Unlocking Creativity: Elissa Altman Reveals the Radical Power of Saying ‘Yes’ in Memoir Writing
My grandfather came from Ukraine, and my grandmother came from Romania, and they believed that they had to be perfect to exist in modern America, which is extremely common among immigrants. My father got a little bit of that, but my aunt got it in spades and then passed it along to her children. The gift for me was really seeing and understanding how perfectionism can completely ravage a family on almost every level, from financial to emotional. When you see somebody walking around in metaphysical armor their whole lives, you don’t really get to know who they are until they take the armor off. I was able to finally see that and to see it with love and compassion. That was a huge gift to me. As I always tell my students, you will come through the other side of writing memoir most likely having learned something you didn’t know going in. And that is, in and of itself, a gift.
