firm hold of our imagination. In the worst of times, we find for a moment in a skillet of potatoes and eggs or a plate of griddle scones, the very best of times. 

 At the other end of the spectrum are our sweet memories of true abundance, most often associated in our Story Circle authors' minds with their grandparents’ farm or a backyard vegetable garden or chicken flock. While the rest of the country suffered Depression-era deprivation, in small pockets of the country close to the land, abundance could be found. In Kitchen Table Stories, Susan Albert recounts her memories of milking her grandfather’s cows and drinking the sweet creamy milk at breakfast, and Marian Haigh shares memories of gathering eggs from Grandma’s chickens to make rich egg noodles. In these stories our authors mirrored the abundance of home-grown food with an abundance of sensory images for us to savor.

What I love most about Clara’s Great Depression Cooking videos is the reaffirmation of the value of the stories of ordinary women and of older women. Clara’s videos have somehow captured the essence of the meaning of cooking and stories for our families and friends. Clara hasn’t yet written a cookbook. Perhaps by the time she writes her Kitchen Table Stories-type cookbook, some of our own Kitchen Table Stories authors will have been inspired by her example to make videos of their cooking or their stories to share with family and friends and maybe even with the world.

Writing Prompt: I wonder, in the new 21st Century Depression and with the new interest in Victory Gardens and backyard chicken flocks, is a new generation forging these same memories of abundance even in the midst of a pervading sense of scarcity? Are we rediscovering some of the unglamorous but delicious recipes of our parents and grandparents and the incredible flavor of real homegrown and home-cooked foods? How are you or your family creating a sense of down-home abundance in tough times?

Check out SCN's Kitchen Table Stories.

Watch Clara's Great Depression Cooking videos on YouTube.

Places You've Known and Loved...

Author Lisa Dale Norton (Hawk Flies Above:  Journey to the Heart of the Sandhills & Shimmering Images:  A Handy Little Guide to Writing Memoir) says of her first book Hawk Flies Above  "It is a story of a place, how I came to love it, and how I hoped to speak for it."  (from the Prologue - pg xv)

This description of her book set my thoughts soaring.  Surely there have been places for which you've developed a great love.   So... where to find a great writing prompt?  In other writers' books, of course!  But - another great place to find potential writing prompts is from the list of places you've been in your lifetime. 

Making a list of all the places you've lived is your starting point.  But digging deeper into those places you've listed will no doubt get your pen moving across the page (or fingers across the keyboard). 

By allowing yourself to take a mini-mental-vacation back to those places you can conjure up all sorts memories.  Be sure to include memories by all of your senses.  What visual, auditory, olfactory and tactile memories do you find coming to the forefront?  What milestones did you reach while at those places?  What highs and lows do you recall from your time spent at  each place.  What joys and disappointments started and/or ended there?  Who were the people who played an important role in your time there?  How did their stories intersect with your own? 

Mining for these tidbits will create springboards for the larger lifestories you've yet to write.  So.... your task for the next two weeks is to start a list of the places you've lived and then work through as many of the features discussed here as you can.  Allow the stories to take you down paths you otherwise might never have traveled.  Have a wonderful trip! 

Learning to Listen to Yourself

Opening Salvos by Matilda Butler

“A room of one’s own is essential,” said SCN-member Susan Tweit in a recent interview with Kendra Bonnett and me. That got me thinking. In my memoir classes, I almost always bring up Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own. It is a marvelous shorthand for the importance of having personal space for your writing life. I’m always surprised how often women make-do with borrowed space such as the kitchen table and even borrowed computers, getting down words when a husband has temporarily vacated the machine.   

But more importantly, Susan’s comment reminded me that one element of a good beginning for a memoir, the usual topic of this Opening Salvos blog, is where you begin your writing each day. A place to invite your muse, a place to lock out your inner critic (or at least send her out to pick fresh mint and make you a cup of tea), a place to write and rewrite your story is worth considering.

Want to hear about Susan Tweit’s writing room? I think her description will inspire you to find your own space and make it uniquely your own. We may not all have the view she does, but we can create a writing environment that will nurture us and our work. CLICK HERE to go to the audio of our interview with Susan.

“Susan, how long did it take you to find the right opening for your memoir? I asked. “A long time, a long, long time,” she responded. Susan worked on her memoir over a 25 year period. She’s a working journalist and viewed her memoir as a project that could be resumed when she wasn’t writing to pay the bills. She went on to explain that the opening in her just published memoir, Walking Nature Home: A Life’s Journey, didn’t come about until the final draft. In each draft, she avoided the dramatic opening. Finally, a editor told her that a memoir has the same requirement as a piece of fiction. It needs to draw you in from the very first page. Susan was afraid of opening with the most dramatic moment in her life because she felt there was a “real peril to it.” The editor gently pushed her by asking, “If you are afraid of that opening, why are you afraid?” Finally, she realized that she could begin with a dramatic moment and not let it take control of her story, a story that she actually thinks of as a “love story,” not an “illness story.”

