Lesson Info
5. What's the Worst That Can Happen?
Lessons
Class Introduction: What Happens When We Keep Secrets?
07:04 2Name Your Obsessions
06:57 3Stick to Your Story
10:36 4Identify Your Journey
01:31 5What's the Worst That Can Happen?
06:23 6Descriptive Versus Interpretive Language
10:43 7Diagramming the Sentence
09:16 8Dialogue and Rhythm
08:59Lesson Info
What's the Worst That Can Happen?
So what's the worst thing that can happen? I won't get invited to Thanksgiving. Well, maybe the turkey at your mother's house is a little tough anyway. But maybe you really do want to get invited to Thanksgiving. My mother will know I've had sex. Uh huh. People will find out. I'm self conscious about my body. Like every single other person on the planet my Children will discover I'm not perfect. E Think they know They tell me regularly. Okay, so I want to ask you all, What are your fears? What are you afraid will happen if you write your story, Tracy, Um, I think I'm afraid that people that have shared the same history with me, that writing about my how I react to it and my sense of it will only hurt them worse. Uh huh. Um, and you know, I can't I can't tell you what to do in your life. I can only tell you what's been true for mine. But there would be a school of thought that that's called enabling that we are buying into an unhealthy system of secret keeping and that the only person w...
e have any control off can you tell that I've been to a few meetings is ourselves. Eso we model the behavior, they come along or they don't. But we say this is what a healthy person does. You wanna come over to my side of the off the world? Um, I know my Children grew up with me writing some pretty strong things and sometimes about our family. Although I stopped when they got to their teenage years for a while, that's when I became a fiction writer. But what I always felt waas that that in doing that, I was giving them the model of giving them permission to do the same in their own lives on dykan. Certainly never give them a hard time for if they choose. You know, one of my sons was a hip hop artist for a while, and he he made this great hip hop song all about his parents divorced. Well, um, I gonna say, Oh, wait a second. That hurt my feelings. I don't think I could do that. I don't. I he gets he gets to live an honest life. And if it if it makes me a little uncomfortable, so be it. Um other fears. Yes, John. Back in the back there, uh, people will say nobody wants to hear your story. It's too sad. It's too sad. I'm just ask this room. Do you want to hear a sad story? Yeah. Yeah. We've had sad stories. There are people. I will tell you. There are people who are not gonna wanna hear that story. You can't please them all. There are definitely people who did not want to read the best of us. My book about losing my husband. Um and I don't know what the book is that pleases everybody. That book helps the people who want to go there and in your book will do the same. Yeah. Another one. Yes. Jasmine. You. Me, I I think for me it's more personal. Um, if I'm honest about what happened in my life, I will find out that I was wrong, that I made the wrong choices. That you Well, you can't forgive yourself. Well, all the people who've never made a wrong choice in their life Now leave the room or I left the marriage and I destroyed my family. And I made the wrong choice. Your life isn't over. Yeah, What a brave thing to say. I left my marriage and I first of all, your family, they're not dead, right? So you haven't destroyed them. It's a It's a work in progress, our family until the moment of our death. And even then, I think it carries on. Um and I don't want Thio to speak. You know, just lightly about something that's clearly a huge story deserving of more time. Um, but, uh, the first step to healing and repair is to acknowledge that there's a problem. That's what I'd say to that one. Here's what I can and cannot promise you. I cannot promise you that you're going to get an agent, sell a book, even if you do get a book published that more than 10 people will buy it. That's another whole sad story. Um, Oprah may not call. You probably won't. But here's what I can guarantee will happen even if nobody reads your memoir. And actually somebody should and somebody will, and we'll talk about that. But even if it stays in your drawer forever, you have told the truth. You will be a different person for it. You paid dearly for living your story. This is the thing that you get back. And it came at great cost. No doubt there were. There are so many aspect of our life on this planet in which our freedoms are limited. I cannot jump on a plane right now to New Zealand or Bali. I can't. If I had a job, I don't have a job, actually. But if I had a job, I couldn't just quit it and, um, and take up ukulele playing. Um, but there is one place where the Onley limitation on me is my own courage and dedication and willingness to be unauthentic human being. And that's in my writing. Um, and you deserve the right to name what has happened to you and share it if Onley with your own self and probably a few other people, too.
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Ratings and Reviews
Robert Ellis
A wonderful introduction to writing memoir. Practical, moving, and wise. Joyce is an inspiration. I will definitely take the full course. Highly recommend.