Hemingway’s encouragement for you

 

“Don’t be discouraged because there’s a lot of technical work to writing. There is, and you can’t get out of it,” said Ernest Hemingway, advising beginning writer Arnold Samuelson, age 19.

 

“It’s your object to convey everything to the reader so that he remembers it not as a story he had read but something that happened to himself.”

 

Read that last part again:

“. . . so that he remembers it not as a story he had read

but something that happened to himself.”

 

You want readers to experience your story alongside you. That’s how you can make a difference in their lives. That’s how God can use your story to inspire, heal, and mentor your readers.

 

Work hard to make write that kind of memoir.

 

Join (or form) a writing group—a good one. Critique each other’s manuscripts.

 

Attend writers’ conferences.

 

Study the best writing books available:

• On Writing Well by William Zinsser
• The Writer’s Portable Mentor by Priscilla Long
• Writing the Memoir by Judith Barrington
• The Memoir and the Memoirist by Thomas Larson
• Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir, edited by William Zinsser
• Writing for Story by Jon Franklin
• Handling the Truth by Beth Kephart
• Writing Tools by Roy Peter Clark

 

To make your memoir the very best it can be,

you’ll need to make revisions and edits,

but it will be worth it in the end.

 

Remember Jeff Goins’ words:

“Never, ever, ever underestimate the power your words can have.” 

 

Pray about your writing and rewriting.

Ask God to guide your work

and use your finished memoir to bless others.

 

Tuesday Tidbit: Hemingway’s advice for you

“Don’t be discouraged because there’s a lot of technical work to writing. There is, and you can’t get out of it,” said Ernest Hemingway, advising a beginning writer, Arnold Samuelson, age 19.

“It’s your object to convey everything to the reader so that he remembers it not as a story he had read but something that happened to himself.”

Read that last part again: “so that he remembers it not as a story he had read but something that happened to himself.”

You want readers to enter your story, to experience your story alongside you. That’s how your story can make a difference in their lives. That’s how God can use your story to inspire, heal, and mentor your readers.

Work hard to make your memoir that kind of memoir.

Join (or form) a writing group. Critique each other’s manuscripts.

Attend writers’ conferences.

Study the best writing books available, like On Writing Well by William Zinsser, The Writer’s Portable Mentor by Priscilla Long, and Writing the Memoir by Judith Barrington.

Follow the best writing blogs, too. I recommend the blogs in the right column.  

To make your memoir the very best it can be, you’ll need to make revisions and edits, but it will be worth it in the end.

Pray about your writing and rewriting. Ask God to guide your work and use your finished memoir to bless others. 

There you have it, your Tuesday Tidbit.

Tuesday Tidbit: Don’t miss this opportunity to become a better writer!

Amber Lea Starfire, at Writing Through Life, has begun her new Reading for Writers series, focused on memoir, beginning with Beryl Markham’s West with the Night.

Amber’s goal is to help us read like writers

in order to make us better writers.

Participants discuss tone, voice, pace, structure, the writer’s style, and word choices.

I encourage you to read the book and participate. Markham’s writing style is one of my favorites—I often read her passages several times to take in the beauty and art of her words.

She’s a master wordsmith.

Ernest Hemingway said of West with the Night, “Written so well, and marvelously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer…. [Markham] can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves as writers….”

From the back cover: Markham’s “storytelling easily earns her a place on the shelf with contemporaries (and friends) such as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and Isak Dinesen. West with the Night is one of the world’s great adventure stories, a true classic of twentieth-century literature.”

Even if you don’t read the book, I hope you’ll read Amber’s weekly blog posts and take part in the discussions that follow. Don’t miss this opportunity to enjoy a masterpiece as well as to grow as a writer.

Click on Amber’s post for this week,

Read Like a Writer, Part 1: West with the Night – First Impressions