Writing Life Stories and teaching Memoir

I like to teach memoir writing and will be teaching an online class for the Institute of Continuing Learning, ICL, beginning July 13. 

I have been my family historian for years and have collected many stories about my ancestors and my immediate family. I have binders filled with family history and tons of stories on my computer. 

I published a family history book in 1998 and have used that book as a reference for other stories I have written. 

These are some of the things I teach my students about writing memoir:

Factual details paint the story's canvas. But the emotional truths comprise the story's soul.

Writing is Rewriting

Writing never comes out perfect the first time. Good writing means rewriting. Give yourself the time and space to rewrite material, until you have something that is an authentic expression of your life, voice and wisdom.

Get Support

Find a writing teacher, take writing classes, read what you want to write.

Find a writing friend or a group that will tell you the truth about your work.

A coach or writing teacher can guide and advise you, especially when you are not sure how to proceed.

Hold on to Your Vision

When you are stuck or discouraged, remember why you are doing this.

Is it to leave a legacy? To share your wisdom?

Think about how happy or touched others will feel after reading your memoir. Think about how your story will make a difference in their lives. Think about how satisfied you will feel completing it.

Hold on to your vision of completing your memoir.

The good thing about teaching classes on Zoom is you can take this class no matter where you live. I would love to have students who live far away from our mountains in North Georgia or Western North Carolina. 

Writing about our lives, our families and ourselves

Today is Sunday already. I slept most of Saturday. I needed the rest from the chronic pain I seem to live with daily now.

But I am working on getting it under control. I have a writing class coming up on April 30, Tuesday at 2:00 PM. This is a memoir class sponsored by ICL, the Institute of Continuing Learning at Young Harris College.

ICL has been around for a number of years and they engage talented instructors in varied subjects that teach classes for adults, most of them retired people who live in our area. I have learned from some excellent teachers there, and I have taught several times as well.

Once an older adult told me, "My grandchildren think I grew up when people traveled in covered wagons, so I decided I needed to write about what my life was like."

I have been told, "I don't know how I can write about seventy years of life. It is just too overwhelming!"

That is why I help my students write about the most important parts of their lives and they can take it one small part at the time. You know the old saying How do you eat an elephant? One bite at the time.

When I wrote my family history book, I decided to write about my grandfather and grandmother and their ten children. I told the stories of each one of them in a few pages, and then I added the genealogy of each of them. They were not rich or famous, but their lives were examples of rural life in the late eighteen hundreds and early twentieth century in north Florida and south Georgia.

My grandfather, Tom Council, was born in 1858, a short while before the Civil War began. His father served in the war and was taken prisoner. They lived in a rural area south of Tallahassee, Florida. Everyone in the family worked in the fields on the farm.

Tom's first child, a girl, was born in 1878 or 1879. His first son, born in 1883, died at the age of 14 from malaria. He is buried at the Council Cemetery in Wakulla County Florida.

The family moved up to south Georgia after John Henry died and the other children had a completely different life. The cotton mills were being built in the south by men from the north. Since there were no child labor laws at the time, all of the children in the family worked in the mill. The girls enjoyed their new life much better than working on the farm. In their teens, they married and began families. 

In the 1920s, Florida began booming with growth and drew most of the family members to the Tampa area. All of my father's brothers and sisters ended up down there. I still have many cousins in the Sunshine State.

I was so fortunate that my mother and my cousins told me their stories. I had to edit most of them and tried to include only the most interesting parts for my readers. 

Now I am working on writing about my brothers and sisters and my parents. Each one of them has a story that is unique and interesting. I hope I do them justice.

My mission in teaching is to help my students create interesting nonfiction narratives while including the facts in their lives or the lives of their family members. We can only do our best to tell the truth as we know it and remember it because no two people will remember exactly the same things. 

I look forward to my classes, hearing the stories written by my students and helping them create the best narrative they can. We write short pieces that I use to teach the basics in writing. 

My classes are listed on www.glendacouncilbeall.com under Studio Classes and Off site Classes. I am so pleased when students write to me and tell me how much they enjoy our time together.

De-Stressing, taking off a few of my hats

I wear too many hats I've decided. Can't keep up with everything these days. So, what to do?

Saturday we will have our last class at Writers Circle for this season. I will concentrate on changes I want to make in the studio and downstairs. I will have all winter to get things done.

My last class at TCCC ends in October and I will not teach again until next year. As much as I love teaching senior adults to write about their lives, I need time for myself now. 

When those two hats are hung up until next year, I will still have another hat on - working with individual writers and poets to help them complete goals for their writing. 