Kendra and I interviewed Susan for almost an hour, posing both our questions and questions from visitors to our women’s memoir website. There are tips and insights for everyone interested in the memoir genre. For example, do you know the best way to decide on a title for your memoir? What do you do if you think the voice is not right? How can you write a memoir without it being a “pity party?” There were great questions and insightful answers. 

Susan says that writing her memoir helped her learn to listen to herself, to put aside the noise of life, and listen to her inner voice. These wise words are just a sample of the richness of Susan's interview. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO SUSAN’S INTERVIEW.

Writing Can Change Lives

Have you ever made a decision, taken an action, voiced or written something and then had one of those intuitive prickles that tells you that what you just did has irrevocably altered your life path?

That's what happened to me when I started working on the story that eventually became my new memoir, Walking Nature Home, just published last month by University of Texas Press. When I first got the story out onto paper, I read it over and got goosebumps. "This is going to change my life," I thought.

It did. But not the way I expected. And the change didn't exactly happen at warp speed: it took more than two decades. I figured that once I had the story written, I'd find an agent, who would sell it to a big publisher, the New York Times would review it and I'd be on my way as a writer. Well.... The last part was right: once I finished that first draft, I was on my way as a writer. No, I did not find an agent, sell the manuscript to a big publisher, or get reviewed in the New York Times (yet).

What I did do was get hooked on writing. And over the next 26 years, I wrote 11 books, literally hundreds of newspaper columns and articles for magazines and newspapers from the Cody (Wyo.) Enterprise to the Los Angeles Times, from Cricket for kids to Popular Mechanics and Audubon. I spoke to audiences large and small, taught writing workshops around the country, and eventually attracted readers who buy every book I write.

All those years, whenever I had time between urgent deadlines, I kept going back to that first story. I tried various ways of telling it, experimented with different voices, wove in supporting information from experts.... Each time, the tale improved, but it never quite found its rhythm or its heart. Finally, a friend read it and told me: "It's a love story. Let it off the leash!" (Thank you, Nancy Fay.)

I re-read it, and saw what she meant: I had tried to tell the story in a distant, objective way. That sucked the life out of it. I needed to write as the passionate, joyous, imperfect, doubting, searching, generous, foolish, loving human being I am, and let the other characters in the memoir speak up and be themselves too. Once I did that, the story found its voice and began to sing.

And I found a publisher who loved it and turned it into a beautiful book, the kind of book that people pick up and cherish. It's gotten some wonderful reviews (not in the New York Times--yet), but mostly it seems to be selling by word of mouth, hand to hand, and heart to heart. Suddenly (and the book has been out less than two months), I get a steady stream of fan emails and requests for my time: Can you come speak to my club, group, or in my lecture series? Will you read at my bookstore? Would you teach a workshop at my school or writing conference? 

Suddenly the quiet writing time that I have depended on to meet my deadlines and generate work that pays the bills, the time I need to listen to my inner voice and nurture my soul, is hard to find. Suddenly I'm working seven days a week just to keep up. (And no, I'm not getting rich. I was going to say that would make it easier, but truthfully, it wouldn't. Money brings its own complications.)

What I felt twenty-something years ago was true: this story would, and did, change my life. I just didn't know how long it would take, or what the change would mean. It hooked me on writing, helped me find my voice and the stories I tell best, and finally, it gave me the courage to write in a personal and open-hearted way that inspires readers to say things like, "Could not put it down--when to bed with tear tracks still staining my cheeks. What a beautiful, intimate, insightful, and moving piece of work."

Oh, my! Even as I struggle to find my balance in writing and life, I am grateful to have the gift of reaching and touching others' hearts. And onward I go, trusting that the story I've finally written will guide me, too.

This is the tenth and penultimate stop on my blog book tour, a virtual journey to promote Walking Nature Home. My previous stop was with artist, writer, and considerer of a creative life Susan Gallacher-Turner. Last night Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnett interviewed me for their insightful teleseminar series for Women's Memoirs. (If you missed the live event, you'll be able to hear it via a link on their site beginning on Monday.) The tour ends at my blog, Walking Nature Home, on 4/12, with a wrap-up and surprise. If you want to know more about the book, check my web site or read a review on Story Circle Book Reviews. (Illustration of the constellation Orion by artist Sherrie York, from the book.)

Loving to Read

"Most of us write because we love to read.  You have to love words and what they do to you to want to spend so much time wrestling them."

