Writing Your Life: A Journey of Discovery [Paperback]

Patti Miller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2001

Exploring both the mystery of personal discovery and the practical side of putting experiences to paper, this book urges people to write about their lives and learn from what they've composed. It provides techniques for getting started, handling perspective, finding an inner voice, and bringing experiences to life on the page. It also explores issues like selective memory, emotional healing, and how to communicate truths without clichés. This book illustrates the passion and delight of writing with the addition of a new anthology of stories by people who have practiced these techniques.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Patti Miller's Writing Your Life, created from workshops Miller has taught in Australia, is a lovely guide to autobiographical writing. This edition, though still geared primarily toward beginners interested in life writing, also gives the nod to more formal types of personal writing, such as memoir and creative nonfiction. Miller touches on the rewards and difficulties of writing about one's life, the selective nature of memory, and the emotions that arise from personal storytelling. Her chapters provide advice on remembering, finding one's voice, choosing details, creating drama, and imposing structure. Each includes examples from such authors as Jill Ker Conway, Sally Morgan, and Drusilla Modjeska. A full third of the book is given over to an anthology of "stories of what it is like to be in the world," written by people in Miller's classes. They are testament to the fact that powerful writing can come from all quarters. --Jane Steinberg

From Booklist

Miller is an Australian writer who conducts workshops on the telling of one's own life story. In her handbook she presents a step-by-step approach particularly useful for writers with little experience. Writing styles are discussed, and Miller provides various exercises designed to spark an individual's creative impulses, release memories, help with overall organization, and instruct with regard to a final, overall structure for the written fragments produced. In every chapter, readings are offered that exemplify facets of the process. From "getting started" to "telling your truth," Miller's insightful guide should motivate the tentative novice. Alice Joyce --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 348 pages
• Publisher: Allen & Unwin; Revised and expanded edition edition (December 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1865084344
• ISBN-13: 978-1865084343
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,089,395 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Good for those just starting to write about their lives, December 29, 2010

By 

Pat McNees (Bethesda, MD) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Writing Your Life: A Journey of Discovery (Paperback)

I teach life story writing so I picked this up out of curiosity. The author is Australian and so are most if not all of the writing students whose writing excerpts she includes, but this doesn't make the book less useful or interesting for American readers. Miller is especially good at explaining the difference between topics (e.g., relationships, your inner life, interesting people you've met) and themes (e.g., reaching for the stars, falling in love with the wrong person, the difference you feel being from another culture, or disabled, or homosexual, etc.). She focuses more on thinking usefully about patterns in your life than on techniques, but she also talks about structure for the long form -- which is helpful for writing students who have been writing short pieces based on writing prompts and are now wondering how to pull everything together. I will now recommend it to my writing students.

3.0 out of 5 stars Great exercises, May 23, 2009

By 

MrsMaxson (Central New York , United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Writing Your Life: A Journey of Discovery (Paperback)

Books like this are always problematic for me because although many (like this one) have great writing exercises, they also have a lot of boring, self-indulgent narrative (like this one). As a text to get writing exercises, this is very helpful and I have used it for myself, my creative writing students, and my adult writers' group. Sorting through the samples is less interesting. I recommend it as a reference book, but not as a good read.