For many years I celebrated Thanksgiving at a friend’s rustic cabin in Jenner, on California’s stunning North Coast. There is no electricity in this two-story cabin my friend built, and no cell service, but the big room where four friends gather to sauté mushrooms for a gravy on the propane...
I grew up tuned in to the radio. In the late sixties my station was 93 KHJ, “Boss Radio.” I knew the words to every song. In the early seventies I was still singing along, even to songs like Don McClean’s “American Pie,” with verses that went on even when...
Reflection deepens a story. Reflection personalizes. And better yet, when a story is personalized by using reflection—when you include how you were affected—a story has a better chance of drawing a reader in. With memoir you want not only to write about what has happened in your life, you also...
All the best writers do it. They develop a piece as they write subsequent drafts, improving the writing every time. Philip Roth says, “The book really comes to life in the rewriting.” Joyce Carol Oates says most of her time writing is really rewriting. John Irving says, “Maybe as much...
