Your Life as Story: Discovering the New Autobiography and Writing Memoir as Literature

by Tristine Rainer

Book Overview

In Your Life As Story , autobiography expert Tristine Rainer explains how we can all find the important messages in our lives. Like Mary Karr or Frank McCourt, we can shape those stories into dramatic narratives that are compelling to others. Blending literary scholarship with practical coaching, Rainer shares her remarkable techniques for finding the essentials of story structure within your life's scattered experiences. Most important, she explains...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0874779227
• ISBN13: 9780874779226
• Release Date: April 1998
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.98 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.1" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

invaluable resource to writers of memoir or autobiography

This book does an excellent job of prodding one to dig deeper, asking pointed questions and directed short exercises to get you thinking. In writing my memoir, I had a hard time going beyond the surface events and revealing myself. This book asked me just the questions I needed to consider to remove my focus from events and to look at my inner emotions and conflicts. Reading the book and doing the exercises provided throughout results in a very helpful compilation of thoughts and structure that can give shape to a story. I found the book's style to be sometimes overly chatty, especially at the beginning. But despite the fluff, all of the meat is in there, providing very useful tools to writers seeking to make a compelling story from their life experiences. Take your time to go through this book slowly, doing the exercises in order. It took me several months. But at the end, I had a vision, an outline, and some very useful first draft material. I was finally on my way to putting together a manuscript. Follow Rainier's instructions and it will happen.

Making Autobiographic and Memoir Writing Accessible to All

What Tristine Rainer did for diary and journal writers in The New Diary she does for memoirists in Your Life as Story. Dispelling the myth that memoirs belong to the realms of celebrity and notoriety, she helps us realize that each of our personal stories is worthy of the written word. Whether your aim is preservation of family history, self awareness, or the New York Times bestseller list, you will find expert guidance within these pages. The author's grace and wit shine throughout and make the writing experience a joy. Reading it will inspire you to start writing your memoirs today!

A great tool for composing your life.

Ms. Rainer provides practical, useful tips and excercises for creating you memoir, whatever your motivation, be it for personal satisfaction, a legacy for your children or for publication. The author dispells the myth that only the "rich and infamous" can publish autobiographies. She challenges us to find the pieces of our lives which are truly unique and to present them as literature.In summary, this book is an excellent tool not only for autobiographers but also for aspiring (or accomplished) writers and for those struggling with some aspect of their life.Get it, work it, and share it!

Highly readable, full of useful tips for memoirists.

Rainer has done it again -- captured the current trend in autobiographical writing and added depth and inspiration. In her former book, The New Diary, she gave tips and examples for journal keepers. Here, she captures the memoir wave and tells how to write your life story with a novelist's grace and style. Guaranteed to give you fresh ideas and motivation to get on with your own reminiscences.