2nd Edition
Writing True Stories The Complete Guide to Memoir, Creative Non-Fiction, Personal Essay, Diaries, Biography, and Travel
Patti Miller's best-selling Writing True Stories is the essential book for anyone who has ever wanted to write a memoir or explore the wider territory of creative nonfiction. It provides practical guidance and inspiration on a vast array of writing topics, including how to access memories, find a narrative voice, build a vivid world on the page, create structure, use research, and face the difficulties of truth-telling.
It first develops a wide range of writing skills for beginners, and then challenges more experienced writers to extend their knowledge and practice of the genre into literary nonfiction, true crime, biography, the personal essay, the diary, and travel writing. It offers inspiration from other nonfiction writers, such as Joan Didion, Helen Garner, Robert Dessaix, and Zadie Smith. Whether you want to write your own memoir, investigate a wide-ranging political issue, explore an idea, or bring to life an intriguing history, this book will be your guide.
Writing True Stories is practical and easy to use as well as an encouraging and insightful companion on the writing journey. Written in a warm, clear, and engaging style, it will get you started on the story you want to write – and keep you going until you get there.
Part I: Starting out 1. Exploring the territory 2. How to use this book 3. Workshop one: Getting started 4. Workshop two: Memory and other sources 5. Workshop three Bringing it to life – Detail 6. Workshop four: Bringing it to life – Scenes 7. Workshop five Finding your voice 8. Workshop six: Structure 9. Workshop seven: Inventing the Story – Narrative 10. Workshop eight: Style matters and editing Part II: Masterclasses 11. Workshop nine: Midway blues – Continuing on 12. Workshop ten: Madeleines and unicorns – Sensory detail 13. Workshop eleven: Research 14. Workshop twelve: The storyteller’s seat – Narrating position 15. Workshop thirteen: Beauty of form – More structure 16. Workshop fourteen: Magic spells – More narrative 17. Workshop fifteen: Private! Diaries, journals, notebooks, letters, emails 18. Workshop sixteen: Creative nonfiction – Crime, journalism, nature, history, biography 19. Workshop seventeen: Creative nonfiction – The personal essay 20. Workshop eighteen: Creative nonfiction – Travel memoir 21. Workshop nineteen: Creative nonfiction – Borderlands: is it true? 22. Workshop twenty: Difficulties and ethics of truth-telling 23. Workshop twenty-one: Avoiding self-indulgence 24. Where to now? Publishing
Biography
Patti Miller is the author of ten books, including the award-winning The Mind of a Thief and critically acclaimed Ransacking Paris, The Joy of High Places, and True Friends. She is published in numerous literary magazines and national newspapers. She is a leading Australian writer and teacher of memoir and nonfiction and has offered workshops for over 30 years in Australia, Paris, Bali, Fiji, and London. She currently teaches at the Faber Academy, Sydney and London.
