A Fine New Book on Writing Family Stories

If you've been wanting to write your family stories but didn't know where to begin or how to approach the writing, I have good news for you. Annette Gendler has a new book that will help you. How to Write Compelling Stories from Family History is a terrific How-To guide to assist you in preserving family stories that should not be forgotten.

Annette Gendler teaches a memoir class at StoryStudio in Chicago and has written a fine memoir of her own titled Jumping Over Shadows. She has also been widely published in magazines and newspapers with more family stories. 

Gendler firmly believes that our family shapes us and that writing their stories helps us to understand them. She uses her own family as examples as she lays out a do-able plan for you to write your own family stories that can be described as 'compelling.' 

Each section of the book concludes with a prompt to help you start writing. The explanations in each section are clear and concise. She discusses interviews, photos, research and much more.

She raises questions that anyone writing family stories might have and then answers those questions in a way that new writers can clearly understand. The book would be a help to both experienced writers and those who have never written before.

One of the final sections of the book offers sample stories by several writers. These true stories are followed by works cited and suggested further reading, as well as a final note from Ms. Gendler. 

If you've ever had thoughts about writing your family stories, this is the book for you. Hear from the author herself at her website. There is even a spot to ask a question and receive an answer from this expert in writing family stories. Purchase the ebook or paperback at Amazon for yourself or for a gift for others interested in preserving family history. 

Something New From Annette Gendler

What you see above is the banner of the very first issue of Annette Gendler latest project--a newsletter. Read it here. Annette also has a blog. She is a Writer-in-Residence at the Ernest Hemingway House in Oak Park, IL. Annette has also been a guest blogger here. Read her posts here and here.

Annette teaches Memoir Writing at StoryStudio in Chicago and has recently taught an 'mini-memoir' class at The Ernest Hemingway House. Now she is offering this same course online so that people anywhere can participate.

This first issue of the newsletter has details about the class for anyone who is intersted. The thought behind writing a mini-memoir rather than tackle an entire memoir book is that it's easier to write about a small slice of one's life and it's also much easier to achieve publication for a short piece than a book length memoir.

Annette is a former member of my online writing group. She'll be at our conference in mid-April and I'm looking forward to seeing her there. She's a fine writer and excellent teacher.

I was especially pleased when Annette was awarded the Writer-in-Residence at The Ernest Hemingway House because the famed author went to the same high school that I did--but at an earlier time. Every English teacher in that school mentioned that fact as well as ine other. It seems that Mr. Hemingway failed English in high school. Maybe it's true or it could be an Oak Park-River Forest High School legend. I've always wanted it to be true.

Take a look at the links I've provided above. It might prove to be some interesting reading this weekend.

Guest Post: The Gift of Morning Pages

  Annette Gendler

Recently, I've written about doing the Morning Pages exercise, then had a post with responses from people who have done them. Today, Annette Gendler is my Guest Blogger with her thoughts on doing Morning Pages. Well worth a read. She just may inspire you to give this exercise a try. Read what she has to say:

For 30-45 minutes every weekday morning, I am free. I can write whatever I want. I started writing Morning Pages in earnest this past April upon reading of Julia Cameron’s The Right to Write. I had heard of Morning Pages before, but I had resisted doing them because I feared writing three pages in the morning of “whatever came to my mind” would take away from working on whatever project I was pursuing. Instead, the opposite is true. While Morning Pages do “take away” most of my writing time before the household wakes up, they have proven to me one of the axioms of the creative process: the more you write, the more you write.

Morning Pages ensure that I write. Even if that’s all I write in a day, I have written. I have processed my life through writing. I find this concept of “authoring” my own life immensely attractive and grounding. I spend so much time writing for others; why not spend some time writing for me? Morning Pages allow me to reflect where and how I am at that moment. They are an exercise in self-awareness. When I close my Morning Pages book, I find it reassuring to know that the next morning I will open it again. My hand will once again move over the page; I will be leaving my mark, if only to myself.

Writing this much by hand is a new experience for me, who up until April only wrote grocery lists and notes to self by hand. Suddenly, by writing Morning Pages by hand as Julia Cameron insists, I am manifesting myself. Only I have this particular handwriting. In it I see myself, and that is anchoring.

