Writing Life Stories (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Bill Roorbach is a chatty writer: his instruction is informal, colloquial, abounding in parenthetical remarks and droll asides. But Roorbach (Summers with Juliet) seems able to inspire even the most recalcitrant writers to uncover memories and ideas they didn't know they had and turn them into something the rest of us would want to read. An early exercise in Writing Life Stories involves making a map of the earliest neighborhood you can remember: "Where did the weird people live?" Roorbach asks. "Where were the off-limits places?" And then, "Tell us a story from your map." Many of the book's subsequent assignments are equally enticing.

Roorbach elaborates on the many elements involved in writing creative nonfiction, including memory, scene setting, ideation, character development, and research. He eschews introductions and conclusions (scaffolding, he says, is for building purposes only) and, "at least in a first draft," embraces truth-telling. "Those places where you catch yourself changing the facts," he warns, "should be alarms, grand signals, signposts saying here's the place to examine most closely for meaning."

Though his writing may be casual, Roorbach is a great believer in precision. "Every person you mention," he says, "should get a quick, sharp, devastatingly exact sketch" (for examples, he refers to the minor characters in books by Paul Theroux, Joan Didion, and John McPhee). Ambiguity, he says, is anathema: "Do what it takes to properly name a tree, a piece of hardware, a street, a town, a school, a neighbor." And finally, be wary of polishing--"you can spend days adjusting sentences in a first paragraph that ought to be cut altogether"--but make sure every paragraph in your memoir or essay is as good as, has as much "urgency" as, the first one. "How much can you get into a sentence?" he asks. "How much can you get into every sentence?" --Jane Steinberg

Product Details

• Hardcover: 218 pages
• Publisher: Story Press; 1st edition (July 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 188491036X
• ISBN-13: 978-1884910364
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #702,649 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Helpful, specific instruction and funny too, November 14, 2000

By	Joan Mazza "Author, speaker, poet" (Mineral, VA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Writing Life Stories (Paperback)

Bill Roorbach is a terrific teacher. WRITING LIFE STORIES is a clear, step-by-step writing class with excellent exercises, covering all the elements of good writing, including characters, description, details, metaphor, and some basic considerations about doing research. It offers suggestions for overcoming hesitation about writing personal material as well as explanations of typical beginning writing errors, which are often made by experienced, published writers. The examples from people who participated in his memoir classes are encouraging and touching.

Roorbach knows how hard it is to write about those parts of our lives that are most embarrassing, those family secrets we were warned not to tell to anyone. He says, "Are we going to write the sanitized versions with which we and our families face the world, or are we going to write the truth? Are we going to flinch when the subtle stuff arrives in the course of writing? Or are we going to stare it down? Probably, if you're like me, you're going to flinch. At least in the first drafts. And those places where you do so will be the places that hold your essay back, the places where your essay is dying to teach you something."

This book is organized and indexed (thank you!) and the author reminds us of the importance of regular reading. A list of suggested titles to inspire and challenge you is at the end of the book.

Sprinkled with humor and wit, WRITING LIFE STORIES is an excellent addition to any writer's library and makes a wonderful text for any basic writing class, including fiction. Buy this book and do the course on your own, letting your words flow before you allow your inner editor to review the work critically.

~~Joan Mazza, author of DREAM BACK YOUR LIFE; DREAMING YOUR REAL SELF; WHO'S CRAZY ANYWAY; THINGS THAT TICK ME OFF; and EXPLORING YOUR SEXUAL SELF (May 2001) in The Guided Journal Series with Writer's Digest Books.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Do It Yourself Creative Non-fiction Writing Class, March 27, 2001

By	LeAnne D Stilwell (Elmo, TX United States) - See all my reviews

Bill Roorbach, through this book, has been my early morningcompanion for a month now. .... If you have in mind to write your memoirs,you must have this book. Physically it is a short, easily read lessonplan, but intellectually and spiritually it is massive. Some of theexercises you can complete in 10 minutes, some may take months- or alifetime. Roorbach has found the way to "get you going"instead of sitting there in front of the monitor with a blank screenstaring back. How does he do it? He is a great teacher; he providesclassmates for you through examples from his real-time classes; hegives you permission to write really bad stuff- one of the exercisesis to write yourself an all-purpose disclaimer; he gives you startingpoints which in turn give you wings. Even the accomplished (as inpublished) author would benefit from having this book on his shelf toturn to in a writing crisis. ....

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Encouraging and full of direction and ideas!, August 1, 2000

By	Bernadette A. Moyer (Lutherville, MD USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have had this title on hand for quite some time and finally got around to reading it. I am a published book author with an adult book just trying to get out! This title is perfect for direction and encouragement as well as idea formation.

Alot of people may have a life story in them but often it is hard to take the necessary step back to be objective and to set the stage. This book was very helpful to me and was also an interesting read.

There are great excercises which enable the reader to move into the writer mode.I got alot from chapter 10 titled, "Building A Building." It is very well done and informative. If you want to write your life story this may be the best place to start!