Women Writing on Family

by Smallwood, Carol; Holland, Suzann

• ISBN13: 9781926780139
• ISBN10: 1926780132
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-02-10
• Publisher: Key Pub House Inc

Summary

This book provides guidance and insight for women who write about family. Award-winning women writers from all walks of life share their experiences in planning, composing, editing, publishing, teaching, and promoting work in a variety of writing genres. Readers will learn to tackle sensitive family issues and avoid pitfalls in memoir writing, poetry, fiction, and others. Filled with tips, exercises, and anecdotes, this anthology is appropriate for both well-seasoned writers and those just beginning.

Table of Contents

Dedication	p. 9
Foreword	p. 17
Introduction	p. 19
Personal and Legal Issues about Family Topics	p. 21
Family Secrets: How to Reveal What Matters Without Getting Sued, or Shunned	p. 22
For Better, For Worse, For Publication	p. 30
Interview With Meredith Hall	p. 34
Keeping Your Distance: Avoiding Sentimentality in Family-Centered Writing	p. 37
Killing the Phantom	p. 41
The Parent Trap: Five Mistakes to Avoid When Writing Essays about Family	p. 48
Rattling Family Skeletons	p. 52
Writing About Religion Requires Pseudonyms	p. 61
Finding Time to Write With Career and Family	p. 65
Balancing Act: How to Devote Time to Your Craft-Without Neglecting Your Kids or Your Day Job	p. 66
It's Not a Hobby: Writing and the Value of Non-paid Work	p. 69
Laundry, Life, and Writing: Making the Most of Short Sessions and Stolen Moments	p. 72
Mother Professor: Going Back for the PhD	p. 76
Penciling It In	p. 79
Today's Freelancing Momma: A Look Into the Dual Career of Writing and Motherhood	p. 85
Making the Most of Your Family Experience	p. 93
Making Up Grandma: How to Blend History and Imagination Into Powerful Family Narratives	p. 94
Teaching Writers to See Family	p. 98
Telling Our Truth: Writing the Legacy of the Dead	p. 103
To Everything There Is a Season: Or What to Expect When You're a Writer Expecting a Baby	p. 110
Using Family in Writing for Chicken Soup for the Soul	p. 114
Using Writing as a Means of Surviving and Transgressing Family Violence and Trauma	p. 119
Writing About Family and Illness	p. 125
Writing Exercises & Strategies	p. 133
Create the Mother Lode: Journal About Yourself, Your Family and Memories	p. 134
Don't Forget the Story: Implementing Fiction Techniques in Creative Non-fiction	p. 138
Family in Nonfiction: Making the Familiar Strange	p. 143
How to Write a Childhood Memoir	p. 147
Mothers and Daughters: Telling Shared Stories	p. 153
Now and Then: Using the Retrospective Narrator in Memoir	p. 157
Teaching the Personal Essay	p. 164
Using Your Dreams to Enrich Your Writing	p. 168
Exploring Family in a Variety of Genres	p. 171
Are Blogsfor Real Writers? Write on Family Online, and Virtually Boost Your Career	p. 172
The Blogging Recipe: Instructions and Ingredients for Writing on Family Online	p. 176
Creating the Fictional Family: No Character Is an Island	p. 180
From Memoir to Fiction	p. 184
Poetry Makes An Honest Woman of You	p. 190
Writing Poems About Grandparents	p. 194
Finding Your Writing Style	p. 205
Becoming a Parenting Advocate for Moms through Writing	p. 206
Critique Groups for Women with Families	p. 213
Editing an Anthology	p. 217
The Ideal Reader as Family	p. 225
Lists, E-mail, and Facebook: Crafting Fiction and Nonfiction from Everyday Writing	p. 229
The Roles of Women in Narrative	p. 233
Publishing, Marketing & Promotion	p. 241
Cybermoms: Opportunities for Women Writers on the Web	p. 242
From Pitch to Publication: Learning How to Work With an Editor	p. 247
Identifying Potential Markets for Family Writings	p. 253
The Importance of Face Time: Making the Most of Writing Conferences	p. 261
Locating Markets for Writing about Family	p. 266
Self Publishing a Book	p. 270
Self-Publishing from Manuscript to Finished Book: Eight Steps in Eight Months	p. 276
What to Do When the Byline Buzz Wears Off	p. 284
A Writer's Thoughts on Book Marketing	p. 290
Building Your Confidence	p. 295
Finding My Voice	p. 296
On Believing What You Have to Say Is Worth Writing	p. 299
Preparing Yourself as a Writer: How to Risk Baring Your Soul While Writing Your Truth	p. 303
Professional Nurturer: How to Write About Family (and Still Be Seen as Professional)	p. 307
Unlocking the Ties That Bind: Releasing the Writer Withi	p. 314
Editors & Foreword Writer	p. 321
Contributors	p. 322
Index	p. 333
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.