Thanks for sharing your experiences about writing. I liked your mention of cosmic interventions that loosen or guide you when you become stuck in your writing. Not everyone would recognize the correlation.
I love this so much - and there are too many inspiring and wonderful quotes to highlight in one comment! I do have a general request/question - I’d love to get a window into the Memoir Land writers’ practical reality of how they make money. Maybe that’s too personal, but it’s a big part of my continuing quest to create a life that supports writing while also supporting myself materially. I often look for clues in the question about their writing routine to get a sense of whether they’re making money through other jobs (I think some authors I’ve read here are also professors or support themselves through their Substack?) or have made enough through writing books/stories alone. Thank you for all you do for all of us readers and writers who treasure the sense of community we find here! Xo
Brilliant quote: "I always feel a little indignant, when I begin a new essay, to discover that I’ve forgotten how to write one." We can all relate to this!
I look forward to reading your memoir. I remember Lydia Fakundiny— she taught at Cornell when I was in grad school in the English department in the late 1980s. I can't remember if I ever actually talked to her. Mostly I remember that I loved the sound of her name...
This is one of my favorites I've read so far! Really useful and smart--lots of ways I've never thought about writing before, lots of moments where I said YES!
What an extraordinarily insightful and helpful essay on the art of memoir. I will definitely be ordering this book, as a novelist dipping her toes into memoir. But so much of what Nicole says applies to excellent writing of any genre. I love her reminder to focus on the word level, to keep pushing ourselves for the deeper, stranger, truer insight or observation that will hardly ever be the one that first surfaces. That is my experience but that excavation is not easy and Nicole reminds us of the intense devotion required and the joy when we succeed in conveying that truth on the page.
So great to see your Memoir Land Questionnaire, Nicole. Wonderful, thought-provoking answers. A new window on you and your process. I love that Brenda Ueland quote too! 1938! Amazing. I also printed out a quote by Meghan O'Rourke that I think Dinty Moore posted on his FB page recently: "When I write, the process is full of risk, error, and painstaking self-correction. It arrives somewhere surprising only when I've stayed in uncertainty long enough to find out what I had initially failed to understand." It immediately made me think of you and what I've read/heard about your writing process. Hope those who are reading this who haven't read your book will order it right now! So, so good.
Thanks for sharing your experiences about writing. I liked your mention of cosmic interventions that loosen or guide you when you become stuck in your writing. Not everyone would recognize the correlation.
I love this so much - and there are too many inspiring and wonderful quotes to highlight in one comment! I do have a general request/question - I’d love to get a window into the Memoir Land writers’ practical reality of how they make money. Maybe that’s too personal, but it’s a big part of my continuing quest to create a life that supports writing while also supporting myself materially. I often look for clues in the question about their writing routine to get a sense of whether they’re making money through other jobs (I think some authors I’ve read here are also professors or support themselves through their Substack?) or have made enough through writing books/stories alone. Thank you for all you do for all of us readers and writers who treasure the sense of community we find here! Xo
...and I'll add that I just ordered your book! :)
Brilliant quote: "I always feel a little indignant, when I begin a new essay, to discover that I’ve forgotten how to write one." We can all relate to this!
It’s so unfair!
I look forward to reading your memoir. I remember Lydia Fakundiny— she taught at Cornell when I was in grad school in the English department in the late 1980s. I can't remember if I ever actually talked to her. Mostly I remember that I loved the sound of her name...
This is one of my favorites I've read so far! Really useful and smart--lots of ways I've never thought about writing before, lots of moments where I said YES!
What an extraordinarily insightful and helpful essay on the art of memoir. I will definitely be ordering this book, as a novelist dipping her toes into memoir. But so much of what Nicole says applies to excellent writing of any genre. I love her reminder to focus on the word level, to keep pushing ourselves for the deeper, stranger, truer insight or observation that will hardly ever be the one that first surfaces. That is my experience but that excavation is not easy and Nicole reminds us of the intense devotion required and the joy when we succeed in conveying that truth on the page.
So great to see your Memoir Land Questionnaire, Nicole. Wonderful, thought-provoking answers. A new window on you and your process. I love that Brenda Ueland quote too! 1938! Amazing. I also printed out a quote by Meghan O'Rourke that I think Dinty Moore posted on his FB page recently: "When I write, the process is full of risk, error, and painstaking self-correction. It arrives somewhere surprising only when I've stayed in uncertainty long enough to find out what I had initially failed to understand." It immediately made me think of you and what I've read/heard about your writing process. Hope those who are reading this who haven't read your book will order it right now! So, so good.