Writers on Writing
On New Year's Day—when so many of us have set new writing goals—a look back at some craft essays and interviews in "The Lit Lab."
Readers,
Like so many of you, each New Year I find myself setting new writing goals, and hoping I’ll commit to them.
I think I’ve finally learned to set the bar low, so that I don’t too quickly loose momentum and ultimately disappoint myself. For 2025 I’ve made a simple commitment: stop neglecting the writer part of me by work on something of my own each day, at least for the length of a Pomodoro session of between 5 and 20 minutes, as time allows. Seems doable, right? It’s amazing how much even just a 5-minute free-write can help you stay connected to your writing, and yield a decent word count.
How about you? Have you set new writing intentions for 2025? Care the share them?
In any case, this seems like a good day to point you to some useful craft essays and interviews that were published earlier here in Memoir Land’s “The Lit Lab” vertical. (Oh, and don’t forget about all the wisdom shared in The Memoir Land Author Questionnaire series.)
So, with no further ado, here are essays by
, , , , and me (), and interviews with ,, , and .Writing and Rushing
I was on the phone with my mother. It was 2017 and I was mid-way through working on the secondish draft of my novel, Brother & Sister Enter the Forest, and we were having the same conversation we’d had over and over. How was it going? What was I doing, exactly, a few years into it? This time, my father piped up in the backg…
On Keeping (a Giant Chest Full of) Journals
The giant chest full of old journals, archives of my lonely and angsty twenties and thirties, sits beneath the window, tucked away under a low table. The journals are not easy to access; it would require strength and intentionality to pull them out (but that’s okay with me, because I haven’t needed …
Writing Is About Making Choices
One of the most surprising bummers of adult life, in addition to all the brutally boring paperwork involved, is that one has to repeatedly make choices, and furthermore, that whenever we choose something, we are choosing against something else. Even passively letting something happen or not happen is a kind of a choice. And then! Adding insult to injury…
The Problem Isn't Him
The other day, I found a short story I’d written decades ago about a man I knew briefly. The story contains details I’d forgotten about things we did in bed and the way we ended our relationship. I was kind of interested in these details from the point of view of, “Really, I did that? I thought that? That happened?” Maybe the…
How—After 15 Years—I Stopped Panicking, Started Declawing, and Finally Published My Memoir
For years I felt as if I were suspended in amber. But while as a writer I was frozen, as an editor and teacher I was busy encouraging others to be brave in expressing difficult stories that involved other people.
How's the Writing Going, Deesha Philyaw?
As a Black woman and mother in this country, I’ve had to learn to focus and write in the midst of endless terror. For centuries, we’ve had a scream and a song coexisting in our throats. Our stories are our balm and testimony.
Writing with Great Humor About the Hard Stuff
Author, editor, teacher Elissa Bassist is an absolute master of poignant humor writing. I’m always so excited to read anything she writes. I always know that Elissa’s work is going to make me laugh and cry and think and rage, and then laugh and cry all over again.
"I Approached the Writing of this [Memoir] Like a Poet..."
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For this installment, I’ve interviewed poet and memoirist Maggie Smith
about her new memoir, You Could Make this Place Beautiful, which I adored, and could not put down. I think of this book as a sort of meta-memoir: At every turn, Smith interrogates her intentions, the way she portrays herself and her ex-husband, and also memoir as a form.
"Every Time You Start, You Forget What You Know, Which is the Best Way to Start"
For this installment, I’ve interviewed author Abigail Thomas about her latest memoir, Still Life at Eighty: The Next Interesting Thing. In this conversation, Thomas and I talk about her wonderful book, her spare writing style, beginner’s mind, embracing messiness and imperfection, getting older, and the similarities between writing and making things with clay.
Hope you enjoy these, and find them useful. Wishing you a happy New Year, and good luck with your writing goals!
-Sari
Love the idea of a 5 minute free write. I’ve been trying to urge myself to write and lift weights every day but haven’t built it into my schedule so wind up frantically writing to get down my thoughts after they’ve stayed bottled up for too long.
Hey Sari,
thank you for this reminder. I have the same intentions. To achieve my writing goals, I even started counting things like writing 5 sentences or reading your newsletter for inspiration. Because then I feel better and it doesn't force me into the arms of my inner critic.
I love your interviews, they always give me new insights and the push I need to keep going.
Thanks for that.
With joy,
Diana