Unlocking Creativity: Elissa Altman Reveals the Radical Power of Saying ‘Yes’ in Memoir Writing
I have taught traditional workshop-style classes with twelve people around a table, or during COVID on the Zoom screen, and in much larger workshops. Across the board, everyone that I have ever taught has said to me, there’s this thing that I feel like I must write, but I can’t because someone’s going to vaporize, or I have to wait until all parties are dead. And it didn’t matter who the person was, or how skilled a writer they were.
I had a student who was a National Book Award winner, and one day after class I asked her if she was thinking about moving to memoir. She said, “I am, but there’s this thing, and I just don’t know.” I asked, “Where is everybody?” And she said, “Oh, they’re dead.” And I realized then that people can be dead for centuries, but that’s how strong a hold family myth and legend have. And then, of course, I had to deal with the students who were writing because of retribution. And I started to think this is a longer piece than an essay. That became pretty clear to me around 2019.
