Several months ago, I visited the Rubenstein Rare Books & Manuscript Library at Duke University. My purpose? I needed to research an individual for a possible picture book biography. Duke housed my subject’s archives in one of their collections. As I sorted through photographs and papers in the quiet of the reading room, I stopped, every so often, to read a letter addressed from friend to friend, mother to child, sister to sister.

Each time I read a salutation, I navigated a mixture of strange emotions. Maybe a little giddiness at access to words intended to be shared between writer and recipient, as if I now knew a secret. Also, perhaps a dash of impropriety as if I were reading someone else’s mail. Which I was, of course, reading someone else’s mail. I’m sure we’ve all been there before, that sense of reading something written to another, something intended for someone else’s eyes—not necessarily yours.

A particular energy arrives on the page when we read an epistolary essay or direct address essay, this form of writing that the author seemingly intends for someone else. As readers, we find ourselves pulled in because of the excitement of being part of an inside conversation. 

Also, maybe we feel just that tiny, delightful touch of sneakiness. Are we supposed to be reading this? Is this a bit like slicing open a letter sent to your sister? Reading your boss’ email? Finding a note slipped into the back of the library book the previous borrower used as a bookmark? No one intended these words for you. Oh, the intrigue!

In my view, the narrator in a direct address essay writes to a “you” character (not to be confused with writing in the second-person point of view). Perhaps a parent, a friend, or a stranger. I consider the epistolary essay to be a subset of the direct address because these essays take the form of a letter. For example: Dear Mom. Love, the narrator. (While I won’t say more about this here, it’s important to note that sometimes the “you” character can be an inanimate object).

One of the noticeable qualities of the direct address or epistolary essay is the sense of intimacy rising from the page. Since the intended reader is no longer a nameless, unknown person, the words often convey a deeper sense of knowing. Of course, increased intimacy isn’t necessarily a characteristic we always want to achieve in every essay. But for certain content, the heightened intimacy contributes to the strength of the writing.

The Writer Benefits of YOU

In addition, I recognize several benefits you as a writer can gain when you use the direct address or epistolary structure:

Circumvent the Internal Critic

When you choose to write your essays directed toward another individual, this can often circumvent that internal critic always wanting to comment from the side. The imaginary audience of possible readers shrinks to just a person: a spouse, a child, a parent, a friend, a stranger you saw at the grocery store. Of course, the presence of one person versus many doesn’t necessarily eliminate the critic’s voice, but it can certainly be a tool that might help.

Bring a Sense of Community

The direct address can bring a sense of community to your writing practice. Often the act of writing is a solitary venture. You craft the words alone. However, with the direct address, you invite another presence into your story, and you remember in a tangible way that you are not alone. This addresses “you” joins with your creative practice.

Communicate a Difficult Subject Matter

The direct address easily becomes a sideways opportunity to explore or communicate topics a reader might directly ignore. The direct address feels somewhat less like the author intends the content for the reader. As a result, the reader can develop more of that “fly on the wall” posture as they engage with the words.

Lower the Stakes

The direct address can reduce the stakes as you are drafting. After all, these are just words you are writing to another person, or it’s just a letter. You may find that you can write with greater ease if you choose a person to write to and then adapt a phrase of encouragement such as, “It’s just a letter. It’s just a letter.”

YOU Leading Us to What’s Next

Up until now, I’ve talked of how the direct address might be a good format for an essay. However, sometimes the direct address is the pathway that leads to the final essay. The direct address can serve as a powerful tool to help you say what you may not have realized you wanted to say. Perhaps you’re trying to write about a conflict with a friend, and you’re struggling to identify the emotion present in a scene. Maybe a helpful strategy is pausing in the work and, instead, writing a letter to that person, an authentic, genuine letter that may enable you to unearth emotions you didn’t realize you had. In the end, you can use this new information to help you craft a stronger essay or other work. Ultimately, the direct address or epistolary form can serve as another pathway to find the deeper material.

Where do YOU go from here?

Maybe you already love the direct address or epistolary essay (yay!). Or perhaps the thought of bringing in this YOU seems strange or unfamiliar. Wherever you may find yourself in the writing journey, here are a couple of writing prompts to help you further engage.

Prompt 1 

1. List five conflicts you’ve had with other people; these can range from minor to major; from just today to a lifetime ago.

2. Pick one item from your list and write a letter to the other person involved in the conflict.

3. Reread what you’ve written. Perhaps this is an essay, OR perhaps this content is the springboard for an essay.

Prompt 2 

1. Think of an essay where you find yourself stuck.

2. Rewrite this essay but begin with a greeting to someone. Perhaps an old teacher, a friend, a relative, your neighbor, a stranger, whoever you want.

3. See if any new content, emotion, or reflection emerges from bringing another into the writing.

Prompt 3

1. Write a letter to your past self or your future self and see what essay may emerge.

2. As with the previous prompts, also examine if this letter brings you new content, emotion, or reflection for future writing.

Of course, feel free to lop off the Salutation and Closing in any of these letters and see what happens.

Prompt 4

1. Take an in-progress essay. Choose a person in the essay to address directly rather than refer to in the 3^rd person.

2. Note what happens to your essay when you do this.

I wish YOU the best with bringing in the YOU!

Examples of Direct Address or Epistolary Essays

• This Far: Notes on Love and Revolution by Daniel José Older
• Girl by Jamaica Kincaid (note that this direct address writing is officially categorized as fiction but still is a powerful example)
• Swerve by Brenda Miller
• For a Recently Disco or a Recently Discovered Shipwreck at the Bottom of Lake Michigan by Matthew Olzmann (an example of directly addressing an inanimate object; note that this example is officially categorized as a poem)
• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates is an example of a book-length epistolary essay

Tell us in the comments: Which of these prompts are you going to use to write a direct address or epistolary essay?