But this winter I will put in place a new schedule for the coming year. I will work more from home, in my studio, and will not be hosting as many out of town writers as I have done in the past. 

I have been asked to teach more at my studio instead of the college. I have also been told by several people that I don't charge enough for my classes. I know that, compared to other writers and teachers, my fees are very low, but hesitate to charge what I should. However, I must. The cost of living has increased and my fixed income has not. 

Lexie loves to ride in her car seat where she can see everything.

Plus--I have a second mouth to feed. Lexie eats like a small horse even though she is only 8 pounds. But the biggest expense of having Lexie is making my house and yard escape-proof. I  had a new gate built for my upper deck because she jumped the other one any time I left her out. I have to replace the carpet on my stairs and upstairs office because she thought the carpet was her special place to potty. All of this has been costly. But when she cuddles up with me and looks at me with those sweet eyes, I know I will work as long as I have to if it helps me keep this lovely little thing safe and happy, and keeps me from being angry at her for soiling my floors. She is a year old now and she is good about going outside but it is too late for my carpet. 

My goal is to make my life more stress-free and to spend more time with those I love. That will mean taking off some of my hats, I think. At least I am realizing that I need to take more time for me - to rest, to sit on my deck and enjoy my garden, to read some of the many books I've stacked up and never get to, and to watch my little dog play. Time passes way to fast. I have books to write and publish and the days grow short when you reach September. 

IMAGINE THIS - writing and publishing a book

Today I received an email from Gene Vickers, author of Imagine This, the Tale of Two Bears. 

In this email Gene sent a list of places his recently published book can be found online.

Here are the links to Gene’s eBook listings:

Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Imagine-This-Tale-Two-Bears-ebook/dp/B01BECUJVW/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1455160410&sr=1-1&keywords=Gene+Vickers+Imagine+This

Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/imagine-this/id1082536984?ls=1&mt=11 

B&;N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/imagine-this-gene-vickers/1123354090?ean=2940157624385 

Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/imagine-this-12 

I am excited for Gene. He was my student for a year while we worked on this book. Together we worked on all the basics of writing because Gene had never taken a writing class. I was impressed. He was a quick learner and practiced what he learned in his revisions and re-writing. 

Gene has a terrific imagination and can create a story in a few minutes. His stories are not the usual subjects one might find in today’s magazine. They grab the reader and keep her turning the pages.

Imagine This is the tale of two grandparents who are feeling the void of the empty nest. Their children are grown and live far away. The grandchildren come and leave too soon while Papa and Mema stand with tears running down their cheeks as they wave goodbye. Mema, the nurturing mother and grandmother, hurts the most when she enters her suddenly quiet and lonely house.

Gene Vickers with Bear and Lilly

It is not that the grandparents don’t keep busy. Papa is a woodworker who has a shop in his garage. He goes fishing and visits with his friends for coffee each day. Mema stays busy with church and her friends, but both have lost their inner child, their playfulness that children bring out in all of us. When we lose our ability to create, to imagine, we become old, feel useless, and lose our spontaneity and sharpness. Mema found a way to imagine, and to believe as well, with the help of a little stuffed bear. This book is unusual because it appeals to children and to adults. The best way to enjoy this book is to read it to the children, I believe. Grandparents should have a copy for when the kids come. 

When Gene came to me for help with his writing, he said he wanted to publish this book for the public but more importantly, for his family, his grandchildren. 

As I tell all of my students, I said, “You will have to be willing to have the book read by others and edited by others to make sure it is the best it can be.” 

Before it left my hands, it was copy edited and content edited by two competent people other than me. Today’s authors speak of beta writers, qualified people who read a manuscript from front to back and give constructive critique. An author who has excellent contacts with other writers often finds beta writers among his friends, in his writing groups or online. An author can also pay for beta writers, but the best authors have many pairs of eyes read their manuscripts before sending them to the publisher. 

I could not advise Gene as to where he might find a traditional publisher for this book that was not just a children’s book, but was written with grandparents in mind. I knew if he began trying to publish traditionally, it would be a long, drawn out experience that could be very disappointing. For one thing, he didn’t have a readership. Publishers today want an author to already have a following. His best chance was finding a small press, but they won’t publish a book that they don’t feel will sell well. Unless an author has been writing and reading his work to the public, or publishing his stories in journals or magazines, he will have a hard time marketing a first book. In today’s literary world, most small presses will want an author to have an online presence with followers. 

