The Heart and Craft of Life Writing

Anyone who writes memoir, lifestories, autobiograpy or family history to document, analyze, or explain life — your own, or someone else’s — will find resources, tips and examples on this site to guide and inspire you. You’ll find links to writing prompts, resources on grammar, punctuation and other helpful tools, suggested reading, layout tips, selected stories, and previously unpublished articles and essays.

The story behind the name

Heart signifies that the best, truest, and most touching stories are poured onto paper from the depths of the writer’s heart. Some writers need help getting in touch with the contents of their hearts and learning how to spill those stories out. You’ll find tips here to help you get started.

The heart often spills words into formless puddles or rough, uncut diamonds. Craft is the editing that shapes and polishes those diamonds so your stories shine and sparkle at full intensity. You’ll find resources here for everything from grammar to layout and printing.

The inclusive term Life Writing encompasses a number of writing forms. Autobiography, lifestory, memoir, fictionalized memoir, family history, personal or essays, are intended to document the past and leave a legacy of knowledge and wisdom for future generations. riting to explore the past or shape the future, fill personal needs. Many prefer to keep this type of writing private, though the resulting insight may feed into public pieces.

Heart is involved in every aspect of Life Writing, and Craft is especially relevant to anything that is shared with others. Whatever form of writing you do, neuro-scientists have proven that you’ll be working to keep both heart and brain strong and healthy.

This site is in a continual state of development. If you know of resources or links relating to any aspect of life writing, please contact us, so they can be evaluated and added, and please tell your friends about The Heart and Craft of Life Writing.