I wrote the following piece a little over a year ago for the Women's Writing Circle. I'd like to share it with you now. When I Knew I Had A Memoir I returned to writing regularly when our son Paul was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in March 1993. He had just turned 21 and was a senior at the New School in New York City. Early on during his illness I read The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron (Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, 1992), and her suggestion to write morning pages resonated with me. Because I was employed full-time then, I didn't always write in the morning, but I always finished my three pages before the end of the day. So writing about my son's bipolar disorder and later about his 1999 suicide death became my therapy. Writing during the most stressful time of my life became an obsession and a balm. It gave me a way to organize my fears, pain, and thoughts. Besides journaling I began to take writing workshops at the UCLA Extension Writers Program and Esalen Institute in … [Read more...]
How my memoir came to be
Filed Under: bipolar disorder, Leaving the Hall Light On, memoir Tagged With: Big Sur California, bipolar disorder, erasing the stigma, Esalen, Jack Grapes, John McPhee, journal entries, Julia Cameron, Leaving the Hall Light On, memoir, mental illness, suicide, The Artist's Way, The New Yorker, UCLA Extension Writers' Program, Women's Writing Circle