Unlocking Creativity: Elissa Altman Reveals the Radical Power of Saying ‘Yes’ in Memoir Writing
But for the person holding the published or soon-to-be-published book in their hands, seeing themselves in its pages, and imagining thousands (they’re probably imagining 100’s of thousands, ha!) of strangers reading about them, this is neither obvious nor consoling. Do you have any advice on getting our loved ones to see things in a different way or should we not even try?
EA: Oh, I absolutely think you can try. In early May, I was on stage at the Montclair Literary Festival with the writers Lee Hawkins and Omo Moses, and Lee was talking about tracing his family history to the plantations on his father’s side. His father was resistant to talking about it, but Lee sat down with him and had a long conversation about the importance of telling the story, and his father seemed to understand why the story had to be told.
