The Personal to the Universal, and Other Priorities in Contemporary Memoir

Have you browsed the narrative nonfiction shelves lately and thought, “Oh man, I don’t have it in me to read another grief memoir”?

Here are a few thoughts on the memoir market as it stands, a few things you might prioritize inside and out of your own work. A note before we get started: This blog post should be seen as a primer. It contains observations I’ve made in the recent past, while working with memoirists who have attained agent interest, that I feel will help improve memoirists chances of trade publication, but it is certainly not the be all, end all of advice.

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4 Ways to Be More Creatively Productive at Your Writing Desk

I want to begin by asserting that it is not absolutely necessary that every writing session be focused on cranking out new words. There’s something to be said for creative play. Some of the greatest melodies of the twentieth century came from talented musicians noodling around on their guitars for an afternoon! However, if you’re up against a deadline or you’ve had several writing sessions in a row that you could call a wash, here are four ways you might be able to bribe yourself into creative focus and productivity.

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Ask the Editor: "Help! I have too many book ideas!"

Do you have too many book ideas and too little focus? How will you ever complete one project if these shiny, new concepts get in the way?

In this blog post, explore the pros and cons of being a multi-concept writer and learn four ways to work around this “good problem to have.”

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How to Use All Five Senses—Not Just Sight and Sound—to Bring Three-Dimensional, Immersive Description to Your Book

We as novelists and memoirists, due to the nature of our medium, can manipulate more of the five senses than screenwriters can. There are three other senses we can take advantage of that haven't necessarily worked well for cinema before: smell, taste, and touch. Read on to learn more.

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