Have Morning Pages benefitted my writing? Yes, I think so. My writing has become more fluid, easier to execute. My main goal as a literary nonfiction writer is to capture a feeling in words, and by being more in touch with my own feelings through writing about them, writing an essay is somehow less daunting.

Have I had more ideas because of Morning Pages? I’m not sure, but I certainly have followed through on more of them. Morning Pages keep me in the creative flow. My pages feature bubbles with ideas for new essays, to-do lists, or plans to rewrite old pieces. I revisit those bubbles, and they help me keep track.

Has my writing life improved since I started doing Morning Pages? At the beginning of this year, I set myself the goal of one publication per month, and so far that has been easier than I thought it would be. Not only have I managed to publish one piece per month, I’m actually slightly ahead of that goal.

Mainly, however, Morning Pages are a gift to me. When I don’t get to do them for a few mornings, I get antsy. Despite all the benefits listed above, the main one is that, every morning when I close my Morning Pages book, I feel good for having done them. I have written myself through some struggles or annoyances to a better place. I write in a rather large, narrowly lined book, so two full pages have become my norm. I have found that even if I don’t feel like it, I have to plow through the first page to get to a different spot on the second page. Somewhere on the second page, the junk gets left behind and some insight will emerge, however small, that I wasn’t aware of before. I always end up in a better place after writing my two pages.

Annette Gendler is a nonfiction writer. She has completed a memoir about an impossible love that succeeded; an excerpt, “Giving Up Christmas,” was published in December 2012 in Tablet Magazine,another excerpt, “‘Trown Out’ of the Family Home” appeared in the Wall Street Journal. She regularly writes for the Washington Independent Review of Books, and her work has appeared in literary magazines such as Bellevue Literary Review, Natural Bridge, Under the Sun, and South Loop Review. Annette has twice been a fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and was the 2013 Peter Taylor Nonfiction Fellow at the Kenyon Writers Workshop. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte and has been teaching memoir writing at StoryStudio Chicago since 2006. She lives in Chicago with her husband and three children.

Submission Advice From Annette Gendler

Annette Gendler

My good friend and fine writer, Annette Gendler, writes and teaches memoir writing in Chicago. She's graciously agreed to be a guest blogger here today on a topic that should be of interest to all writers. 

How I Got Published in the Wall Street Journal: A Little Lesson in Submitting

I just had a personal essay published in the Wall Street Journal: ‘Thrown Out’ of the Family Home. For me, that is one of the zeniths of publication success.

How did it happen? After all, I’m not a trained journalist; I haven’t pitched article ideas to the WSJ for years, and I don’t know any of the editors. I am merely a reader. But that, it turns out, is the secret, at least of this success story: I am a reader, and specifically a reader of the WSJ and the particular column I got published in.

If you’re at all interested in submitting your work for publication, I’m sure you’ve seen the advice in submission guidelines, “to read recent issues before submitting.” I would contend that what is really meant is: Be a reader of this publication.

I read the WSJ every day, and I absolutely love their Mansion section on Fridays, and especially the House Call column. For those unfamiliar with it, in House Call the WSJ asks prominent people to share something about their home. One of my favorites was Alexander McCall Smith (of No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency fame) writing about how, after five years of renovations, he now missed having the workmen around.

As a regular reader of House Call, in early January I spotted their call for submissions asking readers to submit essays about a memorable or special home. I was immediately excited: One of my favorite WSJ sections was calling for submissions (they hardly every do that)! I knew right away that I would write about my grandparents’ former house.

Now, how to get all that history, nicely written out in my memoir manuscript, into the WSJ’s maximum of 800 words? And how to make it work as a standalone piece? I put together a rough draft of about 1,000 words and asked a journalist friend who hadn’t seen any of the memoir work to look at it. Not only did she help me trim words, but her questions pointed out holes I had to fill for readers. Once I had filled those holes, the piece was about 900 words. I had my friend go through it again, and she cut another 50 words, which left me fine tuning the text to cut another 50. Then I submitted the essay a few days before the January 31 deadline and waited. I waited for a long time. In fact, by May my Outlook calendar was reminding me to seek other submission opportunities for that essay. For some reason, I dilly-dallied on that, and on May 15 the acceptance email popped up in my inbox. (Patience is another thing a writer must have lots of!)

