Episode 4: Laura Elliott, Ghostwriter
A podcast interview with ghostwriter Laura Elliott, all about deep research, finding inspiration from various sources, and telling stories … even other people’s.
How to Overcome Writer’s Block: Memoir Edition
Many writers run into some form of writer’s block, but nonfiction and memoir writers have certain challenges to overcome writer’s block that fiction writers don’t face. Someone writing a novel can simply … make up what happens next. But memoir writers can feel constrained by wanting to be true to reality.
Unconventional Writing
Publishing loves its buckets. In children's books, there are several buckets that you need to fit into, with word count guidelines and all of that. There are buckets and tropes in adult publishing as well. Books that don't lend themselves easily to categorization can be a really difficult sell.
Relatability In Memoir
It's a weird thing to think of yourself as a character, but it’s something people have noticed a lot in modern memoir. The character in a memoir has trended more and more relatable, more authentic. I think that’s a good thing, but it is also challenging because it asks a lot more of the writer who's writing the memoir.
Someone is Publishing My Idea!?
We've all heard people who claim that somebody took their idea and is now publishing it, or that somewhere somehow, another writer has come up with basically the same idea, sold it, and now, what does that mean for your idea?
Permission To Write
Writing invariably is a passion for a lot of people that I work with. And they just, for whatever reason, have not been able to sort of devote themselves to it until now. And that's usually when they come to me and I plug into their process.
Writing Bravely
The number one consideration of writing memoir for our day and age is that we need to be authentic and we need to be brave. You're writing a memoir because you have lived an interesting, unique, unlikely experience. And then you have also done the work to make something of that experience, to realize its lessons without preaching.
How to Create A Story
This one's for all the people who are still casting around for an idea. How do you create a story? What matters to you, and what matters to readers?
The Body and Soul of Story
Stories are like people. They have a body, and a soul. The body is the plot, the actions that happen. And the soul is the character, the protagonist, the key person (or persons) bound by the circumstances of the plot and forced into decisions.
How to Write
Here's an energizing pep talk on how to write, including the ingredients you need to get started and keep going.