Using scent to tell a story — scent reviews and inspired prompts for fiction and non-fiction writers.
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All posts tagged “memoir”
This is the Best-Case Scenario
There were poinsettias everywhere, because the church was still decorated for Christmas, and my dad was in a box. We were singing “The Lord is My Shepherd” – my aunt, my uncles, my cousins, my husbands, and me – and my dad was in a… Read More
Fine Motor Skills, Magic, and the WestConn M.F.A
I have never been good with my hands. It’s the cerebral palsy. There is no middle ground, for me, between the over-hard, stress-red clench of a pen and a tentative, trembling touch. So that I do not shake, I type too loud, and draw too… Read More
Taking a Stab at “Starting from Solitude” (An Exercise for Memoirists)
This week, I shared a writing exercise with my writer’s group. It’s called “Starting from Solitude,” and it was developed by Richard Hoffman. It’s intended for memoir writing, and it’s unique in that it organically gets the writer back into her own head at a… Read More
Where Your Story Ends: Finding Memoir’s Fault Lines in MacIlvey’s Trapped
(IMAGE CREDIT: Marco Michelini via FREEIMAGES.COM) At a red light, once upon an icy evening, Mom and I watched as a woman on a motorcycle tipped over. The immediate fear, of course, was that she was hurt – if not from the bike falling on… Read More
What’s Funny: On Falling Down, Etcetera
On Wednesday, I started reading The Fall by Diogo Mainardi, a memoir about fathering a boy who falls down a lot because he has cerebral palsy. I have cerebral palsy, too. That’s why it’s on my reading list. On that same Wednesday, I fell. And… Read More
Scene and Theme in Before the Door Closes
I’m glad I read Before the Door Closes (by Judith Hall Simon) directly after Keeping My Balance. This, after that, reminds me that good writing is not so simple as replacing summary with scene, always; rather, good writing has both in moderation. If writing were as simple… Read More
Keeping My Balance: A Technically-Written Memoir, Imperfect and Important
Keeping My Balance is a unique memoir, because Stephanie Torreno’s life flies in the face of our stereotypical assumptions about disability. Torreno’s cerebral palsy is so severe that she cannot write without someone taping down the paper, cannot type except with a single thumb, cannot walk… Read More
For a Narrator with No Positive Role Models, Augusten Burroughs Sets a Good (Writing) Example
Running With Scissors is the memoir of a child who is neglected at best and endangered at worst, written by Augusten Burroughs. Living with his mother’s psychiatrist, Dr. Finch (who has no business tending to the mental illness of others), Burroughs loses his innocence as well… Read More
Briana Una McGuckin 