Patrice Gopo is the child of Jamaican immigrants and was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska. She is an award-winning essayist and the author of All the Colors We Will See: Reflections on Barriers, Brokenness, and Finding Our Way (a Fall 2018 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection). Her ties to Jamaica and other parts of the world sparked her early desire to travel to the cities and countries she traced on a globe. In time, as she began writing about her experiences, Patrice became interested in how places contribute to the people we become. Ultimately, she hopes her stories celebrate the beauty of living a multifaceted life. Patrice lives with her family in North Carolina—a place she considers another home. All the Places We Call Home is her first picture book. 

To connect with Patrice, you can find her on her website or follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

The post The Direct Address, Epistolary Essay, and Energizing Your Writing appeared first on DIY MFA.

Have you signed up to be a DIY MFA Radio Insider yet? This is an exciting new monthly newsletter, especially for our podcast listeners. Every month, you’ll get an email from our podcast producer with recaps of the most recent episodes, a curated Listening List of episodes on a particular theme, and other fun goodies we only share via email. Best of all, it’s free to join! The theme for March is Magic, and you can become an insider by signing up with your email at diymfa.com/insiders.

In this episode Jeff Walker and I discuss:

• Why his first launch was the most important and the role his email list played.
• How writers of fiction and memoir can apply his Product Launch Formula to their lists.
• Strategies for determining what your assets are and how to maximize them.

Plus, his #1 tip for writers.

About Jeff Walker

Jeff Walker is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Launch. He teaches people how to launch online courses, products, services, and brands online.

Jeff started his first online business in 1996, and he pioneered the very idea of the online launch. His “Product Launch Formula” transformed the online marketing world from the day it was released in 2005… and Jeff and PLF have never slowed down. Now more than 14 years later, the Product Launch Formula brand is the gold standard in the online entrepreneurial training market. Jeff’s students and clients have done over a BILLION dollars in launches in hundreds of niches and markets… and dozens of countries around the world. 

Jeff lives in Durango, Colorado (because he can live anywhere)… and he loves to get outside for all kinds of adventures. He’s been married to his wife Mary for decades. He’s no longer quite as fast as his kids on skis or mountain bikes… but they still let him come along for the ride.

You can find them on his website or follow him on Facebook, Instagram, or Youtube.

Launch (Updated & Expanded Edition): How to Sell Almost Anything Online, Build a Business You Love, and Live the Life of Your Dreams

The revised and updated edition of the #1 New York Times bestseller Launch will build your business – fast. Whether you’ve already got an online business or you’re itching to start one, this is a recipe for getting more traction and a fast start.

Think about it: What if you could launch like Apple or the big Hollywood studios? What if your prospects eagerly counted down the days until they could buy your product? And you could do it no matter how humble your business or budget?

Since 1996, Jeff Walker has been creating hugely successful online launches. After bootstrapping his first Internet business from his basement, he quickly developed a process for launching new products and businesses with unprecedented success. And once he started teaching his formula to other entrepreneurs, the results were simply breathtaking. Tiny, home-based businesses started doing launches that brought in tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and even millions of dollars. Whether you have an existing business or you’re starting from scratch, this is how you start fast. This formula is how you engineer massive success.

Now the question is this: Do you want to start slow, and fade away from there? Or are you ready for a launch that will change the future of your business and your life?

If you decide to check out the book, we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate link, where if you choose to purchase via the link DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 401

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If you liked this episode…

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Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 401: Marketing Strategies to Help Launch Your Book – Interview with Jeff Walker appeared first on DIY MFA.

But no, our published pieces are captive to the amber of time, words that were written can’t be unwritten. Your writing is out there naked in the world colliding with the viewpoints, critiques, and skepticism of others. 

Returning written words to your imagination isn’t an option, but embracing those words is, no matter how imperfect you might perceive them. An essay collection just might make for the perfect embrace.

More than just an exercise in self-aggrandizement, or a nonfiction writer’s greatest hits, an essay collection can trigger reflection, contemplation, and self and societal assessment in a reader. Essential ingredients for both individual and social betterment. 

No, not everyone’s essay collection will have the might of Toni Morrison’s The Source of Self-Regard, but, of course, not everyone is Toni Morrison. But your resurrected work can provide readers with a unique way of looking at their life, this world, and the people they inhabit it with. 

But choosing exactly what to include out of your massive archive of writing can provide a unique challenge. What stays and what goes? How do you organize it all? And will any of it still resonate with readers after all this time? 

These are questions I was forced to answer while gathering the essays that comprise my collection, Readying to Rise. Hopefully my hard earned knowledge can assist you with building your own essay collection. 

1. Embrace the Past

Reencountering old writing can be scary, in no small part because you’ve hopefully evolved as a person, writer, and thinker since you put the final punctuation mark on a months or years-old essay. 

A friend says old writing can be like bumping into an ex. You’re different and so are they, but no matter how the relationship ended, whether you wish it had concluded differently or not, you have to make peace that you made an impression upon their life, and they yours.  

You were who you were during that time period. And that is completely okay. Chances are, the thoughts, experiences, and interpretation of events then still ring true to someone encountering a similar circumstance that you previously wrote about. One person’s past is another’s present, afterall. 

Maybe you would’ve even drastically changed things had you written the same piece today. But remember writing is like Virgina Madsen’s description of wine in her monologue from the movie Sideways: I like how wine continues to evolve, like if I opened a bottle of wine today it would taste different than if I’d opened it on any other day, because a bottle of wine is actually alive. And it’s constantly evolving and gaining complexity.

Don’t deprive readers of the taste of your past work, the work you were uniquely able to craft on a singular day, just because your own tastes have evolved. 

2. Make Order Out of Chaos

Most of your work was probably intended to live as stand alone pieces without regard to potentially being bound together one day in a single essay collection.

This means you have to go about the business of organizing disjointed columns or essays into something that a) makes it look like you knew what you were doing all along and b) doesn’t completely jar the reader’s sensibilities. Going from a scarthing piece on FEMA’s missteps following Hurricane Katrina to a musing on overcoming severe halitosis probably isn’t the best sequencing. 

