Perspective, or point of view (POV), is different through the eyes of a child, and that perspective can be the one we’re using in writing a portion of a memoir.  Let’s look at writing about an experi ...

Truth can be a sticky wicket in memoir. It is essential to the craft but it can be hard to write. On June 21 I presented on this topic for the Redwood Writer's Club in Santa Rosa. I looked a ...

As a child, learning to whistle thrilled me. I could make music with my mouth! (Getting sent out of the classroom because I had shown kids in class, however, was less thrilling.) But something else ...

Conversational language and the written word are quite different. In writing, useless modifiers clutter. They show up unnoticed, ready to take up space and dilute what could be strong and vivid. Here ...

You hear about the amazing memoir that everyone’s reading, that book that’s been at the top of the New York Times best-seller list for months. But you don’t want to read it. You find that best-selling ...