Gene contacted Georgia Mountain Publishing, LLC. He worked with Barbara Harkins who continued the editing process until she and Gene hammered out the final copy. Gene had to face some difficult truths about publishing, things new writers always have to accept. He had to listen to an experienced publisher who had to convince him of what was best. I was not surprised. Other students of mine had to learn to put their trust in strangers; editors or publishers who know the ropes. Those professionals can make a huge difference in the outcome of a book.

The Hard Work Begins

Once a book is published, the author is in the writing business. The hard work begins once the book is printed. Marketing is not in the DNA of writers. We sit alone and pour out words, tell our stories, and feel good when someone likes what we write. 

That is why in recent years I have begun to hold workshops on publishing and marketing. In May we will hold a three-hour workshop on publishing and on another Saturday, we will discuss marketing. 

Tara Lynne Groth will teach at Writers Circle in August. She will share her vast knowledge of online marketing and using social media to promote our writing. 

Beginning Tuesday, March 1, I will teach a six-week course in creative writing at Tri-County Community College in Murphy, NC. 

This class is for people, like Gene Vickers was, who would like to write, have not taken writing classes but want to learn the basics of what is needed to complete a story, poem, or true stories about their lives. Even those who have published a poem or short story will benefit from the class if they want to move forward. 

My students say at first they were afraid to take a class, but once they came in and found all the other folks felt the same way, and no one was going to make them feel bad, they suddenly began to enjoy the class. Few people drop out of my classes once they have attended a couple of times. Most people repeat the classes several times to stay motivated and to learn more and more.

To register for my class beginning March 1, 6 – 8 p.m. Tuesdays, contact Lisa at the college. Fee is only $35 for twelve hours of instruction. Great deal.

To Register: Contact -Lisa Long 

Director of Community Outreach

(828) 835-4241

lthompson@tricountycc.edu

Nothing pleases me more than the success of my students. I love to help a fellow writer on the way to reaching his goals. If that was not so, I would sit home and write all day every day instead of teaching and inviting instructors to come and teach at Writers Circle. If I had found classes and writers in the state and town where I used to live when I was younger, I might have begun publishing much earlier than I did. Don't put off something you have always wanted to do. Do it now.

Leave your family a treasure - your life's story

I am always happy to see on my Stats that my blog is read in countries far from where I live. Next to the United States, my largest number of pageviews come from Russia. In fact, all of western Europe shows on my map.

I'd love to hear from real people in those countries and not anonymous Spammers. I used to follow a blog by a woman in Australia. I enjoyed her so much, but she disappeared off the Internet. Another woman in England had a very interesting blog, but I lost her, too.

Lately, I've been so busy that I can hardly keep up my two blogs. Besides this one, I also post on my Writers Circle blog. I write about the classes I teach and the instructors who come to my studio and teach. I spend much time on the computer. I get email from writers who want my help or want to know where they can take classes. Some just want to ask me questions about the craft of writing. Many ask about publishing. My advice for most is this: Learn to write well before you consider publishing. Take classes, workshops with good teachers. Read books on writing and write as often as you can. Invest in your writing - both time and money. 

Two of my aunts back in the '40s

I will be teaching another class beginning September 1 at the local community college. This is a 2 hour, once a week class on writing about your life for your family or for publication. This is the most popular class I teach. I had a call from someone who lives about an hour from me and she wants me to come to her town and teach. I enjoy teaching older people. They have the most wonderful stories about their lives. The older the person, the more unusual stories they have to tell. The stories by people who grew up in the northern part of the country or in the west are fascinating to me because their lives were so different from mine. 

It is never too late to tell your life story. Don't worry where to begin. Just start with something in your life you want to tell about. Don't try to begin at birth and tell every detail. Just tell the most interesting parts of your life. Try to tell your stories in an entertaining way. Picture youself on TV and you and others are acting out the episode you want us to know. Write the story in scenes.

Try it. It is fun. Collect those true stories or personal essays and one day you will have enough to make a book for your family. Although they might not seem to be interested right now, they will one day treasure your words.

Have you written anything to leave your children or grandchildren?

Dana Wildsmith reading and singing - makes you laugh and sing with her

Delightful writer, Dana Wildsmith from Bethlehem, Georgia loves to sing as well as she loves to write. See her on this video. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jG-fLs0KLY

A reviewer says of her poetry book, A GOOD HAND,
"Great read on simple joys of life including seasons, dogs, and community. Dana has a true voice that sings, on and off the page!"