Once you’ve identified all the pieces you found fit to reprint, you want to ensure that you’ve categorized them under comprehensible themes. They don’t necessarily have to be grouped by a concrete topic (e.g. politics, culture, art, etc.) but a reader should be able to implicitly understand why an essay was placed where it was.

I originally chose to group my essays under three categories: Tribulations, Trials, and Triumphs that corresponded with essays dealing with my mental health struggles. I eventually decided it would be better to sort them chronologically. 

You shouldn’t try to shoehorn a piece into a category. If you have enough pieces that seem out of place, there’s nothing wrong with simply creating a new category called Random!

3. Pick That Which Endures 

With an essay collection what’s old is new again. A piece you wrote five years ago about the destigmitizatizing mental health in professional sports may now have new relevance given the recent stances of athletes like Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka. Likewise, a profile you wrote about an Afghanistan War veteran’s return home a decade ago might provide an illuminating insight into the recently concluded conflict. 

In both cases, it’s not only that each story has a renewed news peg, it’s that each story deals with underlying issues that will be ongoing long after your book is planted on someone’s self: The normalization of discussing mental health in the workplace, and America’s role in conflicts abroad. 

You want to do your best to ensure that what you’ve selected can add to those continuing conversations. 

4. Your Vulnerability is Someone Else’s Strength

My favorite writer, James Baldwin, once said that a primary reason he wrote was so that long after he’d departed, hopefully someone who was looking through the wreckage of the past for words of inspiration, comfort, and affirmation might find refuge in his work.

Black, gay, and atheist at a time when just one of those identities would invite scorn, prejudice, and even death, he left a goldmine of words for others to find who dealt with racism, homophobia, bigotry, and alienation. 

Writing about your life’s struggles is never easy, especially when you might still be dealing with those struggles.

However, resharing them in the form of your essay collection can potentially make a difference in someone’s life. It can allow them to know that they are not isolated in their experiences. Your words can make someone feel like their life is seen, heard, felt, and potentially rescue them from a dark place.

Add your words to what people might find when they rummage through the past. 

5. Take Stock

You’ve spent years writing. You’ve persisted through criticism, negatively, doubt, and frustration to arrive at a body of work that you should be proud of. While others waited for the muse to strike, you set your butt down solidly in your chair and produced. 

Was everything you wrote Nobel laureate worthy? Of course not.

But in all your writing, you’ve surely crafted something that has the potential to uplift someone, change their bullheaded beliefs, increase their empathy, or just put a smile on their face after a particularly craptastic day. 

The fact that you amassed enough work that can be bound into a collection is an achievement worthy of celebration. It also means that your work as a writer most likely matters to someone, whether dozens, hundreds, or thousands of people, but who cares.

It all means that you haven’t written in vain. And sometimes we all just need a testament to that.

Marcus Harrison Green is the author of Readying to Rise, the publisher of the South Seattle Emerald, and a columnist with the Seattle Times. Growing up in South Seattle, he experienced first-hand the impact of one-dimensional stories on marginalized communities, which taught him the value of authentic narratives. After an unfulfilling stint in the investment world during his twenties, Marcus returned to his community with a newfound purpose of telling stories with nuance, complexity,  and multidimensionality with the hope of advancing social change. This led him to become a writer and found the South Seattle Emerald. He was awarded the Seattle Human Rights Commissions’ Individual Human Rights Leader Award for 2020. You can follow him on Twitter or connect with him on Facebook.

The post #5onFri: Five Tips for Crafting an Essay Collection People Will Read appeared first on DIY MFA.

Ana Maria is the author of Uplake: Restless Essays of Coming and Going and several previous nonfiction books on nature, work, civil, indigenous, and LGBTQ rights. Her previous books include: Reclaimers, stories of elder women reclaiming sacred land and water, which was a finalist for the 2016 Rachel Carson Book Award from the Society of Environmental Journalists, the memoir/history Test Ride on the Sunnyland Bus: A Daughter’s Civil Rights Journey, winner of the 2010 River Teeth literary nonfiction prize, 100 Skills You’ll Need for the End of the World (as We Know It) which is a humor-infused exploration of how to live more lightly on the planet, and two essay collections, Potluck and Now Go Home. 

Her first novel for young people, The Luckiest Scar on Earth, about a 14 year-old snowboarder and her activist father, released in 2017, and her first chapbook of poetry, Mile Marker Six, will appear from Finishing Line Press this fall. 

Ana Maria’s work has been recognized by the Nautilus Book Awards, the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Awards, and as a four-time finalist for the Washington State Book Award. Her essays have appeared in Orion, Ecotone, Fourth Genre, Creative Nonfiction, Brevity, The Normal School, and regularly in High Country News.

After working fifteen years on backcountry trail crews for the National Park Service, she turned to teaching and is currently on the faculty of the low-residency MFA programs at Antioch University, Los Angeles and Western Colorado University.

In this episode Ana Maria and I discuss:

• How to write, assemble, and edit collections for two genres at the same time.
• The importance of non-writing work and why it is so valuable to the process.
• What writers of prose can learn from reading and writing poetry.

Plus, her #1 tip for writers.

About Ana Maria Spagna

Ana Maria Spagna is the author of Uplake: Restless Essays of Coming and Going (University of Washington Press, 2018) and several previous nonfiction books on nature, work, civil, indigenous, and LGBTQ rights, including Reclaimers, stories of elder women reclaiming sacred land and water, a finalist for the 2016 Rachel Carson Book Award from the Society of Environmental Journalists, the memoir/history Test Ride on the Sunnyland Bus: A Daughter’s Civil Rights Journey, winner of the 2010 River Teeth literary nonfiction prize, 100 Skills You’ll Need for the End of the World (as We Know It) a humor-infused exploration of how to live more lightly on the planet, and two previous essay collections, Potluck and Now Go Home.  Her first novel for young people, The Luckiest Scar on Earth, about a 14 year-old snowboarder and her activist father, appeared in 2017, and her first chapbook of poetry, Mile Marker Six, will appear from Finishing Line Press in Fall 2021. 

