Memoir as Medicine: The Healing Power of Writing Your Messy, Imperfect, Unruly (But Gorgeously Yours) Life Story

A wonderfully fresh and frank guide to why and how to write personal stories that will heal, liberate, inspire -- and entertain -- both writer and reader

Writing has been medicine for Nancy Slonim Aronie. At nine months old, her son Dan was diagnosed with diabetes. Then, at twenty-two, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. During the years she and her husband took care of Dan, and when he died at age thirty-eight, Aronie could not find the book she needed. So she wrote her memoir.

In her decades of teaching memoir writing, Aronie has found that everyone has a story to tell and that telling it is important. Being willing to share "this is who I am, these are the things that shaped me, this is where I am now" allows a kind of magic and healing to happen. Over decades of self-healing and teaching, Aronie has created a set of prompts, directions, and examples that show readers how to:

• get to the heart of what they need to say -- and say it effectively
• experience the loss of regret and shame, as well as deep sorrow
• understand procrastination and move past the fear of writing
• tell their stories in ways that create an incomparable legacy for children and grandchildren
• treasure the way their writing can help others heal

Famed memoirist and journal writer May Sarton wrote, "So perhaps we write toward what we will become from where we are." Aronie here shows that we can also write through where we have been and into deep understanding, profound healing, and even unexpected joy.