Home is what can be recalled without effort—so that sometimes we think, oh, that can’t be important. Memories are the blueprint of home. A memoir is a home built from those blueprints. Finding home is crucial to the act of writing. Begin here.
Perhaps you’ve toyed with the idea of writing. Maybe you’ve been at it for years and are still groping for your voice. Regardless of where you are in this journey, Georgia Heard’s slender 1995 guide will help you define and refine your thoughts. From beginnings to endings, poetry to punctuation, from writer’s block to fear of rejection, Heard illustrates the power to be harnessed from our everyday world if we only pay attention. With quotes by artists of all stripes—choreographer Martha Graham, spiritualist Malidoma Patrice Somé, painter Thomas Hart Benton, and poet Theodore Roethke, this is an inspirational gem.
To get a feel for Heard’s creative approach, watch this eleven-minute Ted Talk on a writing prompt she calls a heart map, an emotional and visual tool where we use writing and words and drawings to map what we care about and who we are.