Ana Maria’s work has been recognized by the Nautilus Book Awards, the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Awards, and as a four-time finalist for the Washington State Book Award. Her essays have appeared in Orion, Ecotone, Fourth Genre, Creative Nonfiction, Brevity, The Normal School, and regularly in High Country News. Her current NF work-in-progress about Chinese miners along the Columbia River in the late 1800s has received support from Washington Trust Grants for Artists Program. After working fifteen years on backcountry trail crews for the National Park Service, she turned to teaching and is currently on the faculty of the low-residency MFA programs at Antioch University, Los Angeles and Western Colorado University.

Uplake: Restless Essays of Coming and Going

For many years, Ana Maria Spagna has stayed put, mostly, in a small mountain valley at the head of a glacier-carved lake. You’re so lucky to live there, people say. She is lucky. But she is also restless. In Uplake she takes road trips, flies to distant cities, fantasizes about other people’s lives, and then returns home again to muse on rootedness, yearning, commitment, ambition, wonder, and love. These engaging, reflective essays celebrate the richness of it all: winter floods and summer fires, the roar of a chainsaw and a fiddle in the wilderness, long hikes and open-water swims, an injured bear, a lost wedding ring, and a tree in the middle of a river. Uplake reminds us to love what we have while encouraging us to still imagine what we want.

If you decide to check out the book, we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate link, where if you choose to purchase via the link DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Mile Marker Six

From the back cover:

From Rancho Cucamonga to the Lost Coast, from the scablands to Tupshin Peak, Ana Maria Spagna’s debut poetry collection quakes with the full magnitude and magnificence of a life spent up close and personal with nature. Coyote pups “nose into rattlesnake weeds” and mud bees nest in knotholes under a “sky awash in waves of stars.” Taut lines etch an account of contemporary life in the Anthropocene, chronicling humanity’s effect on the earth, and just as importantly, the earth’s effect on us. “How rarely, now, we drop to our knees,” Spagna laments, “to protect what’s ours,” though she reminds us that “None of it is ours!” Tender in their recollections and observations, these poems teem with the poignancy, precision, and clarity of cut diamonds or, more accurately, splitting “a fir needle lengthwise to spare it harm.” Pulsing. Dazzling. Fierce.

–Jill McCabe Johnson, author of Revolutions We’d Hoped We’d Outgrown and Diary of the One Swelling Sea

“Having read some of the poems that have become Ana Maria Spagna’s At Mile Marker Six since their beginnings, I can advise the reader to follow—follow her anywhere, into the deep, over the edge, back to brass tacks, and forward into the somewhere that is a dream of the each and the every.  Most crucially—and with a sacredness she invents through her clear-eyed, open-hearted looking—follow Spagna’s language to its precise and lyrical root.  Such is her capaciousness that the poet invites us to introduce what is known to what is felt, and that is where love roosts, not just for us, but for every made, built, or born thing.”

–Carol Ann Davis, author of The Nail in the Tree, Atlas Hour, and Psalm

Ana Maria Spagna’s words invite the reader to embrace the intrigue of the wider world. Her poems are not pretty for pretty’s sake, nor do they distract the reader from things often considered ugly. Love, wonder, and the wild are sacred but also sometimes dirty and dead. Is it dirt or is it soil? To some, it is dirt if it is smeared on your face, but soil if we are planting in it. Spagna’s poems impress upon us this: it is always dirt and it is always soil. She takes the world and pokes at it with a trailside stick – forcing us to pay attention, to gaze, to engage with each object of her noticing.

–Mara Panich, author of Blood is Not the Water

You can pre-order a copy here.

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

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Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 364: How Writing Is Like Walking a Tightrope – Interview with Ana Maria Spagna appeared first on DIY MFA.

1. Be clear on why you’re writing it.

People write memoirs for many different reasons: therapy, vindication, revenge, or merely to tell a good story. Before beginning to write, ask yourself what you hope to accomplish. As I’ve said, I had no intention of writing this memoir, particularly because it delved into a painful chapter of my life, but others convinced me that the story was critical to my own development and that sharing it might help others. 

Now I personally believe that the publication of this book was part of a spiritual agreement between my ex-husband and myself, that it was something I was destined to do. The paranormal aspects of the story definitely make me vulnerable to skepticism—possibly even ridicule. 

That’s another thing about memoir: when it’s published, people will not only judge your book, but it will feel like they’re judging your life and behavior as well.

2. Real life can be as subjective as fiction.

When you write a memoir, your major source of information is yourself: your memory, your perspective, your version of events. Mary Karr, known as “the boss of memoir,” provides a helpful checklist, which includes the advice to “Collude with the reader about your relationship with the truth and memory.” This can often be achieved with a perspective of reflection from the future, when you might feel differently than you did in the moment, or when you see the error of your previous thinking. 

In The Ghost Marriage, I used phrases like “Was it ignorance or fear that prevented me from asking deeper questions, demanding more details?” and “If I’d been older, or wiser, or had children of my own, I might have pointed out…” to show that I, the writer, didn’t necessarily condone my own past behavior.

3. Just because you have a voice doesn’t mean it works on the page.

 Voice is critical to memoir. It’s such a personal genre, readers need to love your voice in order to keep reading. However, our spoken voice isn’t necessarily our written voice. I recently read a memoir by someone I’ve met. In real life, she’s funny and brazen and sarcastic. But on the page she was wordy and grammatically correct and, well, lawyerly (she’s a lawyer). She was so used to writing briefs, crossing every T and dotting every I, that she couldn’t relax on the page. 

There are so many memoirists whose voices I do love: Elizabeth Gilbert, Cheryl Strayed, Glennon Doyle, Mary Karr, to name a few. Their humor and personality are all the more admirable because I know how hard it is to convey that on the page.

4. Your characters are real people who will be affected.

They say to write a memoir as if no one will read it, so you can be as honest and outrageous as possible in your first draft. But the closer you get to publication, the more you need to think about the real people you might be implicating in your story. In my case, I was blessed in that my antagonist—my ex-husband—had died. I could say what I wanted about him. But my children, my step-daughters, and my friends were all still very much alive. For that reason, I changed everyone’s names and left out certain events that I thought would be just too painful for them to read about. The two names I didn’t change were my ex-husband’s and my married name (I’ve since returned to my maiden name). 

