This morning I attended the Writer’s Guild memoir writing workshop that I mentioned earlier. It was phenomenal. I was by far the youngest person there; I think the next-oldest person was probably 15 years my senior, and the majority of the folks were older than 50. But the group had a lot of diversity. We discussed a lot of things about the logistics and style of writing memoirs, and we got the chance to do some on the spot writing activities.
I decided to take a risk and read what I wrote out loud to the group. The topic of it was not the most pleasant thing, but people responded super positively to it. I felt quite supported. One woman, Janni, came up to me afterwards and said she really liked my writing. She also shared one of her pieces which I equally liked, and asked her to give me one of her manuscripts to read/edit/comment on. She suggested that we be “writing buddies” and I think this might be a fabulous idea. I am still not sure how that will work out since I am super busy, but I think it would be really fun to have someone else who shares my passion to connect with. I have never had that before, and I have been longing for it for some time. I can’t wait to read her manuscript. The small portion I heard in the group was fantastic!
Ah, I am proud of myself for this. I decided too that I would actually join the Guild as a member, so now I get to come to monthly meetings and participate in critiques and stuff. I am hoping that this will provide me with some motivation to actually work on my own memoir and someday achieve the goal of publication that I have had in me since I was in middle school. Hurrah!