Writing Out Loud is a blog of a memoir-in-progress about motherhood/daughterhood. As it has evolved, I’ve changed what I’m doing several times. I no longer post first drafts, but the chapters up here aren’t totally polished either. In blogging a book as it’s written, I’m going against most advice and time-worn beliefs about creative writing. I’m doing it because I’ve become so accustomed in our Blog Era to instant sharing and sometimes instant feedback; I just couldn’t bear the isolation of the long-distance writer anymore. Consider this an experiment.
If you want to read the memoir in order, go to the Table of Contents page and click each chapter in turn.
In addition to the memoir you’ll find process journals, poems, and essays relevant to the topic of mother/daughterhood. If you’d like to read my writing on a wider variety of topics, click over to my primary blog, Dirty Laundry.
A word about the journal posts: I learned the benefits of keeping a process journal from Louise DeSalvo’s book, Writing as a Way of Healing. My creative writing students kept them in tandem with class projects as per my instructions. It’s a place to put all the spillover emotions generated by the writing of a book. It includes material that may not end up in the book itself, but that demands some kind of expression.
I welcome comments and feedback! Please!
Good morning:
I came across you after my first week writing a blog.
I am still asking myself-why am I doing this?
Someone sent me the suggestion that if I was less serious, more light-hearted I would have more readers and responders. I am surprised at how strongly this suggestion pulls at me, that I did not dismiss it, delete it immediately. Slowly and surely the true notion won out; it is not for readers that I write, it is to sort out who I am as I become what I am.
Finding your words is just right, I’ll get back to putting one word after another.
Thanks.
Thank you for your comment. I’m glad I’ve helped you stick to what you want to do, what you believe in. When I first started blogging, I was maniacal about trying to get readers. At this point I’ve plateau’d out at an average of 100 a day (according to WordPress’s system–it could be more) on my primary blog, Dirty Laundry. It never gets any higher, and I’ve decided I don’t care; maybe it is because I’m too serious, but I don’t know how to write any other way. This blog only draws in 3-15 people a day, and that’s fine with me. I do long for more feedback, however. Anyhow, thanks for stopping by. I’ll come visit your blog soon.–MS
Outside criticism never comes in the right size or quality because we ourselves don’t know what we want to hear. Is it good? Bad? Fixable? Or not? None of these questions without real answers seem to be really relevant when it comes right down to it. I think what we are asking is, “Did my writing touch you?” That’s an interesting question that is not quantifiable, nor is it ever the same answer from second to second. Perhaps all we can hope for is the possibility of being read, being seen when we decide to move out of invisibility, like the possibility that electrons will show up where they are expected and in the form we can recognize. Otherwise we are all invisible to one another.
Well said!–MS
I may be following in your footsteps to a degree. Started a Crime Story in progress on my blog, Label It Crime, yesterday . . . And I wondered how I’d find the experience–good? bad? helpful? debilitating? So finding your memoir in progress and consequently abandoned is good info for me to have. I’m going to go ahead and give the Label It Crime blog a go for a month. That’s the plan.
I generally read your daily post and enjoy your prose style as well as your poetry. And I have actually gone to the paypal link but when it asks for an address [?] I pull a blank and abandon the donation process. Do you have a “donate” button somewhere? Your work is worth more than my donation will be, but a little is better than none . . . right?
Thanks so much for your comments. I’ve been to your site, as you know, and I’m looking forward to reading your new crime story…that’s exciting!
When Paypal asks for an address, I’m sure they must mean the URL. Mine is http://www.marcys.wordpress.com. I cannot post their buttons because WordPress has some doodad that knocks out that kind of code. I will be eternally grateful for your donation, or anyone else’s. Hell, I’m grateful you even considered it!
And by the way, I don’t know what you mean by ‘consequently abandoned’–I haven’t abandoned this memoir, just temporarily paused.–MS
Your blog – and your memoir – sound fascinating.
Thanks for your tip to read “The Liars Club”, when you commented on my blog, http://creatingmyopus.wordpress.com.
That we share the same theme on the same topic simply shows we have good taste.
Keep inspired. Stick with it.
Regards,
Daniel G. Taylor
You too! Thanks for stopping by.–MS
Your ‘in-progress’ memoir is enormously touching. I have very strong feelings about this subject. I adore my mother; she’s my hero, but I have all kinds of issues around my feeling I can never really measure up to her. It’s a complicated subject, isn’t it?
The reason I felt compelled to comment is difficult to express, but I’ll try. I was completely humbled by your approach to your subject. I’m in awe of the degree of empathy I believe you feel for your mother. This, for me at least, really sets your work apart.
JeReviens
Twitter @2DreamIT
I can’t thank you enough for your comments. I don’t get much feedback here, so anything is welcome, but to recieve something so positive is almost overwhelming. Especially that it’s being perceived as empathetic towards a woman I do not always feel empathetic towards! Thank you.–MS