When I finally told my children about the book, when I was very close to publication, my son asked if I was still using the family surname. That was their legacy, he said, and an important final layer of privacy. I have to admit that it hadn’t even occurred to me. Fortunately, I was able to do a universal change at the last minute and goodwill was restored. 

Anne Lamott famously wrote, “You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.” While I agree in principle with this sentiment, I also know that I don’t want to lose my family and closest friends over a book.

5. Your life isn’t necessarily as interesting as you think.

Memoir is not biography. It should focus on a period of your life during which something happens to fundamentally change you. That said, you might need to provide some backstory to put that period into context. 

My story didn’t really begin until my marriage began to fall apart, and I struggled to summarize the previous 20 years in just two chapters. Then, when I submitted my 134,000-word memoir manuscript, my publisher strongly suggested editing it to under 100,000 words—trimming 34,000 words meant cutting 25 percent of the entire book. This was not a task I was up to myself. 

After cutting only about 3,000 words, I threw myself at the mercy of a professional editor. Whole scenes and hundreds of pages of dialogue and description that I thought were essential to my narrative ended up on the editing room floor. 

Kirsten Mickelwait is a copywriter by day and a writer of fiction and creative nonfiction by night. Her memoir, The Ghost Marriage, has just been released by SheWrites Press. Kirsten has been passionate about reading and writing for as long as she can remember, but her love of literature was really ignited as an English major at UC Berkeley, where she discovered James Joyce and the expatriate writers of 1920s Paris. She has a few short stories in print (her story, “Parting with Nina,” won The Ledge’s 2004 Fiction Award) and an ambitious first novel, set in six historical periods, sits in some forgotten drawer. She’s an alumna of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, the Napa Valley Writers Conference, and several other writers’ workshops. Kirsten lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and is currently at work on a historical novel featuring several members of the Lost Generation. 

The post #5onFri: Five Things I Learned When I Wrote The Ghost Marriage appeared first on DIY MFA.

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Matt Hongoltz-Hetling.

Matt is a freelance journalist specializing in narrative features and investigative reporting. He has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, has won a George Polk Award, and has been voted Journalist of the Year by the Maine Press association, as well as many other honors.

His work has appeared in varied publications, like USA Today, Popular Science, and the Associated Press, as well as many others. Today we’ll be talking about his nonfiction book: A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (And Some Bears).

In this episode Matt and I discuss:

• Where he visited to conduct interviews with locals that inspired his book.
• How to build positive relationships in the publishing industry when you are not naturally outgoing.
• What fiction and nonfiction have in common.

Plus, his #1 tip for writers.

About the Author

Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling is a freelance journalist specializing in narrative features and investigative reporting. He has been named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, won a George Polk Award, and been voted Journalist of the Year by the Maine Press association, among numerous other honors. His work has appeared in Foreign Policy, USA Today, Popular Science, Atavist Magazine, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, the Associated Press, and elsewhere. He lives in New Hampshire.

You can learn more about Matt by visiting his website or following him on Twitter.

A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (And Some Bears) 

Once upon a time, a group of libertarians got together and hatched the Free Town Project, a plan to take over an American town and completely eliminate its government. In 2004, they set their sights on Grafton, NH, a barely populated settlement with one paved road.

When they descended on Grafton, public funding for pretty much everything shrank: the fire department, the library, the schoolhouse. State and federal laws became meek suggestions, barely heard in the town’s thick wilderness.

The new rules soon caught the attention of Grafton’s neighbors: the bears. Freedom-loving citizens ignored hunting laws and regulations on food disposal. They built a tent city, in an effort to get off the grid. The bears smelled food and opportunity.

A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear is a sometimes funny, sometimes frightening tale of what happens when a government disappears into the woods. Complete with gunplay, adventure, and backstabbing politicians, this is a quintessentially American story, a bearing of our national soul.

If you decide to check out the book, we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate link, where if you choose to purchase via the link DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 321

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Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 321: From Feature Article to Book: The Art of Storytelling in Nonfiction – Interview with Matt Hongoltz-Hetling appeared first on DIY MFA.

The catch, of course? Developing that list of questions can be HARD. Even if you’ve worked on your book for years and know it inside out, you may wonder which ideas or questions will prompt deep and insightful conversation among readers . . . or where to even start with making your list.

But here’s the good news. You already have an excellent place to start: your book’s literary themes.

Yes, knowing your book’s big ideas is key to creating a fantastic list of thought-provoking questions. Don’t worry if you haven’t thought about the themes before, though. In this post, we’ll offer suggestions on which storytelling elements (a.k.a. sources) to review and what questions you can ask yourself so you can identify the themes and figure out what, in your opinion, is most important for your audience to talk about.

Review Your Book’s Plot or Structure

With fiction books and some memoirs, the plot can be a treasure trove of discussion question possibilities. The big events that move the story forward are often the juiciest ones to analyze, especially if the protagonist’s choices or actions cause those events to happen. But sometimes, other plot points that seem less significant are just as noteworthy because of the themes they unearth. Chances are those themes will be the same ones that are explored in the more major events.

How you tackle your review of the plot for discussion question ideas is up to you. You can start with the main plot points, such as the inciting incident, the end of Act I, or the dark night of the soul. Or you can focus on your favorite moments of the story, including game-changing revelations or meaningful exchanges of dialogue or interactions between characters. However you approach this process, use the suggestions below to brainstorm potential discussion questions based on the plot (thought don’t feel obligated to create a question for each of these):

• How is this event significant or meaningful to the overall story? What theme(s) is demonstrated in this event?
• What do the protagonist, the antagonist (if one exists), and supporting characters do during this event? How does this tie into the theme(s) explored?
• What scene(s) may draw conflicting opinions from readers? Could readers have different thoughts on the theme(s) emerging from this event?
• What events may shock or surprise the reader? If so, how and why? How does this impact the way in which any theme(s) is explored?
• How might the reader be able to relate to certain plot events based on their own experiences with the theme(s) explored?
• What else is interesting or important for the reader to consider regarding this event?

