9 Comments

Thanks, Sarah. Mary Karr's book is excellent. I found Natalie Goldberg helpful as well. In addition I recommend "The Art of Time in Memoir" by Sven Birkerts, and "The Forest for the Trees" by Betsy Lerner.

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Oooh, yes, I love Forest for the Trees!

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Being new to the craft, I have read numerous memoirs and books on writing and I must say, my 30 + pages of feedback from my editor has been the best, custom, made to fit, special order training wheels I could ever hope for. Thanks heaps Sarah Chauncey!

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Haven’t read (yet) the Seven Drafts, but I think you nailed it. The only book I’d add is the one I like best: Tristine Rainer’s Your Life as Story—which really should be made available via Kindle.

Thanks for the informative post.

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Oh yes, that’s a great one, too. That was actually the book I was talking about when the UK author asked me that question 😄 Thanks for mentioning it!

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Funny. Small world. I look forward to our meeting and learning a few things from you that will improve my book!

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I loved Mary Karr's book, which you'd recommended to me. Am currently reading 'The Book You Were Born to Write' by Kelly Notaras and finding it valuable as well.

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Thanks to you and maybe an earlier comment, I’m also reading Kelly’s book. Having read about twenty or thirty of these types of books, this one ranks in the top ten! Thanks for commenting about it.

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Oh yes, that's a great one, too!

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