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How to Write a Life Story: Insights from Natalie Goldberg, con't.

Natalie's new book, Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir, provides helpful ideas about the writing process.

Here are some thoughts that Natalie shared with me about how to write a memoir.

"I've always liked people's stories, Natalie said. "And I've been interested in writing. When I wrote Writing Down the Bones, it became nationally known and since then I've been educating students from all over the world who have come to my writing workshops."

"My students learn to use writing as a practice and they learn to have confidence in their own experience. They learn to know that their own experience is rich enough to write about."

I asked Natalie, what about the people who say, my life isn't interesting enough, no one would be interested in reading about my life.

She said, "writing is about detail, no matter what has happened in your life. Through writing, you develop confidence in your experience and come to understand that it is worth writing about. You learn that the jello you ate and the kool aid that you drank and the way that your father treated you matters. It all matters."

"I've worked with thousands of writers who write all over the country and even all over the world. They pick up my book and it is a starting place."

"Memoir is an opportunity to study the mind," said Natalie. "It is about how we remember. Memory comes in circuitous routes. You see a tree and it reminds you of something that happened in 1987. Chronology is not interesting. In Old Friend from Far Away, the subtitle is the Practice of Writing Memoir."

"Writing a memoir is an opportunity to have a closer relationship with our mind and who we really are."

Old Friend from Far Away will provide helpful ways through the process of writing a memoir.

I asked her what are five things she advises people to do who are starting on the path toward writing a life story. She said, A) Pick up a pen, B) Open a notebook, C) Shut up, D) Go, E) Keep your hand moving.

"What do you mean, by shut up," I asked. "I mean we talk about writing, but finally, we have to do it. If we want to diet, we have to just do it. In the act of doing it you come alive.