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Writing What You Know: Realia [Paperback]

Marion Roach Smith
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)


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Book Description

2010

Writing What You Know: Realia is the essential, eccentric guidebook for anyone telling their own story--in print or on a blog. Stop treading water in writing exercises or hiding behind "writer's block," and learn to write memoir with intent, starting today. Marion Roach Smith's disarmingly frank but wildly fun tactics will teach you how.

Marion Roach Smith, co-founder of TheSisterProject.com, has taught a sold-out class called "Writing What You Know" since 1998. She is the author of The Roots of Desire: The Myth, Meaning and Sexual Power of Red Hair (Bloomsbury, 2005); co-author with Michael Baden, M.D., of Dead Reckoning (Simon and Schuster, 2001); and author of Another Name for Madness (Houghton Mifflin, Pocket Books, 1986). She is a former staff member of The New York Times and has written for The New York Times Magazine, Martha Stewart Living, Prevention, New York Daily News, Vogue,Newsday, Good Housekeeping, Discove and The Los Angeles Times. Marion has been a commentator on National Public Radio's All Things Considered, and writes and records daily and weekly spots on Martha Stewart Living Radio, Sirius 112/XM 157.



Product Details

  • Paperback
  • Publisher: A Sister Project (2010)
  • ISBN-10: 1935534025
  • ISBN-13: 978-1935534020
  • Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,249,909 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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This is a book you have to put down. Sharon Roy  |  3 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Galileo in Walmart April 4, 2010
Format:Paperback
As a recovering "Galileo in Walmart" (see Chapter 2) and a teacher of college creative writing courses, WRITING WHAT YOU KNOW is topping my book orders from now on and will be my favorite gift to friends and relatives of all ages. Entertaining and upbeat, clear and to the point, this book helps writers take that essential step away from years of writing exercises, journaling and living in the shadow of famous, published authors. Readers will be genuinely motivated to bring forth buried stories and dare to write them. Find strategies that lift the writer out of self-doubt and into professional determination to move the story forward toward publication. Great for teachers and writers (and maybe now I'll actually finish that Memoir).
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Tired of all those books about writing that tell you how to get ready to write, how to feel about writing, what side of your brain to write from, in short--everything but how to write itself? You have come to the right place. Marion tells you, in straightforward language and telling examples from her own writing, just how to assemble a memoir. And her advice is relevant to writers of any stripe, as she distills the essence of writing itself in the same way all writers try to boil down complex subjects (and what is more complex than a life?) into readable narratives. Funny, poignant and warm, she transfers well her wisdom from the classroom to the page in her usual, inimitable style. This book promises to become an indispensable part of your writer's library, a Strunk and White for the memoirist.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Writing What You Know: Realia April 7, 2010
By S G-C
Format:Paperback
I've had a privileged vantage point from which to watch Marion Roach Smith absolutely transform the lives of her writing students -- hundreds of them -- over the past decade-plus. It is in the arts center for which I worked that she works her miracles, and I've often enjoyed eavesdropping on her classes. I've witnessed... and put together a lot of "writers' workshops," but none of them can match the unique blend of nurture and uncompromising commitment to craft that is the hallmark of Marion's classes. And I have often hoped Marion (a gifted author of several other books) would put her magic into a book that captures the essence of her classes. Finally, "Writing What You Know" is that book I wished for -- and it is every bit as good as I always knew it would be, and then some. Every page holds something precious for every writer.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars The book I've been looking for
Writing What You Know is an amazing tool if you are interested in writing a memoir or blogging about your life. Read more
Published on May 5, 2010 by Sloane Tanen
5.0 out of 5 stars Finally a Book about Writing for Writers
Papa Hemingway once said that "writing, at best, is a lonely pursuit." After all, we are all alone with ourselves when we do it. Read more
Published on April 30, 2010 by Vincent A. Zandri
5.0 out of 5 stars It all adds up.
Reading this book puts it all in perspective. Marion Roach Smith pulls out the stops. She talks to you in language that drives you toward a story, keeps you focused on what it's... Read more
Published on April 19, 2010 by Paul A. Ehmann
5.0 out of 5 stars A Writer Reads About Writing
I am loving Marion Roach Smith's book. I'm a writer and writing teacher and starting to recomend this book for students who are interested in learning to write. Read more
Published on April 18, 2010 by Diane Cameron
5.0 out of 5 stars Buy it
This book has 96 pages and lacks nothing. Period. It is as slender and as meaty as The Elements of Style. After reading it, the writer will write. Read more
Published on April 8, 2010 by Mary E. Orr
5.0 out of 5 stars A Gift of Confidence
I took a class with Marion some years back at Pyramid Lake in the Adirondacks and being a newbie worked up the courage to read it aloud. Read more
Published on April 7, 2010 by spiritof1
5.0 out of 5 stars Writing What You Know
This is a book you have to put down. Marion doesn't leave you with warm, fuzzy thoughts about writing, but in every chapter shows you how to get started on your real writing and... Read more
Published on April 5, 2010 by Sharon Roy
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