Now, what if you’re writing nonfiction that has a clear structure but no plot, so to speak? (A great example of this is Susan Cain’s Quiet.) Instead of looking for plot events, choose the most salient moments in the book—arguments you make, examples or anecdotes you share, notable facts or quotes from other sources—and see what themes emerge. Then determine which of the above questions you can reframe for your purposes. At the same time, remember that your discussion questions aren’t meant to quiz your audience about the details of your book. Rather, invite them to consider how the information you share impacts them and the world at large, as well as why it’s worth discussing in the first place.

Revisit Your Characters

If there’s one storytelling element that readers LOVE talking about most, it’s the characters they “meet.” We can’t help but gush about who our favorite characters are and why, or share memorable snippets of that character’s dialogue. So why not encourage your readership to talk about your characters by means of your discussion questions?

Just as the plot’s events illustrate your book’s themes, your characters—especially the protagonist—will be moving, breathing examples of those big ideas. Each character’s actions, decisions, motivations, thoughts and speech, and lessons learned don’t just reveal the themes. They influence those overarching concepts from the very beginning. So as you look to your characters for possible discussion questions, ask yourself—or maybe the even the characters themselves—any of the following:

• What is the protagonist’s motivation or goal? What theme(s) does it demonstrate?
• What kind of journey does this character take (externally and internally) during the book? How does the character change between Page One and The End? What theme(s) emerge from this arc?
• How do the protagonist’s relationships with other characters (e.g., love interest, mentors, family members, friends, the antagonist) influence the book’s themes? What about these relationships or interactions is critical for your readers to talk about?
• What attributes, actions, or choices from the protagonist or other major characters could draw conflicting opinions from readers? How could this create an in-depth group discussion, regardless of whether it reflects a specific theme?
• What character revelations may shock or surprise readers? If so, how and why? Do they reflect any of the story’s themes? Regardless, how could this foster an interesting discussion between readers?
• What are the most important pieces of dialogue from the book? Why is each quote significant? What theme(s) does each quote reflect?

Other Storytelling Elements

Plot and characters aren’t the only sources of theme in your book. Nor are they the only seeds that can inspire discussion questions. Other crucial elements can reflect the themes and lead to engaging discussions among your readers. So as you review your book for possible questions, consider what else influences your story’s themes besides the first two elements we covered. Here are a few suggestions:

• Setting: How does the book’s setting (location, time period, etc.) influence the themes? What events, characters, etc. are featured specifically because of the setting? (If you’re writing fiction or nonfiction that’s historical in nature, setting-related questions are a must for your questionnaire.)
• Worldbuilding: If you’re working on speculative fiction, what aspects of the story world (e.g., government/power structures, religion, magic system, culture) influence the story’s themes? How do these aspects play a pivotal role in the story? What will readers remember most about this world when they finish reading your book?
• Symbolism: What objects act as symbols? What theme(s) does each one represent?
• Title: Why did you choose your book’s title? Does it hint at any of the themes?
• Other Repeating Elements: What ideas or elements appear repeatedly throughout the book? Why are they important? Which theme(s) do they influence?

Here’s a great example of repeating elements: When I was editing Julie Jacky’s memoir On the Other Side, one aspect of the book that moved me was how Julie’s journey of healing and forgiveness after childhood sexual abuse was full of mentors, from mindset coaches and therapists to spiritual mediums and even her chiropractor. Sometimes Julie had sought out their help and guidance. Other times, she had serendipitously received what she needed at the time. So when Julie later asked me to develop book club questions for On the Other Side, I included a question about mentors, asking readers to talk about the impact Julie’s mentors had on her and to consider the mentors in their own lives.

Meaningful Questions Lead to Meaningful Discussions

Obviously there’s more to consider than the book’s themes when creating discussion questions. For example, how should you phrase your questions? And how many should you include? No matter what, it’s a good idea to check the books you own (especially ones in the same genre as yours or that explore similar topics and themes) to see how the author or publisher handled their questionnaires. This can help you gauge how long you’d like your list to be and how to write your questions in a way that sparks the reader’s curiosity.

Above all, remember that your goal with discussion questions is to get your audience thinking about your book in deeper ways than a simple reading would. So how many questions you ask and how you word them isn’t as crucial as what you ask your readers to think about. Using the book’s themes to help you craft your questions will help you ensure that they touch on topics or ideas that are meaningful to you and your characters. And by doing this, you’ll increase the chances of nurturing equally meaningful conversations among your readers.

Have you created discussion questions for your book(s)? If you have, how did you develop those questions? If you haven’t, what plot point(s), character(s), etc. would you ask your readers to talk or think about? What themes would they discuss as a result? 

Sara Letourneau is a freelance editor and writing coach who lives in Massachusetts. She’s also a poet whose work has appeared in Mass Poetry’s Poem of the Moment, The Aurorean, The Avocet, The Bookends Review, Golden Walkman Magazine, Soul-Lit, and other journals and anthologies. She can often be found performing her poems at local open mic nights, reading good books, roaming the shores of Cape Cod, and enjoying a cup of tea. Learn more about how Sara can help you with your writing at Heart of the Story Editorial & Coaching Services. You can also connect with her at her writer website, Twitter, Goodreads, or Instagram.

The post Creating Discussion Questions Using Your Book’s Themes appeared first on DIY MFA.

Once I retired from full-time university teaching, I felt free to please myself and turned to fiction. Although I had spent all those years teaching students how to read and interpret fiction, I was astonished to find how little my experience of writing nonfiction works of criticism was of use when I came to write Money Matters, my debut suspense novel.

This involved developing an entirely new stance to my readers. I had to adopt a different tone of voice. I was forced to use of words and phrases that I taught my students to avoid. I had to cultivate a flexibility that was the opposite of a tightly structured and argued work of literary criticism.