Bonni Goldberg in Room to Write

There is a group of SCN members, our Story Circle Book Reviewers, who show by their actions how much they love to read.  They are offered books sent to us by publicists in the hopes of garnering a favorable review, or they might find a book on their own which calls their name.  In any case, they read, and read intently, and then produce some of the most wonderful reviews. SCN Book Review Editors strive for the highest quality in the books that are reviewed on our site, and the rewards are evident.  For a look at some of the reviewers' work, be sure to check in at the SCN Book Review site, where you'll also see the newest Editors' Picks. (Bet you'll want to read one or two or...)

Here's an exciting development. The review site has drawn the notice of some of the authors of the books being reviewed.  Recently, Jennifer Melville reviewed The King's Daughter by Sandra Worth. Ms. Worth sent a note to Susan Albert saying:

I just received StoryCircle's review of The King's Daughter from my Penguin publicist. I'd like to thank you for accepting my book for review and Jennifer Melville for the wonderful review she wrote of my novel. I'll have a quote up on my site with a credit to Jennifer and to StoryCircle within the next three weeks. Thank you again. I appreciate my lovely review more than you can know. Sincerely,Sandra Worth

Rhonda Esakov reviewed Sandi Ault's latest book Wild Sorrow and Ms. Ault quoted Rhonda and gave credit to SCN on her own website:

With her skillful word crafting, respect for the Indian traditions and loving descriptions of the wildlife and nature around her, author Sandi Ault weaves a wonderful story full of cliff hanging action, mystic Pueblo Indian lore and just the right touch of romance." — Rhonda Esakov, StoryCircle Reviews

It is so gratifying to see that authors read these reviews and actually make use of them.  Congratulations are due the whole team of reviewers for their hard work and dedication.

March's Review of the Month, Hawk Flies Above, a memoir by Lisa Dale Norton, was announced a few days ago.  This excellent review was penned by one of our international members, Edith O'Nuallain, from Ireland.  Edith really has a way with words!

As you might recall, Lisa Dale Norton will be leading the SCN Lifelines LifeWriting Retreat in May.  She will be teaching from her book Shimmering Images on the subject of writing memoir. It's sure to be an extraordinary weekend, filled with learning, friends and times of story-telling.

This may not be the right forum for talking about movies but I want to share this with you.  First let me say that I am certainly not a professional movie critic, but I do know what I like. The movie Australia was panned as a war epic wannabe, and for me, that missed the point entirely.  World War II was part of the movie as were other important issues, such as the horrible treatment of native children.  They were elements of the movie but not its heart. The movie was about story-telling.  The male lead Drover, an Australian stock man played by Hugh Jackman, says that possessions and money are insignificant because in the end all anyone really owns is his or her story, and we should try to write a good one. The Aboriginal tribes told their stories in song; no one knows how old their stories are.  There is a wonderful old medicine man who is always in the background of the movie, always singing his stories.  One could navigate wastelands by listening to the songs.  An absolutely captivating young boy, Nullah, would sing people to him.  They had only to listen and they would find him.  The reason for telling stories, according to Nullah, was that they tell us who we belong to.  I admit it.  I was enchanted!

Writing or singing, story-telling is always magic.

CYCLES: THE RHYTHM METHOD

Woman Carrying Water," by Leslie Frances, Innisfree, Lake County, Northern California, clay sculpture

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I got rhythm, I got music. I got my [work].
Who could ask for anything more?

by George & Ira Gershwin

Runners know it as “hitting stride.” Musical combos know that the drummer drives the beat. Painters know that rhythm and recurrence are the guidelines of good composition. Dancers know that without rhythm, they’ll fall. Actors, storytellers, and comedians know that it’s all about the rhythm of pacing and timing to reach the audience. The heart knows that a syncopated rhythm spells trouble.

Creatives know that to come to terms with the cycles that surge through our lives, we must study our rhythms. Only then can we learn how our rhythms are formed and the most skillful way to respond to them.

In this final “Cycles” post we’ll discuss two of these skillful means. The first exercise is linear and logical. This is our left brain at work. The second exercise draws strongly on our emotional and intuitive worlds to include our right brain.

Method 1: Logging Your Day (Left Brain)

Logging or simple listing is a familiar activity if you’ve tried to manage your time better or sought to recall what you put into your mouth. Don’t make logging any harder than you need to. Nothing fancy, okay?

1) List what you do each hour or short chunk of the day. Were you writing? Answering email? Reading? Researching? Playing solitaire? Watching television? Walking? Eating? Washing the car? Paying your bills? Chatting on the telephone?

2) How much time did each activity take? Keep track without judgment.

3 ) Choose a time to review the log. Study the list and analyze what category it falls into. Survival (like paying bills and eating)? Mindless procrastinating (like playing solitaire because you are bored)? Relaxing or resting to recharge (like walking)? Creative forward movement (like writing, reading, researching)?