BACK TO ABNORMAL: SURVIVING WITH AN OLD FARM IN THE NEW SOUTH:

I purchased the book directly from Dana when she read at Writers' Night Out in Blairsville, GA, and I'm so glad I did. While it's true that it's theme is that of preserving, and not destroying, I honed in on Dana's wise advice to aspiring writers like me. I aspire to write about my family history and make it interesting to folks who don't know us. In Dana's words, like, "... Writers write to figure out the why of what is.", I found considerable insight into why I want to write, as well as how to go about it. I recommend the book as a writing handbook as well as a treatise on how to take care of our earth. Thank you to Dana for her sage advice. --- Ellen Schofield

A reviewer says of her poetry book, A GOOD HAND,

"Great read on simple joys of life including seasons, dogs, and community. Dana has a true voice that sings, on and off the page!"

The intertwined essays in BACK TO ABNORMAL: SURVIVING WITH AN OLD FARM IN THE NEW SOUTH spin out from author Dana Wildsmith's daily life on an old farm in the foothills of the north Georgia mountains, to the regional world of the ESL classes she teaches, to the national scope of her work as a writer and a teacher of creative writing.

The chapters read like a string of summer front-porch evenings with the author - talking about her past, her work on the farm, the people she lives among, and the eternal puzzle of how to make sure her time on this spot of earth continues whole, healthy and life-sustaining.

Environmental writer Jeff Biggers calls BACK TO ABNORMAL "a testimony to what we risk to lose."

Philip Lee Williams, a Georgia Author of the Year, says, "The rural world needs all the friends it can get, and it has here found the champion it deserves."

Writer & teacher Darnell Arnoult says BACK TO ABNORMAL is "a sharp and compassionate anthem and prophetic elegy to the pastoral standing ground against the hungry and devouring teeth of suburban sprawl." www.MotesBooks.com ~

Register for Dana's writing class, Words are All We Have, at Writers Circle on April 25, Saturday 10 - 1:00, by calling 828-389-4441 or emailing glendabeall@msn.com

Print the registration form found at www.glendacouncilbeall.blogspot.com 
Mail with your check to address provided.

Writing classes at Tri-County Community College in September

I finished my August class at Tri-County Community College last night. This was one of those groups of people who seemed to bond right away. Their enthusiasm motivated each other. Their enthusiasm motivated ME. 

We had one man and seven women in the class. Our lone male stood his ground well but was not arrogant or combative as some men are when outnumbered by the opposite sex. He was a gentleman of the old school and a good writer. His subject was military life in Viet Nam, and he made us laugh.

Because everyone enjoyed this class and wanted to continue, we decided to hold another class beginning September 2, Tuesdays, 6 - 8 p.m. The title of the class is Write What You Like. That means we feature fiction, nonfiction, creative nonfiction, memoir, and poetry to give everyone a taste of it all. But for homework, students write what they like to write. 

I hope anyone who lives locally, in the area of TCCC, will call Lisa Thompson at the Community Enrichment department if you would like to attend four classes in September. The fee is only $29.00, but you must register before class time on Tuesday.

.

A New Student at Writers Circle, Gene Vickers

Mt Zion

By Gene Vickers

The pastor was late and his tardiness allowed time for a sobering walk up the hillside. I didn’t need a
compass to determine which direction was East; all of the headstones and markers faced that way. Hope is ever present, even in cemeteries. A recent burial was indicated by fresh flowers and fresh turned earth; a new neighbor moving into what appeared to be a very old neighborhood. Graves dating from the early 1800s were everywhere. Markers were so old some names and dates were obliterated. Time, the very commodity each one residing here ran out of, is now so brazen as to take away their identities.

As I read names and dates I tried to imagine the era in which they lived and died. What, according to my memory of history, was happening in 1803. Eighteen thirty-five, eighteen fifty-six, and all of the other by-gone years.

As I stood in front of Ezekial Brown’s final resting place, my cell phone rang, breaking the silence of
my contemplation of eternity. I was somewhere between his birth in 1807 and his death in 1886. Why
did I answer my cell phone? Habit, I guess. It was someone doing marketing for a surveillance equipment company. After several no’s, they finally hung up. But Ezekial had closed the door and would not allow me back inside. I couldn’t blame him. Rude is rude no matter the century. I moved on.

Ezekial had a neighbor, a small neighbor, and I decided to read her poetry cut deep into the headstone: “Only five years with us she spent, till God for her His angels sent.” No doubt Elizabeth had brought lots of joy and happiness into her family that sixth day of January, 1929. The Stock Market would crash later that year. It was not the best of years to be born. But the crash of the market paled in comparison to January 25, 1934, when Elizabeth moved here permanently.

“Who wept for this child?” I thought.
“I did and still do,” came a voice into my mind.
I looked next door and there was her mother’s place. Both mother and daughter, side by side, separated only by a few feet of earth and eternity. The hillside seemed alive.
“Come here.”
“No, over here. Come over here and read my name.”
“Please say my name. I haven’t heard it in so long.”