So here are five things I taught my students to do, and then did the opposite when it came to writing fiction.

Rule 1) Determine in advance what argument you are going to follow

To counter my students’ tendency to stuff everything they found in their research into their work, I always insisted on their offering between a sentence and a paragraph describing their argument.

However, when I tried preparing an outline for my novel, it began to come apart as soon as I started writing the first lines. The outline began with a phone call asking Jenny, my protagonist, to investigate a woman’s disappearance. In the final text, that phone call appears on the ninth page. Considering that this triggers the rest of the action, why did it take nine pages to get to it? Because first I had to get the reader interested in Jenny. She pays her sister Tricia rent to stay in her upscale apartment. Why doesn’t she have her own apartment? That requires a back story of her eviction by a bigoted landlady. Then I had to show the adversarial relationship between the two sisters, and how this originated in their childhood. I needed to contrast Tricia’s money-obsessed outlook with Jenny’s ambivalent attitude to money. Only then could I describe the phone call.

This process repeated itself, often leading to major changes in the outline.

Rule 2) Read up on existing literature and other relevant material addressing your line of argument

I always encouraged my students, before they began writing, to read up on the genre the writer was using and any earlier works that might have influenced him or her.

But when I started writing Money Matters, I found that reading other instances of the amateur detective-cum-suspense novel only restricted my freedom to write whatever I wanted. Besides, I didn’t want to write a conventional detective novel. So I found myself, without setting out to do so, adding elements from more genres – coming-of-age, social and political issues, even romance, while at the same time giving each genre a twist. I calculated this should unsettle readers, unsure what to expect next, which is precisely the effect I wanted. Freedom from what is already written leaves a novelist creative liberty.

Rule 3) Do research first. Then order the research findings into a coherent argument

I encouraged students to go through three phases. First, do as much research as you need to. Next, use those findings to construct a coherent argument. Finally, insert relevant references from the research into the appropriate sections of your argument.

When I wrote my novel I found myself adopting the reverse procedure. Maintaining flow in one’s writing is very important. So whenever I reached a point I needed to research I would write the scene, then research the facts, then rewrite the scene.

For instance, when I wrote about Miguel, the major character of my subplot, being interrogated by ICE, after writing my imagined version I researched the technicalities of fast-track deportation and discovered what this required (like waiving your rights to a hearing before an immigration judge). Then I wrote this new information into the narrative without losing the drama of the confrontation.

Rule 4) Substantiate every element of a critical essay with quotation, notes and a bibliography

I taught students to cite the source of every assertion they made. Any quotation or reference to someone else’s opinion had to be attributed to its textual origin. Everyone in academia is worried (rightly) about the potential for plagiarism. It’s a rule– that to assert something as your opinion that had already been asserted by someone else was to be avoided at all costs.

Of course a novelist is not obliged to cite sources. Rarely do novels have footnotes. Where they do they are for a special effect (such as to root a name or event in history). Even when a novel is given an actual historical or factual context characters can get facts wrong, just as we can do in real life. For instance, Jenny, the narrator of Money Matters, only catches snatches of news on her car radio; so her understanding of the political situation during the mid-term election of 2010 is restricted.

Some critics have claimed that there are a limited number of plots available to a fiction writer. So some degree of similarity between narratives is unavoidable. What fiction writers cannot do is lift text verbatim or barely altered and pass it off as their own.

Rule 5) Write your piece in an appropriately impersonal voice and vocabulary with as much objectivity as you can manage

Students quickly learn to avoid the use of the first person. Students are encouraged to maintain an impersonal stance, as if they were above the fray. Phrases like “It is generally agreed” or “It is impossible to deny” feature all too often. In addition students are encouraged to avoid colloquialisms and abbreviated phrases (such as, “TV” or “isn’t”).

A novel on the other hand demands the personal approach, the conversational tone, the subjective perspective that my students were taught to avoid. For Money Matters I opted for a female narrator who spoke in the first person. Once I discovered her voice the narrative flowed naturally. Just listen to the opening: “Dammit! What’s your problem, I curse at myself in the mirror, applying my morning lipstick.” The personal voice has economically established a number of Jenny’s characteristics. As for distance, that is the last thing you want to establish between your protagonist and your reader – not identification, but closeness. Yes, and swearing when called for. And uncompleted sentences.

At the same time we all need to remember that nonfiction and fiction have one thing in common – they both need to create compelling narratives, however different in kind. Only by making something into a story can we capture the attention of readers. As Joan Didion says, “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.”

Brian Finney is the author of seven nonfiction books and a debut novel, Money Matters, Finalist in the 2019 American Fiction Awards. Check out his website or connect with him on Twitter or Instagram.

The post #5onFri: Five Non-Fiction Rules Fiction Authors Often Break appeared first on DIY MFA.

I have long admired Kelsey’s work as she moves the earth, literally and figuratively. She has been named Canada’s top female entrepreneur by PROFIT, not once but twice. And Forbes calls her a “master builder of ideas, businesses and sky’s the limit futures.”

She has received numerous awards for her businesses in civil construction and real estate where she builds highways, airports and communities.

Her latest project is the internationally bestselling book Success Hangover: Ignite your next act. Screw your status quo. Feel alive again. and it is available now.

So listen in as Kelsey and I chat about this amazing book and how to commit to your dreams even when the world pushes back.

In this episode Kelsey and I discuss:

• The many ways a success hangover can manifest in your life.
• How to know when you’re stuck in the “mediocre zone”.
• The difference between love and lust for your career.
• Turning a sense of discomfort into a sense of discovery.
• Why so many people fail at their goals, and the steps to take so you succeed.

Plus, Kelsey’s #1 tip for writers.

About Kelsey Ramsden

Kelsey Ramsden moves the earth, literally and figuratively. Twice named Canada’s top female entrepreneur by PROFIT, Forbes says “Kelsey is a master builder of ideas, businesses and sky’s the limit futures.”

