.: Life Story Top Related Articles
1). Abandoned Again—How We Repeat Our Childhood in the Present
The woman on the couch looks up at me miserably, tears in her eyes, as she tells me about her most recent bad relationship. “I’m sick of choosing guys who aren’t there for me. They seem great, they want me, they tell me how terrific I am, then either they have an affair, or turn on me once we are involved, getting that cold look in their eyes. I can see they don’t care after all.
Article tags: mother abandonment, self help, recovery, depression, communication, memoirs, healing, families, self improvement, life story, forgiveness
2). Connecting the Past and the Present: Healing Abandonment and Abuse through Awareness
Many people I work with in therapy or in my writing-as-healing classes discover stories that surprise them—stories about the mistakes they felt their parents made, power imbalances in the family, or stories about physical or sexual abuse. The darker stories are often a surprise: when writers sat down to write, those issues were not directly on their minds, but deep, revealing stories erupted from the pen.
Article tags: mother abandonment, self help, recovery, depression, communication, memoirs, healing, families, self improvement, life story, forgiveness
3). Truth or Lie: Fiction vs. Memoir—How Memoir Writers Can Approach Truth and Healing
The recent flap about James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces has hit the media with a big bang, bringing the age-old debate about what is acceptable when writing memoir--a “real” story. Every time a memoir is released that gains media attention this debate is raised. Mary Karr, The Liar’s Club, Jennifer Lauck, Blackbird, and Vivian Gornick, Fierce Attachments, all defended their memoirs in various medias, and all said that some recreations of actual reality had to occur in order to write the story and make it interesting.
Article tags: mother abandonment, self help, recovery, depression, communication, memoirs, healing, families, self improvement, life story, forgiveness, truth, fiction, publishing
4). Beginning Your Memoir Despite Family Guilt and Critic Voices
When we first decide to write, we feel good about it—we have memories and stories that form who we are. We want to explore ourselves, to capture times long gone and preserve them in story form. To leave a legacy about our lives. But other voices compete with our writing—“what will people think; you should be ashamed; you will embarrass the family. Don’t air dirty laundry; you know only part of the truth, so be quiet.
Article tags: mmother abandonment, self help, recovery, depression, communication, memoirs, healing, families, self improvement, life story, forgiveness