I went to as many as I could, saying each one aloud and reading the birth dates. I purposely did not read the date of their death. Many of the stones were so old and worn I could not read their names. I felt their pain, the pain of being nameless and forgotten. I heard the pastor as he arrived in the parking lot. I could feel the disappointment of those whose names I had not read.

“I will come back,” I told them in my mind. “I will come and visit you again.”

Common Grammar Mistakes You Hear in My Classes

I enjoy newsletters I subscribe to and Dana Cassells' is one of them. In a recent letter she listed the following link for writers.

http://www.copyblogger.com/common-grammar-mistakes/

Copyblogger has a good listing of common mistakes we writers make on our submissions. Many of them we talk about in my writing classes. If you are one of my students or former students, see which of these you have heard before.

Leave a comment telling me, please.

I love reading your comments to this blog. 

Writing Class coming in June

Hope you will join me at Tri-County Community College in Murphy, NC beginning June 5, Tuesday afternoons, 2 - 4 p.m..

For six weeks we will write about our lives, short stories, fiction based on truth, memoir, and family stories. Learn how to combine your stories for a book, market your stories in magazines and journals, how to make true stories entertaining and enlightening and have fun with like-minded people.

To register call TCC (828) 837-6810 and ask for Lisa in Continuing Education.

The cost for all six weeks is $40.00.

Call me at 828-389-4441 or email nightwriter0302@yahoo.com

for more information.

SPRING SCHEDULE FOR JOHN CAMPBELL FOLK SCHOOL WRITING CLASSES

Where: John C. Campbell Folk School, 1 Folk School Rd. Brasstown, NC

Registration/Contact: 1-800-FOLK-SCH or http://www.folkschool.org/

Class Descriptions: https://www.folkschool.org/index.php?section=subjects&subject_id=47


Writing True Stories, March 28-April 3, Instructor Carol Crawford

The Habitual Writer, April 4-9, Instructor Susan Woodring

Nature Writing, Exploring the Natural World, April 18-24, Instructor Elizabeth Hunter

Write Like a Genius, May 2-8, Instructor Maureen Ryan Griffin

Your Poetry: Journey into the Interior, May 23-28, Instructor Nancy Simpson

Writing our Truths

I’d rather teach a week long class or a series of classes where we meet once a week than teach a weekend or one day class. My students need time to learn to trust each other. A beginning writer must be brave and confident in those around him before he divulges his feelings in his writing.
In a good personal essay, the writer must be willing to tell his own story without worrying about being judged. I often tell my students, “Don’t ask you spouse or your family to read your work in progress. While you may have definite ideas as to what you want to write, others can place doubts in your mind and second guess you.”

I found family to be the worst judges of my stories. I’ve heard “you didn’t mention me and I was there.” I’ve also been told that I was completely wrong and the events didn’t happen at all. I understand the fear of offending others with my personal viewpoint. But, as I tell my students, I can only write what I remember or what I took from the experience. I can’t write my sisters’ memories or my brother’s story.

Memory is a tricky thing. No one of us remembers an event the exact way others remember it. Five witnesses see an accident and tell five different stories to the police. We can only tell what we remember.
One student came into class one day and said, “I read my story to my wife last night and she said I had it all wrong.”
“What did she say was wrong?” I asked.
“She said I didn’t tell any details about our son’s birth. I didn't tell about her long labor and the doctor’s words when Jeff was born. But I don’t remember that.”
“She needs to write her story,” I said. “You can only write your memories.”

I heard President Jimmy Carter in an interview say that he and his wife, Rosalind wrote a book together and differed so much in what they remembered and the way they felt about the subject that he finally told the publisher the book could not be written. He and Rosalind could not agree. Thankfully, the publisher told them to each write their own views and memories and he would take care of how it was presented in the book.
If we write about our lives and tell simple facts that provoke no emotion, we will spend many, many hours writing something that will set on a shelf and no one will bother to read it. I could tell how my father bought a farm in 1942 and lived there until he died in 1987.
But, if I want to pass on a book that will resonate with generations to come, I must show how my father struggled. Give examples of the sacrifices made by both parents. Make my reader feel his heart break when his crops failed, when his livestock was killed by lightning, and he almost lost all he and his family had worked so hard to keep. And in a personal essay or memoir, I can tell how his perseverance affected me as a young child and how I see him now that I’m an adult.
That is what I enjoy about writing personal essays and memoir. I can put myself right in there, and give my opinions and thoughts on the subject.