She has garnered awards and accolades for her businesses in civil construction and real estate where she builds highways, airports and communities. She is mother to three children, a cancer survivor and author of the internationally bestselling book Success Hangover: Ignite your next act. Screw your status quo. Feel alive again. which is now available.

To connect with Kelsey check out her website at kelseyramsden.com or follow her on Instagram @kelseyramsden.

And to get free exercises from Kelsey’s book head on over to www.successhangover.com.

Success Hangover

Ignite your next act. Screw your status quo. Feel alive again.

The milestones of success are obvious: the huge promotion, the big merger or sale of your company—maybe even an IPO. Once we achieve these milestones we’ll finally feel complete, accomplished and whole, right?

That’s the biggest lie in business. The truth is, success creates a wicked hangover…and it’s not one that aspirin can help.

Kelsey Ramsden knows. After achieving every conceivable business milestone, scaling multiple companies to millions of dollars and being named Canadian Female Entrepreneur of the year twice (while battling cancer and raising three children), she didn’t feel complete. Others had her on a pedestal. She felt hollow. Frustrated, she studied why.

She studied this “success hangover” and talked to others who felt the same way. She explored why success doesn’t mean fulfillment and how “what’s next” can be the most difficult question to answer. She explored how our work becomes our identity…and how holding on to that identity can be crippling.

This book isn’t an answer key. It’s a new set of glasses and a wingman to help you find the cure that’s right for you. Kelsey explains why your big moment is often underwhelming (and why that’s completely normal) and how to shorten the period of numbness and despair that can follow. She’ll show you how to clear the fog, reclaim your drive and create a next act that makes you feel alive again. This book is your Success Hangover cure.

If you decide to check out the book, we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate link, where if you choose to purchase via the link DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 257

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio or Google Play and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

Also, remember that sharing is caring so if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please tell them about it or leave us a review so other listeners will want to check it out.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 257: Doubling Down on Your Dream — Interview with Kelsey Ramsden appeared first on DIY MFA.

Today I have the absolute pleasure of speaking with co-authors Anita Sarkeesian and Ebony Adams on the show!

Anita is an award-winning media critic and the creator and executive director of Feminist Frequency, an educational nonprofit that explores the representations of women in pop culture narratives. She is best known as the creator and host of the highly influential video series Tropes vs. Women in Video Games, and she dreams of owning a life-size replica of Buffy’s scythe.

Ebony Adams is an author, activist, and former college educator whose work foregrounds the lives and work of black women in the diaspora. She writes widely on film criticism, social justice, and pop culture, and lives with a steadily-increasing collection of Doctor Who memorabilia.

On top of all this these ladies are now co-authors of the YA nonfiction book History vs. Women: The Defiant Lives that They Don’t Want You to Know, which is a fascinating (and aesthetically beautiful) book highlighting the lives of women who made an impact on the world.

I couldn’t help but fall in love with this book! First off, with its gorgeous illustrations, my inner graphic design geek went off the charts. Then there is the subject matter, which is something I feel super-passionate about, and the fact that it’s YA makes this book even better. When we share the stories of strong, impactful women throughout history with the young women of today, we’re not just empowering the young generation. We’re empowering everybody to help make our culture and our society better.

So listen in as Anita, Ebony, and I chat about this truly awesome book, and the importance of challenging our own perspectives through what we read and what we write.

In this episode Anita, Ebony and I discuss:

• The research technique of “insistent archaeology”.
• How to translate scholarly texts into exciting stories.
• The dangers of passive reading.
• Advantages of the YA genre to get unknown stories out there.
• Why stories about women should be shared with young children of all genders.

Plus, both of these lovely ladies’ #1 tip for writers.

About Anita Sarkeesian

Anita Sarkeesian is an award-winning media critic and the creator and executive director of Feminist Frequency, an educational nonprofit that explores the representations of women in pop culture narratives. Best known as the creator and host of Feminist Frequency’s highly influential video series Tropes vs. Women in Video Games, Anita lectures at universities, conferences and game development studios around the world.

Anita dreams of owning a life-size replica of Buffy’s scythe, and she is the co-author along with Ebony Adams of History vs Women which is available now.

To connect with Anita check out her website at www.anitasarkeesian.com or hit her up on Twitter at @anitasarkeesian.

About Ebony Adams

Ebony Adams, Ph.D. is an author, activist, and former college educator whose work foregrounds the lives and work of black women in the diaspora. She lives in Los Angeles with a steadily-increasing collection of Doctor Who memorabilia.

She writes widely on film criticism, social justice, and pop culture, and along with Anita Sarkeesian is the co-author of History vs Women.

To connect with Ebony hit her up on Twitter at @ebonyaster.

To learn more about Anita and Ebony’s organization Feminist Frequency, head over to feministfrequency.com.

And don’t forget to check out Anita and Ebony, along with their co-host Carolyn Petit, on their podcast Feminist Frequency Radio.

History vs Women: The Defiant Lives that They Don’t Want You to Know

Rebels, rulers, scientists, artists, warriors and villains, women are, and have always been, all these things and more.

Looking through the ages and across the globe, Anita Sarkeesian, founder of Feminist Frequency, along with Ebony Adams, has a PhD in English, have reclaimed the stories of twenty-five remarkable women who dared to defy history and change the world around them. From Mongolian wrestlers to Chinese pirates, Native American ballerinas to Egyptian scientists, Japanese novelists to British Prime Ministers, History vs Women will reframe the history that you thought you knew.

Featuring beautiful full-color illustrations of each woman and a bold graphic design, this standout nonfiction title is the perfect read for teens (or adults!) who want the true stories of phenomenal women from around the world and insight into how their lives and accomplishments impacted both their societies and our own.

If you decide to check out the book, we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate link, where if you choose to purchase via the link DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 242

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio or Google Play and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

Also, remember that sharing is caring so if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please tell them about it or leave us a review so other listeners will want to check it out.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 242: Challenging the Status Quo — Interview with Anita Sarkeesian and Ebony Adams appeared first on DIY MFA.