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The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text For Writing & Life (2011)

by Marion Roach Smith(Favorite Author)

4.16 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0446584843 (ISBN13: 9780446584845)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Grand Central Publishing

review 1: The more I read about writing memoir, the less convinced I am that I actually have anything to say. It has probably all been said (by me at least) in my columns over the years and now the blog. Miriam Roach Smith is definitely as talented as her more famous sister. When it comes to the written word, she may be the more talented judging from this book. Smart, funny, informative and a valuable tool for anyone who writes.
review 2: I found this book to be one of the most helpful volumes on the craft of writing nonfiction that I have come across. While it concentrates on memoir, Ms. Smith's advice and suggestions are transferable to almost any type of creative nonfiction. I'll bet fiction writers can find some food for thought and tools for writing improvement he... morere, as well. I'd recommend this highly for anyone interested in writing nonfiction, and even more highly for aspiring memoirists. Don't borrow it. Buy it. You'll probably return to it again and again, as I plan to do. I finished it today but plan to review the parts I underlined several times as I plow may way through the my own first (what Smith calls "vomit") draft.The author pooh-poohs writing exercises. On this point, I disagree with her. Although they can be excuses for keeping writers from their actual manuscripts and can provide a way for us to resist the hard work of actually DOING the writing we say we want to do, exercises can be a way for those of us who are rusty to flex our writing muscles and get warmed up again. Many exercises have helped me keep writing when "blocked" and also have been a way to practice fluency, much as finger exercises help strengthen the skills of a pianist. But her negative view of exercises frees her to write a book that leans on suggestions for doing the work required of the actual manuscript itself, and that is a refreshing change from many "how-to" books I've read.Definitely a keeper. I've even recommended it to my writing coach as well as my writing group. less

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