Coffee With Jude
/It took me four years to write Sunlight on My Shadow. I attended many writing classes at the Loft in Minneapolis, The Iowa Writers Workshop in Iowa City one summer, hired a couple writing coaches, an editor, watched online classes including Cheryl Strayed, read many books on the subject of writing, here are a few:
Stephen King’s “On Writing”
Mary Karr “The Art of Memoir
Anne Lamott “Bird by Bird
Natalie Goldberg “Writing Down the Bones”
“Why We Write” by 20 acclaimed authors
Julia Cameron “The Artists Way”
Beth Kephart “Handling the Truth”
Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola “Tell it Slant”
and after many drafts I had a book. When I first started writing I cringed at the words on the page. You see my story was tender. I was vulnerable and riddled with shame. But some sort of grace nudged me to keep writing even though I thought I would never let anyone read my book. the amazing thing when I was done writing is that I didn’t really care what people thought about my book because i had forgiven that teen girl who messed up and wrapped my arms around my humanness. Writing this memoir, Sunlight on My Shadow changed who I am because of being free of the secret and the shame. If I can do anything to encourage others to write their story I would be most content. I believe writing memoir can be healing and transformative.
Watch my youtube videos on memoir writing where I share my journey and the important things I learned about writing a memoir. Each week I will launch a new video addressing a writing topic. I would love it if you joined me and subscribed to my channel.
