Veteran journalist Barbara Falconer Newhall reports from the scene on books, writing . . . and life as she knows it.
By Barbara Falconer Newhall
I’ve been writing personal essays, newspaper columns and blog posts for years now. I’ve learned some writing tricks the hard way — by trial and error. Others I’ve just plain stolen from my various writing coaches, people like the San Francisco husband-wife team, Carol Edgarian [Read more...]
A sure sign that story has potential is that it looks like the buds on our star magnolia tree — rough, prickly and off-putting — until given a chance to blossom. Photo by BF Newhall
By Barbara Falconer Newhall
When I sit down to write a personal essay or a blog post, I start with a story. I look around in my life for a moment that I can’t let go of. A story that won’t let go of me. Usually it’s something painful or surprising, a prickly story that makes me uncomfortable, sad, worried [Read more...]
I just discovered a site called Nieman Storyboard: Breaking down story in every medium. A project of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.
Looks like there might be lots of good stuff for writers on this site — including creative nonfiction writers.
A very helpful new post takes a close look at writer Jeanne Marie Laskas’ work — why it reads so well. Check it out for some great tips for making your nonfiction writing more lucid and reader-friendly.
See you there.
Lauren Winner at The Glen Workshops in Santa Fe, 2009. Photo by BF Newhall
By Barbara Falconer Newhall
Lauren Winner, author of the popular memoir Girl Meets God, was in San Francisco last weekend giving advice to religion scholars on how to write books for a general audience.
Lauren is an academic — she’s assistant professor of Christian Spirituality at Duke Divinity School – but much of her advice to the scholars gathered for the American Academy of Religion conference last weekend applies nicely to us non-academic, learn-as-you-go writers. [Read more...]
By Barbara Falconer Newhall
Jasmin Darznik was at the Book Passage bookstore in Marin county, California, Monday night for the monthly meeting of the Left Coast Writers. She had some tips for wannabe writers, particularly memoir writers.
Tip # 1: Jasmin’s New York Times bestselling memoir, The Good Daughter: A Memoir of My Mother’s Hidden Life tells the story of her mother’s marriage in Iran at the age of 13. Jasmin spent months interviewing her mother in Farsi, taking notes about her mother’s life in Iran. [Read more...]
