“Challenges always present themselves in any creative undertaking, but you’ll never get far if you let doubt rule you.” Susan Bono author of What Have We Here: Essays about Keeping House and Finding Home.
Tag: Susan Bono
Good writing comes from your willingness to be vulnerable . . .
“Good writing comes from your willingness to be vulnerable, to peel back the layers of resistance, to offer up your heart, pulsing and defenseless, on a silver platter.” – Susan Bono, author of What Have We Here.
How To Write A Memoir — Part One
Your Life. You lived it. Surely you can write about it. Right? In How To Write A Memoir, Part 1, we’ll discuss methods and ideas about writing personal stories, with links to published memoirs. How To Write A Memoir, Part 2, we’ll cover organizing, revising and more. You can write in chronological order, or build your story around pivotal events. In the beginning, it doesn’t matter what structure you use. Write in a style that is comfortable for you. Try one way and if isn’t working for you, try something else. Memoirs written in chronological order (with back story woven in): To Have Not by Frances Lefkowitz and Grief Denied by Pauline Laurent. Rachael Herron, A Life in Stitches, assembles her stories around her knitting experiences. For the first draft, it’s fine to jump around in time. Don’t worry too much about making sense in the early stage of writing….
2014 Moments Remembered by Pat Tyler
Reviewed by Susan Bono: Fans of Pat Tyler, rejoice! I’m only about 30 pages into this book and I’ve already laughed and cried enough to know this collection of childhood memories is going to keep me reaching for the tissues. New to Pat Tyler’s writing? This is a wonderful introduction. Anyone interested in rural California life during the 1940s will love these stories! Susan Bono is a writing teacher and freelance editor who edited and published Tiny Lights: A Journal of Personal Narrative in print and online at tiny-lights.com from 1995—2014. Her work has appeared in anthologies, magazines, and newspapers, as well as on stage and the radio. She’s promoted the craft of personal narrative at writer’s conferences, retreats, workshops and literary gatherings all over California. She is enjoying midlife with her husband and chickens in Petaluma, CA. Reviewed by Marlene Cullen: 2014 Moments Remembered by Pat Tyler is a…
What Have We Here by Susan Bono
What Have We Here by Susan Bono Review by Pat Tyler: Last night I went to bed thinking I’d read a story or two from What Have We Here by Susan before I went to sleep. Next thing I knew it was about 1:00 a.m. In my world, that’s late! Today, you’ll find this impressive little anthology in my purse or in my car — knowing its plethora of delightful stories will engage and entertain me as I indulge in a cup of Starbucks or wait impatiently to be seen by my family doctor. These beautifully crafted essays will make you chuckle or bring a tear to your eye. More importantly they will remind you of home and family —either the one you had — or the one you always wished for. Pat Tyler is still alive and writing in Cotati. Review by Carol Hoorn: What we have here is…
Which is more valuable, inspiration or discipline? Prompt #66
Today’s prompt is inspired from Susan Bono’s July 15, 2005 Searchlights and Signal Flares, from Tiny Lights online, A Journal of Personal Narrative — an oldie and goodie I have saved all these years! To read what writers Rebecca Lawton, Charlene Bunas, Jodi Hottel, Betty Winslow, Susan Winters and Susan Bono, have to say on this prompt, click here. Prompt: Which is more valuable, inspiration or discipline?
I’m trying to figure out . . . Prompt #19
Susan Bono, Queen of Personal Essays suggests this prompt: I’m trying to figure out how I feel about _________.
I thought I would never . . . Prompt #18
Another prompt inspired by essayist Susan Bono. I thought I would never learn to love ____________.
I learned about . . . Prompt #17
Today’s prompt inspired by Susan Bono. I learned about ________from ___________. Go. Now. Write.
I want to tell you how . . . .Prompt #16
I want to tell you how ______________changed my life. Prompt inspired by Susan Bono. Fill in the blank. Write for 12-15 minutes about how something or someone changed your life.