Submit Your Writing Assignment: Part 2 of the Memoir Webinar with Abigail Thomas

Click on image to replay the webinar.

 

MBCN and SHARE had a terrific time with Abigail Thomas during  Part One of our Memoir Writing webinar. She is funny, warm and honest–what a pleasant distraction on a cold winter’s day.

You can listen to a recording of her talk here; Abigail’s presentation, including several of the poems she referenced, can be found here.

Abigail gave us an assignment for next week’s session. Write two page on one of the following topics:

• 9 Things I Do Remember & 9 Things I Don’t Remember
• It Takes Place in Water
• It’s Not Funny (With “It’s not funny” being the second sentence.)
• There Are Many Things I Miss
• I’m Afraid of the Attic
• Any Ten Years of Your Life (Using sentences that are only three words long).

 

Don’t be shy! Send your two pages to cbenjamin@sharecancersupport.org

 

Abigail has graciously agreed to read participants’ submissions and share some of them next week. When you’ve got two pages on your chosen topic, send them to SHARE’s Christine Benjamin: cbenjamin@sharecancersupport.org. Christine will send them on to Abigail.

It will be fun–why not try it?

Part Two is Tuesday, February 24, 2015, from 1:30 to 2:30 PM EST. If you haven’t done so, register here: http://www.sharecancersupport.org/share-new/learn/programs/write_your_own_memoir/

Hope you can join us!

Memoir Webinar With Abigail Thomas Starts Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2015

How do you get started? Abigail Thomas offers some insights.

 

Are you ready? Part One of MBCN/SHARE’s memoir writing webinar takes place Tuesday, February 17; Part Two follows on the next Tuesday, February 24, 2015. Both take place from 1:30 to 2:30 PM EST. Register here: http://www.sharecancersupport.org/share-new/learn/programs/write_your_own_memoir/

Presenter Abigail Thomas has given us a two-page writing “assignment”:

1. Take any 10 years of your life.
2. Reduce them to two pages.
3. Each sentence should be only three words long.

Example: He was cute. I was clueless. It seemed right.

(We hope you can complete this assignment prior to the webinar—but if you can’t or don’t want to, you’ll still enjoy the webinar. There’s no obligation.)

Here’s what Abigail will talk about:

• Why memoir?
• What IS memoir?
• What kinds of memoir are there, what are the rules? (There are no rules except for honesty.)
• What goes in memoir
• Finding a side door when the direct approach is too daunting
• What to do when something gets in the way.
• Is there a different objective for cancer patients or survivors than other people?
• Clarity: surprise yourself, be not a victim nor an angel
• NEVER worry about what others will think.

 

About Abigail Thomas

Abigail Thomas (Photo by Jennifer May)

Abigail Thomas, the daughter of renowned science writer Lewis Thomas (The Lives of a Cell), is the mother of four children and the grandmother of twelve. Her academic education stopped when, pregnant with her oldest daughter, she was asked to leave Bryn Mawr during her first year.

She’s lived most of her life on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, and was for a time a book editor and for another time a book agent. Then she started writing for publication. Her first three books “Getting Over Tom,” “An Actual Life,” and “Herb’s Pajamas” were works of fiction. Her memoir, “A Three Dog Life,” was named one of the best books of 2006 by the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post. It won the 2006 Inspirational Memoir Award given by Books for A Better Life.

She is also author of “Safekeeping,” a memoir, and “Thinking About Memoir” and the soon to be published “What Comes Next and How to Like It,” a memoir coming out at the end of March from Scribners. She teaches writing workshops and leads the Memoir Group at Kingston ‘s Oncology Support Program of the Health Alliance of the Hudson Valley.

Abigail lives in Woodstock, New York, with her dogs.

 

Stay tuned: We’ll have some more material to share.

Hope you can join us!

Register here: http://www.sharecancersupport.org/share-new/learn/programs/write_your_own_memoir/

Memoir Writing Starts Tuesday, February 17th

Did you do your two-pages yet? Remember: every sentence should be three words long. Do it now!

It’s less than a week until MBCN/SHARE’s memoir writing webinar! Have you signed up?

