Me, Myself, & My Stories
Writing my way to freedom
Hello Friends,
I spent a lot of time with myself this week—myself and my stories.
I’m taking a memoir class with Janelle Hanchett author of I’m Just Happy to Be Here: A Memoir of Renegade Mothering. It’s my first attempt at taking the mess I wrote for NaNoWriMo last November and trying to put some sort of shape to it.
Last week our assignment was to choose scenes that show a turning point in the story. One of the scenes I shared was the day Aiden died.
I first wrote this scene back in June of 2020 in a class with Writing Class Radio. The prompt was “The doctor said.” I scribbled for 30 minutes, my pen barely able to keep up with my thoughts. Then I read aloud the worst moment of my life to a class full of mostly strangers. They were my grief witnesses
Afterward, I felt wrecked, but also lighter.
I had been re-playing the events of my son’s last day on earth over and over and over, trying to change the ending. When I put pen to paper, I wrote myself out of the 6x6 room where the Dr said, “I’m so sorry…” and my heart ripped open.
That first draft has been through many revisions and I’m certain there will be more. I shared the latest one with my teacher and she gave me the best compliment of my life.
She said, “Write this book or I’ll kill you.”
This is where I am today. Thank you for listening.
xoxo,
Emily
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Read
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When You Find Me by P. J. Vernon
I should have liked this book more than I did. It has a lot of the elements I love in a thriller. 1) Rich families covering up secretes to save their reputations 2) Unreliable narrators 3) plot twists 4) a Black woman detective at the center of the story... (more)
Links to Ponder
Alone With a Basketball, a Hoop, and Covid (New York Times)
An explanation of why I’ve always had icky feelings surrounding Rachel Hollis (Maintenance Phase Podcast)
Making new friends at 40 is difficult, but worth the effort (The Atlantic)
Prisons are banning books by Black authors and it needs to stop (Washington Post)
The Day Motherhood Divided into Before and After (The Cut)
Skunks can do handstands. Also, Jon Stewart talks to someone who can explain the national debt and inflation (The Problem with Jon Stewart Podcast)
Interesting to come across this when I just challenged myself to read 100 books this year. Maybe it won’t be the cozy-beachy-relaxing thing I’m looking for in 2022.
What’s in a name anyway? (Tiny Love Stories, NYT)
Preventing dementia with regular exercise (Running World)
Hope is the Antidote for Apathy (The Rich Roll Podcast)
What are you reading or listening to this week? What have you created that wasn’t there before? Post your response in the comments below or tag me on Instagram @emilykathleenwrites