Welcome to our first episode deep diving the graphic memoir Dancing at the Pity Party by Tyler Feder! Join Ginny and I as we discuss our experiences reading this book (including how this book came to be a part of our friendship origin story). Ginny shares especially poignant insights about how this memoir portrays grief and how it has made her less alone in grieving the death of her own mother.

At the end of 2023 I had the wild idea that this year is the year I write my first memoir. While I’ve been working with memoir writers for years now and write my own essays, I hadn’t had the right spark to write my own actual memoir—and this idea is nothing I expected. In today’s episode I’m inviting you into my head as I grapple with the validity of this idea, starting from square one, and how to craft a plan moving forward. As this writing project unfolds over the next twelve months, I want to bring you into the process, so let’s get started.

Come along with me as I set my writing intentions for 2024. Last year woke up my writing in a new way, and I want to carry the best parts of this rediscovery with me into the new year.

For the last episode of the year, I am getting reflective and marveling on what the year brought me (and you, since you're listening to this episode!). I also share my big dream for this business and the specific types of people I want to ultimately be here for. Thank you for every download, review, and share. You're the heartbeat behind this podcast, and I love you all to pieces.

Today we dismantle the idea that there's only one "right" way to write, because the truth is that your writing life is inextricably connected to your regular life. What that means for you is that 1) you don't have to stress when living your life takes prominence over writing about it and 2) everything you live in your life you can start to see as a writer.

Even though the fantastic conversation is lost forever, I couldn't let us wrap up From the Ashes without breaking it down using the Memoir Method framework.

In this episode with Ginny Walters we talk through our final thoughts on From the Ashes by Jesse Thistle. We are so glad that we read this together and each came away from this memoir with profound takeaways.

In today's episode I have Ginny Walters back with me to deep dive From the Ashes further. We examine how Jesse Thistle uses vignettes to manage the reading experience and guide the reader through what is a very difficult narrative. Writing through vignettes does not come naturally to me as a writer, and so I loved examining this device with Ginny.

I'm sharing a short pep talk that I initially wrote for a live group I ran last November (the precursor to the Memoir Method Live actually!) and is now a part of my mini audio course, A Story Worth Writing. We all need a little pep talk sometimes, and I hope this is one you can continue to come back to.

The Memoir Method Live fall cohort is wrapping up this week, and today I’m taking the time to reflect on what the past ten weeks have meant to me and what I’ve learned from the writers this season.

This week I take you behind the scenes of my first encounters with writers, what I've been calling a "writing strategy call" (but after prepping this episode think I need to rename a "story validation call"). Every writer comes to me with some version of the same questions, and every time I use this framework to empower them to see their story and capabilities differently, giving them more knowledge in how (and if) to move forward.

National Novel Writing Month presents a creative and energetic container for fiction writers, and I want to extend that experience to memoir and creative nonfiction writers. In today's episode I quickly run through some of the pillars of NaNoWriMo and then get to tell you about how to extend that NaNoWriMo experience into memoir writing.

Writing is just like any other endeavor: the more you do it, the better you become. You don’t need to invest eight hours every day to write a memoir. Rather, you can trust that taking small, daily action will yield transformative results.

You want to write and you want to finish your manuscript. Today’s episode is all about how to move you to that finish line and feel confident in your writing. I also have a month-long writing accelerator open for enrollment that will take you even deeper into the strategies and mindsets we discuss on the podcast today.

As you'll hear, Ginny and I had a different episode planned today! Thwarted by technology, I'm coming to you solo today to talk about what a thesis in memoir is, why you need one, and how a thesis will guide the reader's experience with your book.

I get spicy in today’s episode and go to bat for our young writers. We start off talking about Taylor Swift and go into the harm in gatekeeping memoir, rounding off with advice for the young memoirist. I’d love to know your take on young memoirists!

n today's episode we go over our reading experiences of our first quarterly memoir read, From the Ashes by Jesse Thistle. We talk about the premise, the stranger-than-fiction feel of the narrative, and the emotional impact left by the book.

We are taking a pivot this week! Episode 03 was supposed to be a conversation with Ginny and me all about our first memoir read, From the Ashes, but Covid had other plans. So instead I share what I really mean when I say that “your story matters” (and you’ll hear me say this all the time).

In this episode, I take you through what The Memoir Method Framework actually is and how I help writers apply these principles to their writing!