Making a Commitment to Your Writing

Showing up for yourself and commiting to your writing

Hello Memorists!

Last week’s Speaking Your Story session was, as usual, inspiring, entertaining, and wonderful. If you haven’t come to one of these yet, you really should. They’re free and are a highlight of my month–I’m sure you’ll find the same. Sign up for the next session on July 25 here.

As I mentioned in that session, I made a big commitment to myself and my writing. I signed up for Brooke Warner’s 6 Month Memoir class and with the weekly goals and resources, I will complete my memoir by December.

Our first assignment was to write a letter to ourselves. It was such a motivating experience! So often, we writers get caught up in second-guessing ourselves or let distractions and conflicting demands for our time pull us away from our writing. We lose touch with why we started and our goals can seem always out of reach. This exercise really helped me reconnect with my “why” and it felt so good to make a written commitment to myself and to my writing.

Here’s my letter to myself

Your turn! Write a Letter to Yourself:

What are your dreams and aspirations for your memoir. Uncover why you were drawn to write your memoir in the first place. What is the passion or reason? What is driving you? How long have you wanted to tell this story? What do you hope to accomplish by the end of the year? What steps can you take to make that happen?

If you would like to share, please reply to this email or drop me an email

Mid-Year Review and Goal Planning

If you’re struggling to reach your writing goals (and who isn’t?), Charlie over at Urban Writer’s Retreat has this lovely free resource that can help you plan the rest of your year and celebrate what you have accomplished this year.

https://urbanwritersretreat.co.uk/writing-planner-workshop/

Until we meet again, wishing you all a week filled with laughter, exploration, and boundless creativity.

Warm regards,

~Christina

**Book Club July 11 – You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith**

This time, we’ll be discussing:
You Could Make This Place Beautiful, by poet Maggie Smith

What it’s about:
“Life, like a poem, is a series of choices.”

In her memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful, poet Maggie Smith explores the disintegration of her marriage and her renewed commitment to herself. The book begins with one woman’s personal heartbreak, but its circles widen into a reckoning with contemporary womanhood, traditional gender roles, and the power dynamics that persist even in many progressive homes. With the spirit of self-inquiry and empathy she’s known for, Smith interweaves snapshots of a life with meditations on secrets, anger, forgiveness, and narrative itself. The power of these pieces is cumulative: page after page, they build into a larger interrogation of family, work, and patriarchy.

You Could Make This Place Beautiful, like the work of Deborah Levy, Rachel Cusk, and Gina Frangello, is an unflinching look at what it means to live and write our own lives. It is a story about a mother’s fierce and constant love for her children, and a woman’s love and regard for herself. Above all, this memoir is “extraordinary” (Ann Patchett) in the way that it reveals how, in the aftermath of loss, we can discover our power and make something new and beautiful.

Come on by for insightful conversations, even if you haven’t read the featured book.

Book club questions can be found here: https://memoirmentors.com/book-club-questions/

Upcoming events

I’d prefer that you sign up through Meetup so I know who to expect and so that you know what the agenda is for the week, but if that’s too problematic, you can go directly to the Zoom link that we use every week:
https://zoom.us/j/4400465879?pwd=R0Y0RUp4YjAvdnJCODV0MkhNMXlmdz09

Goodies

Here are the articles I found inspiring this month:

“My Poetry Background Helped Save My Memoir–But Bot Before It Nearly Did It In”
https://brevity.wordpress.com/2024/04/18/my-poetry-background-helped-save-my-memoir-but-not-before-it-nearly-did-it-in/

“Tapping Memory and Generating Ideas for Personal Essays”:
https://writeordie101.substack.com/p/tapping-memory-and-generating-ideas?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

I’ve loved nearly everything I’ve read from the folks at Write or Die 101, you can sign up here:
https://writeordie101.substack.com/

Fundraiser Update

Your continued support has brought us closer to our €4000 goal, and I’m thrilled to share that we’ve reached €943. Thank you to all who have contributed thus far; your generosity sustains our community.

If Memoir Mentors has played a meaningful role in your writing journey, please consider contributing.

Contribute Now

Your support means so much to me. I’m profoundly grateful for each of you.

Ideas? Questions? Suggestions?

Reply to this email and let me know or reach out directly at: xtina.howell@memoirmentors.com