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Wild Writing Women Magazine | Writing: Your Passport to Life Wild Writing Women Magazine | Writing: Your Passport to Life Wild Writing Writing your passport to life Women TM _______________________________________ Features Total Risk, Freedom, Discipline by Constance Hale The author of two books on language advises us on her writing philosophy The Memoir Craze by Cathleen Miller The best selling author of two memoirs explains the intimate genre's appeal The Business of Writing by Lisa Alpine Lisa deconstructs the starving artist myth Inspiration by Jacqueline Harmon Butler The muse visits Jacqueline in some surprising places Writing for the Web by Carla King http://wildwritingwomen.com/zine/issue/YourPassportToLife/index.html (1 of 3) [1/2/10 1:17:04 PM] Wild Writing Women Magazine | Writing: Your Passport to Life The WWW's own personal Web dominatrix shows you how it's done The Literary Hotel: Where B & B Means Bed and Books by Cathleen Miller These inns provide a cozy haven for bibliophiles _______________________________________ Writing 10 Tips for Beginning Writers Tips Cathleen figures that even Virginia Woolf started somewhere. 10 Tips for Overcoming Writer's Block Appreciate how Pamela overcame writer's block to write this article. 10 Tips for Making Money as a Writer Haven't penned a bestseller yet? Lisa has other ideas on how to make money from your writing skills. Mining for Gold on the Internet Jacqueline offers tips on searching for new markets. The Economist's Style Tips Orwell wrote them, The Economist uses them, Lisa practices them. After the End Jacqueline tells you what to do after you've toasted the completion of your manuscript. Raw Readings Lisa lets the audience become part of the creative process. The Potato Exercise Lisa shows how even the humble potato can provide inspiration. Links to the WWW (Wonderful World of Writing) Cathleen compiles a list of our favorites. _______________________________________ http://wildwritingwomen.com/zine/issue/YourPassportToLife/index.html (2 of 3) [1/2/10 1:17:04 PM] Wild Writing Women Magazine | Writing: Your Passport to Life Columns Food Flirt Jacqueline on mouth-watering fiction Gear and Gadgets Carla teaches you how to create an online travelogue Getaways Lisa tells you why she whistles while she works Miller To Go Cathy tours literary Dublin _______________________________________ What Goes Contributions from our students Around River of Words: Pamela Michael presents some of the poems she receives from children around the world as part of her work with River of Words. _______________________________________ Reports Books About Writing & Reviews From inspiration to reference, here are our picks. Daunt Books for Travellers Cathy finds a travel reader's haven in London. Wild Writing Women® is a registered trademark of the Wild Writing Women, LLC. Copyright 2003-2008© http://wildwritingwomen.com/zine/issue/YourPassportToLife/index.html (3 of 3) [1/2/10 1:17:04 PM] Total Risk, Freedom, Discipline by Constance Hale Writing: Your Passport to Life Wild Writing Total Risk, Freedom, Discipline by Constance Hale Women TM Guest contributor Constance Hale shares her writing philosophy with WWW readers. ____________ We're sorry. This article is no longer available. Wild Writing Women® is a registered trademark of the Wild Writing Women, LLC. Copyright 2003-2008© http://wildwritingwomen.com/zine/issue/YourPassportToLife/features/hale_risk.html [1/2/10 1:17:05 PM] The Memoir Craze, by Cathleen Miller Writing: Your Passport to Life Wild Writing The Memoir Craze Women TM by Cathleen Miller In recent years critics have maligned the "memoir craze" as a self-indulgent diversion where writers (and everyone else) try to outdo one another with the revelation of every facet of their lives--from the most lethally boring minutia available, to the most sordid secrets imaginable. Agents, editors, and publishers change their minds hourly about the genre's status: the memoir's in--oops sorry!--the memoir's out, as if they were peddling shoes at Macy's. None of these groups seems interested in considering what makes memoirs popular with readers: America is a nation of 250 million voyeurs. Everyone wants to know the private details of other people's business--what goes on behind closed doors. How does my life compare with everyone else's? This explains the explosion in popularity of nonfiction writing in general, and autobiographical writing in particular, with books like The Liar's Club, Angela's Ashes, and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius topping bestseller charts. (This same voyeuristic obsession can be extended to tabloid journalism-- which today has become almost all journalism, and the proliferation of reality TV and daytime talk shows that delve into the lurid details of ordinary people's lives.) While on the surface the memoir