Swirl & Swing: A Writing Blog

  Attending writing presentations and workshops is a major part of my writing life, with the focus, until recently, on...

  If it takes one virtue above others to write a book, it’s courage. Because, really, there’s just so much...

I encourage my students, whether they're writing memoir or fiction, to tap into what's real to them -- vivid experiences, strong emotions, memorable characters, sensory details -- to come up with specifics that will make their stories uniquely their own and believable to others. I would never go so far as to say "write (only) what you know." In fiction especially, it's important to let the imagination roam. But writing what you know -- using memories that are part of who you are -- isn't a bad place to start.

"Do you know how old I'll be by the time I finish my memoir?" the man said, sounding a bit...