Photo by Lali Masriera
Courtney at The Loft was nice enough to ask me to write a guest post on the site’s blog. I described how The Loft gave me a supportive community during various times as I was writing my memoir.
If you’re a writer and not familiar with The Loft, please spend some time on the site checking it out. They’ve recently added online courses so you don’t have to live near Minneapolis in order to take advantage of the great programming!
If You Have Five Seconds to Spare 
Love your guest post! It answered questions I wanted to ask you about how you and your writing grew beyond journalism and into creative nonfiction-memoir. Your experience is much like mine, coming to more personal and creative writing after a successful career in journalism. I found it took teachers and mentors and peers, too, and lots of reading. There’s the myth of the lone writer, but most have learned and grown from each other.
Richard, it took many years to “overcome” my journalism training! A lot of what I was taught in j-school didn’t translate well or (at all) into my creative nonfiction. I still slip into old journalism habits when I draft essays. I tend to want to stay more objective and observational. My instinct is to NOT include my personal views or experiences. Do you have the same experience? I’m glad to know we have similar backgrounds. Let’s stay in touch!
Yes, it was a lot for me to overcome, too, that omniscient tendency—plus a lot of Hemingway in my youth did not help on that score.
I hope sometime you will write about how you got into writing informational books for kids!
Great post Rachael! (And I’m glad you’re in MY writing community!)
Thanks, Amy! We all need some support 🙂