When Ligaya Came Home: An OFW Homecoming, Memory, and the Language of Return
This is a true story of a relative OFW homecoming in the Philippines, drawn from my own experience and memory. I write it here as creative nonfiction flash memoir, using the devices of writing short fiction. I changed all the real names to protect the people in the narrative, but I hope that I have […]
Memory, Memoir, and Family Stories: When Writing Things Down Changes Them
You know how memory starts—not as a neat story, but as something someone says over dinner. An aunt brings it up, a grandfather repeats it the same way he always does, someone mentions a name and then suddenly goes quiet. And that’s it. That’s how it begins. Details are never complete. Dates turn into “a […]
There Was Always Someone Beside You: Memoir Writing About Friends Across Life Seasons
Memoir Writing About Friends: How Relationships Shape Personal Narrative Across Life Stages My life was never truly solitary. Living my seasons, I knew how consistently someone appeared and stayed beside me as my companion, even if only for a while. A best friend isn’t just the closest person we have. It is the one who […]
In Memoir, the Setting Can Evoke Atmosphere and Layer Its Texture
In our memoir, the setting is never just a backdrop, but an active force that shapes memory, emotion, and meaning. If we are able to render it well, setting does more than tell our readers where our story takes place; it evokes atmosphere and builds a textured world that deepens their connection to our lived […]
How to Fill a Page with Lived Memories
A Word Fellow Shop: Conquering the Wide Page When we are beginning to write, the page before us always looks intimidating. Yet our goal as writers is to conquer this initial shock. In this WordShop, we will: 1. Writing that Living Moment 2. Trusting the Units of meaning 3. Making Space for the Reader 4. […]
Honest Memoir Writing, the Weight of Telling the Most Sensitive Truths of a Life
How Honest Should a Memoir Be? How truthful should you be when writing a memoir? This question sits at the center of honest memoir writing, especially when your story involves difficult truths, family relationships, or painful experiences. Writers often ask what to include, what to leave out, and how to tell the truth without causing […]
Editor’s Hat: Focus On Self-Editing the Structure of Memoir
Self-Editing for Structural Edit This is a specimen for self-editing a memoir, focusing on firming up structure and shaping narrative flow. This memoir of career growth in writing and publishing essays an unplanned beginning and traces how writing, editing, and language work gradually unfolded on the job. It shows how divine providence, rather than ambition, […]
What Language Works in Writing Your Memoir, Applying Theories of Reading
When we read contemporary literature, we do more than follow the plot or meet the characters. As writers, we pay close attention to language itself, aware that the way a story is told can matter just as much as what happens in it. Every word carries feeling, history, and context, and the way we arrange […]
The Value of Memoir: Are Memoirs Required to Set Good Examples?
The memoir has long served as a raw lens into human complexity. It reveals personal truths, difficult memories, and historic moments through deeply subjective storytelling. Because of this intimacy, the genre often faces moral scrutiny. What makes a memoir valuable? Are memoirists expected to set good examples? At the heart of these questions lies a […]
Islands as Trope: Philippine Island Imagery to Shape a Memoir
The island is one of the most enduring images in literature. In the Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7,100 islands, island stories can conjure freedom or confinement, abundance or neglect, fantasy or danger. In many Philippine and Philippines-adjacent texts, island narratives bring out tropes about colonial history, militarization, tourism, treasure and trash, and the […]