However, adhering to the wordcount, submitting on time, and waiting patiently are not my point here. My lesson from this experience is to submit to those publications you read all the time, those publications you love. Of course big guns like the WSJ are hard to get into, so are glossy magazines. But as you can see from my experience, opportunites arise. And what about your local paper? Don’t you read that? Or a favorite blog? This rationale holds true for literary magazines as well. My most illustrious literary magazine acceptance to date, by the Gettysburg Review (how I messed that up is another story you can read here), proves my point: I subscribe to the Gettysburg Review and read it regularly. So, submit to those publications you read. Obviously you share an aesthetic. And that increases the odds of getting in there. 

Annette Gendler is a nonfiction writer. She has completed a memoir about an impossible love that succeeded; an excerpt, “Giving Up Christmas,” was published in December 2012 in Tablet Magazine, another excerpt, “‘Trown Out’ of the Family Home” just appeared in the Wall Street Journal. She regularly writes for the Washington Independent Review of Books, and her work has appeared in literary magazines such as Bellevue Literary Review, Natural Bridge, Under the Sun, and South Loop Review. Annette has twice been a fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and was the 2013 Peter Taylor Nonfiction Fellow at the Kenyon Writers Workshop. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte and has been teaching memoir writing at StoryStudio Chicago since 2006. She lives in Chicago with her husband and three children.

Conference--Day 4

This is a picture my writer friend, Annette Gendler, put on her blog yesterday. She's here at the conference with me. I don't think she'll mind if I borrow her picture. Looks peaceful here, doesn't it? It most definitely is, even yesterday when it rained off and on all day. This morning, the sun has returned, and the scene before me as I write this is one that is totally soul-soothing.

Yesterday, we had some very good sessions. Some of the people making the presentations had writing exercises for us to do along with the excellent information they shared. One woman spoke about screenwriting for movies and TV. I would never do that type of writing, but I found it fascinating from a viewer's point.

And there was more good food. A Build Your Own Taco Bar last night with some of the best things to do it with. A homemade guacamole that I could have eaten out of the bowl with a spoon!

Today will be a full day with more sessions, mine included. I'm going to talk about writing for anthologies. I plan to open with a great quote a friend put on facebook. It works for writers or anyone else. It says Don't look back. You're not going there.

Tomorrow, the woman doing our presentation is in Paris and will come to us via skype. Technology is great!

Make A List

My friend, Annette Gendler talked about her list of things to do in the fall in today's post on her blog. We all have things we like to do in the various seasons. We may make a mental list but Annette has actually written hers down.

It made me think of a mental list I've been making and adding to. There have been several recent calls for submissions that have sparked my interest. When sine have arrived and I go through the wants and guidelines, I've thought that it is definitely something I'd like to submit to. So I leave it in my Inbox and move on. There have been quite a few lately, and my mental list has gotten longer and has also been fading fast. Life and all it throws at us can make that happen.

Last night, I was looking through the list of messages in my Inbox, searching for a particular one. As I scrolled down the list, I noticed a few of those calls that I wanted to go back to. Some I'd completely forgotten. It's obvsious that I need to make an actual list, not try to keep it in my crowded brain, which has been working hard for a good many years.

One of my tasks today is to go back through those messages and single out the ones I want to remember. I'll make a list on paper, in black and white. It's one I will be able to refer to more easily, and needed to keep submission deadlines in mind. It's so easy to get busy with other things and completely miss a deadline.

So, make your list of writing projects. Make a list of calls for submissions that appeal to you. Make a list of books about writing that you'd like to read. Don't try to stuff it all into a little compartment in your mind that might get hidden behind other things in your life. Make a list and keep it nearby so you can be reminded.

