Post #13 – Women’s Memoirs, Conversations – Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler
As you gear up for your weekend, I hope you’ll have time to join us for the Women’s Memoir Writing Conference Call tonight. We’ve gotten some good questions. Here’s what we’ll be talking about:
- Handling traumatic events (such as abuse) in one’s life…handling it in a way that is meaningful not gratuitous.
- Determining what really constitutes the “true” story when different people in the family remember the events differently.
- Finding meaning in your life that is worth writing about.
- Finding a voice for my memoir, which seems right now to be a collection of unconnected (but interesting) events.
- Understanding the role of memoir vs. autobiography.
- Publishing basics, things you need to consider today.
- Remembering the sights, sounds, smells etc when they happened so many years ago, and using them to add sensory detail to your stories.
- Finding verifying facts to support my memories of our family’s story.
- Protecting the innocent–and the not so innocent–I include in my stories.
Here’s your call-in information:
Date: April 3, 2009
Time: 5:30 PM Pacific (8:30 PM Eastern)
Phone: 712-432-0600 access code 998458#
Time: 5:30 PM Pacific (8:30 PM Eastern)
Phone: 712-432-0600 access code 998458#
We look forward to having you on the call.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hello, Kendra! I have written my spiritual memoir about healing from abuse — GROWING UP WITHOUT THE GODDESS: A Journey through Sexual Abuse to the Sacred Embrace of Mary Magdalene.
And linear memory does sometimes fail, but the heart, the inner guide always helps us find our truth that will allow healing. The details don’t matter so much in the long run. The effects of the abuse, whether personal or cultural, attest to the presence of an abuser. Like I write in my book: “The wobble in a star’s orbit and the sudden disappearance of light” let astronomers know a black hole was nearby, long before they had a name for it or could locate it.
What matters is that the abused one knows she was abused, not that others believe it or that the evidence is such that it would stand up in a court of law. For me, decades after the abuse and its negative consequences on my life, my path was about healing, not about getting the perpetrator to admit to the abuse.
Most perps deny, deny, deny.
But their denial does not alter the truth nor prevent healing.
My Best to You,
Sandra Pope
http://www.growingupwithoutthegoddess.com
Hi Matilda and Kendra, These are great questions and issues for memoirists–universal questions that writers of “true” stories must wrestle with. I’m curious about the question of writing so healing abuse is meaningful–as a therapist it seems to always be meaningful to address healing, and wonder if others find it so, or is it just because of my professional bias! Perhaps there are times when one should not address healing? I know you all will have a wonderful discussion.
Linda Joy
Some writing to heal issues will be discussed at the NAMW Writing as Healing Teleconference on April 23. Hope you can join us that day.