where every week, you receive writing tips, inspiration, prompts, book recommendations, answers to your questions, and fun stories.
If you have questions you’d like answered in this vlog, send them to me at patricia@writingyourlife.org.
Use this handy index to quickly find vlog topics sorted by category. Click on the tabs at the bottom of the index to narrow your search.
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The only way to do this wrong is to not do it at all!
Episode 181 – “After the Eclipse” – Sarah Perry
True crime, family history, coming-of-age story, and more.
Episode 178 – EAE #60 A Way Not to Judge
Show a difficult person’s behavior rather than making statements.
Episode 177 – When She Comes Back – Ronit Plank
What happens if a mother of two young daughters leaves to join a cult?
Episode 173 – Camouflage – Heather Sweeney
Here’s a military memoir written from a different vantage point.
Episode 170 – EAE #31 Trade Adverbs for Better Verbs
A stronger verb is always a better option than this.
Episode 167 – EAE Bite #24 – That’s Good
Use food to travel back in time and retrieve memories.
Episode 165 – Book of Lives – Margaret Atwood
Are you a Margaret Atwood fan? Would you read her memoir?
Episode 163 – An Erasure Poem
A look at how deleting words can create something new and different.
Episode 162 – Commas & Introductory Phrases
To comma or not to comma after an introductory phrase?
Episode 160 – EAE #170 Love Child?
This mark has been called the love child of a colon and a comma.
Episode 159 – Describe, Don’t Label
Use this tip by an accomplished author to strengthen your writing
Episode 158 – When I Was Puerto Rican – Esmeralda Santiago
If you love books that beautifully describe a place, a time, a culture, keep reading.
Episode 156 – TV Shows You Watched as a Kid
What TV shows brought you to the tube each week?
Episode 154 – The Best Cook in the World by Rick Bragg
Stories and recipes from one of the South’s greatest writers.
Episode 153 – Autofiction
What do you call life stories that blend the real with the imagined?
Episode 152 – What’s on Your Desk?
Pens, stapler, coffee mug, lamp, computer–what else is on your desk?
Episode 150 – This Boy’s Life by Tobias Wolff
Let’s look at a forerunner who applied fictional devices to memoir.
Episode 149 – Shared & Separate Possessives
Correctly punctuating shared/joint and separate possessives
Episode 147 – EAE #163 – How Much Is Enough?
Sentence length shapes rhythm, flow, and reader engagement.
Episode 146 – Universality of Memoir
Does your writing encompass the universal nature of memoir?
Episode 145 – Alphabetical or Index Structure
Have you read a memoir with an ABC or index structure?