One Very Short Classic

On recommendation from my friend, and fellow blogger, Annette Gendler, I checked out a book from our library that is short, classic, entertaining and more. Annette wrote about the book at her blog a week or so ago. http://www.annettegendler.com/2011/05/reading-in-love-with-84-charing-cross.htmI

I read the book in one sitting for 84, Charing Cross Road is only 97 pages, has no foreword or afterword. Helene Hanff, a New York City resident and writer, carried on a correspondence with a bookstore in London for twenty years. The letters, and that is all you'll find in this book, cover a period of twenty years--1949 to 1969. The author purchases old and special edition books from the bookstore, and in the course of the twenty years, the letter writers build a relationship that melds into friendship. 

Ms. Hanff is often blunt and caustically funny but also generous and caring as we see in letter after letter. Frank Doel is at first the formal British businessman, but it isn't long before he allows himself to be himself in his letters. 

We see the progression in the lives of the bookstore personnel and also Ms Hanff as she moves from one type of writng to another, eking out a living and always planning a trip to England. The letters show a slice of history as we watch postwar Britain and the evolution in Ms Hanff's writing world when TV shows mesmerized the American public. We see the difference in cultures as well as the many similarities. And best of all, we are thoroughly entertained by these charming letters. 

Spend an afternoon or evening with 84, Charing Cross Road and I think you'll agree. Definitely a classic memoir. Thanks Annette, for recommending it.

 

Creating a Scene from a Summary

My friend, Annette Gendler, whose blog is at http://www.annettegendler.com/, had an interesting exercise for writers on her blog yesterday. I decided to give it a try, and maybe you can, too. The exercise directions are below and my effort follows. I don't write a lot of fiction, but I do enjoy trying it now and then.

Writing Exercise: Read the following passage (used here with the permission of one of my students) which offers all the ingredients of a scene, yet is written in summary. Use your imagination and rewrite it as a scene so that the reader can experience it. Use dialogue, render the place and time, and let us see and hear the people involved! Feel free to post your scene in the comment section.

• Tuesday, January 25, 2005. Supervisor A shows me my billable hours for the previous day. I had billed only 4.20 hours. She says I will have to get that up to 7 hours per day, OR ELSE! I notice on the sheet she shows me that the charge for my time is $75-$82/hour, depending on the client. I'm getting paid less than $25/hour. What's wrong with this picture? After the scary reprimand and threat, I go into panic mode and do as much as I can today. It seems to be the expectation that you put in a lot of (unpaid) overtime to bill enough hours for the company.

 

 

I turned the page on my desk calendar. Tuesday, January 25, 2005, the second anniversary of Glenn's accident. Two full years in a nursing home, and his condition is the same as the day they moved him there from the hospital. I wiped away a tear that had spilled over just as Gilda Gargoyle walked into my office. Her real name is Mary O'Donnell but she has the stone face of a gargoyle and a heart that must be the same. What does she have in her hand that she's waving at my face? With her, it's always something I'd like to avoid.

 

"Jan, I'm not happy with your hours billed for yesterday. What in the world were you doing all day? 4.20 billable hours is unacceptable!"

 

"I had to take some time to go to the nursing home yesterday. There was a problem and they needed me." My voice came through strong, but inside I quivered like jello. I needed this job but there were times when Glenn needed me, too.

 

Gilda glared over the top of her half-glasses. "You have a full-time job here, but unless you start billing 7 hours a day, you'll be sitting in that nursing home all day. Look at this!" She slammed the papers on my desk where I had no choice but to read the spot where her red nail pointed.

 

What I saw there startled me so that I gasped and then bit my tongue, keeping the words I wanted to say locked away. They billed my time as $75-82 an hour, and I get paid less than $25. Less than a third of what the firm gets. I wanted to hurl the papers back at her, but I dredged up every ounce of self-control I had and stood up. Pick your words carefully I cautioned myself.

 

"I'll try to do better. If I have to leave in the afternoon to go to Glenn, I'll come back and work in the evening. I'll see that there is no less than 7 hours a day billed." My words were what she wanted to hear but not the ones I truly wished to say. I'd kowtow to the gargoyle to keep this job, and somehow I'd ask for a raise when review time came around.

 

Gilda snatched the papers off my desk. "I don't give a damn when you work, just see that you get those hours in every day. And remember this--your personal tragedy means nothing to this firm." She gave me one final glare and sailed out the door.