obsession may seem like just another fad, I believe the reasons for its popularity can be explained by transitions in our society. All of the old ground rules have been cast aside: most of us no longer structure our lives by the tenets of the church; we're separated from the stability of our childhood homes and families. And the careers and material rewards we embraced as the guiding light for all our days, fizzled out when we maxed the credit cards at the same time our employers discovered they could create profit by axing thousands of workers and making half the workforce do twice the amount of work. Even the lucky ones are questioning what to do once they cash in their stock options. So where does that leave us? Millions of people are looking for answers, someone to tell them how to live their lives, and by reading memoirs, we can sample other people's lives, try them on for size and see how they fit. In short, trends change, but human nature doesn't. We are all in this strange life together, and http://wildwritingwomen.com/zine/issue/YourPassportToLife/features/miller_memoir.html (1 of 4) [1/2/10 1:17:08 PM] The Memoir Craze, by Cathleen Miller it helps to have someone to talk to. Maybe your circle of cronies and acquaintances haven't had the experiences you've had, or the experiences you're curious about. Aha! Enter the beauty of autobiographical literature. A memoir can take you into the thoughts and feelings of someone else's life with an honesty that few of your best friends will provide. _________ My passion is nonfiction, as I consider reality more fascinating than anything I could create. Like most of my fellow nonfiction writers, I possess an infinite curiosity about the world; this passion for life keeps us going--traveling the globe, looking under rocks, seeking new experiences, gathering data, delving into the psyche of everyone from field hands to heads of state. We report back to readers on our findings, knowing that the best nonfiction narratives enable them to feel like they're living the experience with us. I look at my own life as a laboratory for material, much like the mad scientist who tries his latest concoction on himself. And like the mad scientist, oftentimes the outcome of my experiments may provide empirical knowledge for the observer, but turn me into a freak in the process. After I had taken on the assignment of writing Waris Dirie's story, Desert Flower, I met her for the first time in New York. I asked her why she wanted to write this book, and she gave me two reasons: 1) Waris wanted to publicize the issue of female genital mutilation and tell the truth about its horrors from her firsthand account and, 2) she wanted to educate the American public about the beauty of Somalia, because she felt that all the Western world knew of her homeland was poverty, drought, famine, and war. I felt that the first goal was easily attainable. But the second one presented a considerable challenge. As two seemingly unrelated events become fused in a person's mind because they happened at the same time, Waris and Bill Clinton's tribulations became fused in mine. While I was furiously writing Desert Flower, the media storm was breaking over Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky. I remember thinking wryly: "If I can put a positive spin on Somalia for American readers, then perhaps when I get through with this book I'll get a job helping the Clinton administration." Another challenge of writing Desert Flower was in understanding a person who was seemingly the complete opposite of me: a black woman from Somalia who had grown up as a nomad in the desert, worked as a maid in London, then transitioned to lead the glamorous life of an international fashion model and human rights activist. By comparison I was a white woman who had grown up in a strict Baptist household in the swampy Missouri cotton fields, worked in advertising in San Francisco, then transitioned to the decidedly non-glamorous life of a writer and academic. I feared that I would be unable to relate to Waris's life and thus the book's message would ring hollow. http://wildwritingwomen.com/zine/issue/YourPassportToLife/features/miller_memoir.html (2 of 4) [1/2/10 1:17:08 PM] The Memoir Craze, by Cathleen Miller I needn't have worried. After spending over a hundred hours interviewing her, we found out that we had numerous points in common: we were both victims of strict, patriarchal upbringings that left us resentful and angry; we both grew up in the wide open spaces and moved to cities that left us feeling disconnected from nature; we'd both left home as teenagers and spent the rest of our lives searching for a place to fit in; we both viewed the world of business with queasiness and mistrust; and we both shared the same grievances against men that any session of "girl talk" will usually unearth.
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