 

Part One is Tuesday, February 17; Part Two follows on the next Tuesday, February 24, 2015. Both take place at from 1:30 to 2:30 PM EST. Register here: http://www.sharecancersupport.org/share-new/learn/programs/write_your_own_memoir/

 

Presenter Abigail Thomas has already given us a two-page “assignment”:

 

1. Take an 10 years of your life.
2. Reduce them to two pages.
3. Each sentence should be only three words long.

Example: He was cute. I was clueless. It seemed right.

Thomas is famous for this exercise—read what she told Oprah’s readers here.

Please have your two-page assignment done before our first webinar on February 17. (Please be assured you can still participate if you haven’t done the assignment–if you can do it, great, if you can’t or choose not to, that is fine, too.)

For those “keeners” as our Canadian friends call them, here is some additional reading material compiled by MBCN.

Great Questions for Anyone

Are you helping someone write their memoir? StoryCorps offers this list of questions to help get the conversation started. Here is a video that explains how you can interview someone to preserve their story.

 

Thinking About Memoir by Abigail Thomas

“Be honest, dig deep or don’t bother,” says Abigail Thomas in this 128-page guide. Thomas includes writing prompts throughout her book as well as adding several pages of writing prompts at the end.

 

The Power of Memoir: How to Write Your Healing Story by Linda Meyers

The Power of Memoir uses an eight-step process to help readers identify milestones in their lives and tell their stories.

 

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

King’s book is on writing in general—not specifically on writing a memoir. Here are 22 lessons from his book.

 

Following Abigail’s instructions, we’ll conclude with this three-word sentence:

 

Sign Up Now!

Write Your Life’s Story With Bestselling Author Abigail Thomas

We are thrilled Abigail Thomas is hosting these webinars

Want to beat the winter blahs? Have you always wanted to write your life story but didn’t know how to get started? The Metastatic Breast Cancer Network, in collaboration with SHARE, has a two-part free webinar just for you.

Presenter Abigail Thomas is the author of bestsellers such as  A Three Dog Life, Safekeeping, Thinking About Memoir and What Comes Next and How to Like It.  She teaches writing workshops and leads the Memoir Group at Kingston ‘s Oncology Support Program of the Health Alliance of the Hudson Valley.

When: Tuesday Feb 17 and Tuesday  Feb 24 from 1:30 – 2:30 PM EST.

Who: All affected by breast or ovarian cancer (including caregivers) are welcome!

Registration: http://www.sharecancersupport.org/share-new/learn/programs/write_your_own_memoir/#place

In 2011, after Thomas’ daughter, Catherine,  was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer, the bestselling author volunteered to lead a five-week writing workshop.  As Nina Shengold reports, three years later, the program remains popular–so much so that there is a waiting list for another group. Fifteen of the workshop participants recently published an anthlology (holding on, letting go).

“When [Catherine’s] year of treatment ended, I wanted to be part of the community that had been helpful to us in so many ways,” Thomas explains. “That was the start of the Memoir Writing Workshop at the Cancer Support Program in Kingston.

Just like Thomas’ workshops, our webinar will start with this two-page assignment:  Take any ten years of your life; reduce them to two pages, and every sentence has to be three words long.  “Not four, not two, THREE words long,” she says. “Here is one example: ‘he was cute. I was clueless. It seemed right.'”

Thomas says her students soon learn there’s nowhere to hide in three-word sentences. “You discover that you can’t include everything, but half of writing is deciding what to leave out. Learning what to leave out is not the same thing as putting in only what’s important. Sometimes it’s what you’re not saying that gives a piece its shape.”

Please have your two-page assignment done before our first webinar on February 17. (Please be assured you can still participate if you haven’t done the assignment–if you can do it, great, if you can’t or choose not to, that is fine, too.)

 

Stay tuned for more updates! In the interim, after you finish your two pages,  you can read Abigail’s 2008 article for Oprah’s magazine, “How to Write Your Own Memoir.”

And now, we would like to conclude  with three words concerning these webinars:

We can’t wait!

 

Take any ten years of your life; reduce them to two pages, and every sentence has to be three words long. Example: He was cute. I was clueless. It seemed right.