4) Notice which activities gave you pleasure. Which ones moved you further and which hindered your goal of being a working writer?

5) How do internal and external factors affect your rhythms? Do your inner and outer worlds mesh or snag each other?  Without enough exercise, or sleep, or emotional satisfaction, or good nutrition what happens to your mood, health, and creative productivity?

 6) Shift your schedule. Decide which activities you’ll stop doing or start doing. Which ones will you do more of or less of?

Method 2: If you are conflicted: Cross-Hand Dialogue (Right Brain)

You’ll find the complete description of cross-hand dialogue in Lucia Capacchione’s fine book “The Power of Your Other Hand: A Course in Channeling the Inner Wisdom of the Right Brain”  (http://www.luciac.com/books/bookpages/PowerOtherHand.html)

Briefly, here’s how: 

1)  Assemble these tools: large paper (butcher paper or newsprint is good) and crayons. These are optional, but allow you greatest freedom.

2)  Draw a line down the center of the page. On one side you’ll write with your dominant hand (the hand you write with and use most actively). On the other side you’ll respond with your non-dominant hand.

3)  Choose a question you want to know more about. For instance: I feel in conflict over the things I must do and my writing. Help!

4)  Pose the question with your dominant hand. Reply with your non-dominant hand and so forth until you come to a resolution within you.

5)  When you write with your non-dominant hand, write boldly. Don’t be concerned, even if you can read it then. You can use what I call “inter-linear translation” later by going back and clearly printing what’s written. But knowing what’s written isn’t what’s most important. You know it in your gut. Writing with the other hand draws forth strong emotions, thus making your conflict more clear and the resulting resolution more possible.

Make friends with your rhythm and don’t sabotage it. In entering new territory by setting a new goal or solidifying a new habit, be patient. Slow progress works. Eventually, the rhythm method keeps your creative life in balance.

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This third post is the last one in “Cycles.” See: Creative Cycles Keynote (February) and Creative Cycles: Balancing Act (March )to read the complete series. See the Creative Catalyst archive at: http://storycircle.typepad.com/scn/creativity/

Column written by Janet Grace Riehl of St. Louis in collaboration with Stephanie Farrow in Albuquerque.

Pose questions about practical creativity; give ideas for future cycle themes; and join in the dialog in the comment section below.

Go to www.riehlife.com to sign up for a free download of a 10-minute audio from “Sightlines: A Family Love Story in Poetry and Music.”

Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir

M Jane Ross

This past week I had the great good fortune to hear writer Natalie Goldberg speak when she visited Austin for a book signing. Goldberg was here at the end of a book tour to promote the recently released paperback edition of her latest book, Old Friend from Far Away: the practice of writing memoir. 

I bought copies of Old Friend and her very first book, the one that made her name as a writer and writing teacher, Writing Down the Bones, which I’d always felt as if I’d read—I’d heard so much about it—but never had. This was the book that in 1986 cracked open the black box of writing craft and writing practice and made the psychic engine of writing and all its nuts and bolts visible and accessible to aspiring writers.

Old Friend carries on where Writing Down the Bones left off, with dozens of writing prompts interspersed with reflections on the mind, memory, and the writing process.

Goldberg began doing sitting meditation in her twenties and had been a student of Zen Buddhism for 10 years before she published Writing Down the Bones. Her Zen teacher Katagiri Roshi had suggested to her early in her studies with him that she make writing her Zen practice. Goldberg dismissed this idea and did her best to be diligent and sincere in her sitting meditation, believing only thus could she gain some control of the monkey mind. It was while she was working on Writing Down the Bones that she understood how writing could be a practice that would do for the mind just what Zen meditation does, allowing us see our thoughts as just thoughts and waking us up to the present moment.

We all know the cathartic effect of journaling about the frustrations and upsets of life. Suffering arises from our wanting life, things, circumstances to be other than they are; so says the Zen tradition. In writing practice—and journaling certainly can be writing practice—we use the writing moment to document things exactly as they are and, if we stay with it, the documenting alone allows us to let go of a neurotic craving for those things to change. The key is to write through and beyond complaint to the other side, to the point where the object of our complaint is simply observed, witnessed, and allowed to be just what it is. We might write about a loved one who has Alzheimers and the pain we feel as their memory and sense of self slip away. And in the writing and the witnessing we give dignity to their life and touch the beauty of the fleeting moments of connection we can still share.

The recurring refrain in Goldberg’s new book Old Friend is, “Write ten minutes. Go.” From “Broken” to “Fish” to “Everything,” her many short writing-prompt chapters will spark myriad memories and give you myriad points of entry to your own writing practice.